Walk Softly And Be A Big Stick

Following on the steps of the red katydid outbreak is a walking stick invasion.

They belong to the Phasmatodea order of insects. There are four families in North America and many species in Texas. They are also known as stick insects and stick bugs. They are herbivores, so their increased numbers are not to take on the red katydids. I think that for both the red katydids and the walking sticks, weather conditions were favorable for them earlier this year and now their populations have boomed.

They excel at camouflage are are quite difficult to see unless, like these two, they're on our driveway or house.

This one is on our driveway and it's displaying a defense posture because I annoyed it. It's curling its abdomen and trying to look like a scorpion. I don't think it can actually sting, but I didn't take any chances. It's funny that it doesn't know that all I want is a photograph so it's not taking any chances either!

Like all insects, it has six legs, but only four are obvious. It's holding its front two legs together and ahead. I think this is to make it appear big and scare me off. As far as it knows - it worked!

This one is resting on a post on our front porch. They will sometimes stay in the same place for hours; longer than I'm willing to track them, anyway. It's also holding its forelegs in front.

These specimens are both about 6 inches long but you sometimes see smaller ones.

Mike Quinn, a local entomologist, has an excellent web page with more information here.

The Bug Lady

Not a ladybug, but the Bug Lady. I got to meet her.

The speaker at last month's Hays County Master Naturalist chapter meeting was Valerie Bugh. She is a local naturalist, specializing in the arthropods of the Austin area, with interests in taxonomy and photography. She runs the Fauna Project at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, leads insect discovery walks, and provides insect and spider identifications. She also gives talks to local organizations and has published a pocket guide to "The Butterflies of Central Texas". Visit her web site for more information.

The motto for her talk was "Give me your bugs, your flies, your mystery critters yearning for IDs ..."

She started with an overview of several insect relatives, such as centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, and spiders. These are arthropods, but not insects. All insects are arthropods, but not all arthropods are insects. Pretty straightforward, right?

The main part of her presentation was on the large number of insects. She concentrated on local species and had many photographs. She discussed their life cycles, including incomplete and complete metamorphosis, mating, egg laying, and diet.

Valerie offered to identify any mystery insects for us. Email your photos to her, larvalbug@att.net and she'll try to identify it for you.

Here are some photos of insects I've taken at our house. First is a katydid (family Tettigoniidae), about an inch long. I took the photo while it was sitting on the wall of our screened porch. During the summer we are completely overrun with them - the trees are full of them. They make loud chirping sounds, somewhat in unison, long into the night.

Next is a grasshopper (order Orthoptera) sitting on our lawnmower handle. We find these mainly in the grass and our chickens love them. This one's about 2 inches long and must be hiding out from the chickens.

Finally, a beetle (order Coleoptera) on our house's exterior rock wall. This one caught my eye because of it's beautiful black and white pattern. Many beetles are of a single color and usually iridescent. This was small, about 1 inch.

Insects are fascinating, extremely varied, with many lifestyles and abilities. Their numbers are daunting, especially if you're interested in identifying them. They fill many ecological niches and provide many benefits, as well as harm, to us. They are worth studying and appreciating.