#tettigonidae

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#1412 -  Glenbalodectes amaroo - Amaroo Starry-eyed Katydid

Found it up the road from my place in Wellard, Perth, one evening, while out for a stroll, back in 2014. Finally have an ID for this ill-proportioned beast. Those really are over-large legs and ovipositor. 

Native to a small section of WA’s coastal area, but finding it here in Perth is an extension on that - it hasn’t been reported this far south before.

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Cue Grasshoppers and Katydids

I was up at Cue a few weeks ago, with the WA Naturalists Club - it’s a Goldfields township some 700 north of Perth. Given that I had to spend most a day driving up, and the same back, I was only up there for the Saturday, but it was very worth it - for one thing, there were these guys around the campsite.

The Crested Katydid aka Superb Katydid is one of Australia’s most spectacular orthopterans, but has no close relatives. It’s widespread across the inland but seems to be relatively uncommon. With good rains they turn up on a variety of plants, and they’re thought to feed on flower buds, petals, and pollen. Which is a little odd, since nothing was in flower up there. That may explain why they were all so sluggish - on the other hand, maybe it was the cooling weather as well - we found large dead grasshoppers and katydids of a variety of species, just lying around.

Not a numbered species - since I’ve actually covered them before - this was the first time I’ve seen them in person :)

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#1242 - Elephantodeta sp. - Hump-backed Katydid

Found dead inside an old car tire, of all places. Hump-backed Katydids are most common in dry areas, near the ground.

There’s two described species in this genus, but there’s a number of undescribed species, including one exceptionally large one from inland WA - i.e. this very region. But there’s also another, completely undescribed genus that’s quite similar.

Basically, if you can find somebody to pay you, you’ll have a job for life describing Australian insects. 

This one is obviously a female, as you can tell from the large bladed ovipositor.

In Elephantodeta nobilis the males and females duet, with the female responding to the male's long and complex four-part call. But the males then had the problem of satellite males, who would sneak in close and then interject their own call call 200 milleseconds before the alpha male’s Part D was due to start. This is apparently effective enough at distracting the females, and annoying enough, that the alpha males respond by repeating Part D repeatedly.

Cue, Western Australia

EDIT: Most likely E. nobilis

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The Great ACT-NSW-NZ Trip, 2023-2024 - Paraparaumu

After Whanganui we had to hurry down to Paraparaumu for the next night, but that didn't stop us doing a rapid U-turn when we spotted a barn-sized secondhand bookstore on the highway at Sanson. Book Barns like the Ministry of Books are one reason we came back with twice the luggage and three times the weight we left Perth with.

Anyway - the name means "scraps from an earth oven", after an 1819–1820 expedition by Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Toa iwi, who were unimpressed by the lack of useful resources.

But the alpaca farm we stayed at had some interesting insects that evening, and we watched some episodes of Monkey! so I had no complaints.

A few species I've covered before.

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Macrolyristes corporalis

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#1161 - Microcentrum sp. - Angle-wing Katydid

Seen by @purrdence while she was in Toccoa, Georgia. There’s about 40 to 50 species of Microcentrum, spread over the warmer parts of North, Central, and South America, but only 3 or 4 in Georgia. Without better photos and anatomical details, I’m not willing to take the ID further.

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Katydid eggs, Baldivis

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#549 - Requena Katydid

Requena sp. (Fam. Tettigonidae)

Yet another Orthopteran from my yard. I've been rather startled at the variety - and rather more by the number of Orthopteran families I've never heard of before now. I guess my knowledge of the order was sorely lacking, as well as out-of-date.

Many katydids are carnivorous. One Australian species even mimics female cicada noises, to lure males to their doom. I have no idea what this one eats, but since the forelegs aren't fearsomely spined, probably a harmless herbivore. On the other hand, Requena verticalis is one of the katydids known to feed the female a large sperm-mass meal at the end of mating - a useful protein supplement.