katydids

The katydid, whose picture I posted a day or two ago, is not a Common True Katydid (the kind that stirs up a storm these summer nights) but something called a Round-headed Katydid. On the advice of John Heidecker, I submitted the pictures to a web site called BugGuide.net and the correct attribution came back almost immediately. One of the photos is now enshrined on this web page as a prime example of this strange insect (the picture, by the way, was taken by my son-in-law, Jean-Louis Carbonnier). After a considerable search, I found some sound recordings of Rounded-headed Katydids which produce very high pitched clicks and buzzes, often brief and at the edge of audibility.  Indeed some of them were absolutely inaudible -- due to the limitations of my computer's sound system or my ears. There are, as you might gather, a number of species in the genus of Round-headed Katydids so this specimen has been tracked down to the generic level only. If you listen carefully at night -- try to ignore the loud True Katydids -- you can hear some of these odd calls coming from high in the trees. There is, it seems, more to this katydid business than one might suspect! The insects of late summer (and the nocturnal ones in particular) are a whole study in itself!

Eric Salzman