#tree crickets

[nanonaturalist]

@dragonseekerart submitted:

I found this little friend on my front door, it looks like a grasshopper but not quite? I know nothing about insects or anything, so I was hopin you could help me out! I live in mid-northern Utah if that helps ^~^

TREE CRICKET!!!!

These are great friends. I caught this Different-horned Tree Cricket (Oecanthus varicornis) playing a beautiful song at Mother Neff State Park (outside of Waco, TX):

Here is a baby (a nymph) Different-horned I met on a separate outing:

I’ve seen two other species, the Snowy Tree Cricket (Oecanthus fultoni):

And the Texas Tree Cricket (Oecanthus texensis):

I’m not very good at identifying these myself (there’s an expert on iNat who swoops in and does all the IDs for me!), but four different species have been observed in Utah on iNaturalist [link]. The Bugguide page for common tree crickets give some information on how these are identified (some species are identified by the markings on and around the base of the antennae) [link to bugguide].

These are great insects! I was very confused the first time I saw one, but once I learned what they were, I realized I saw them way more often than I thought! I probably thought they were grasshoppers or katydids, too.

August 16, 2018

[ryanhodnett]

Common Tree Cricket (Oecanthus sp.)

Ryan Hodnett | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Original on Wikimedia Commons

[powders-and-oils]

I just found out that cicadas are the ones who make that annoying ass sound in the trees at night. I remember being a kid and thinking it was snakes.

[the-prettiest-octopus]

I was offered authorship on a manuscript!

I might be published by the time I graduate!!!!

I did lab work for two years on the evolution of communication systems in tree crickets- four papers total are coming out of the research, and I'm listed as the third author on the paper about wing morphology and energetic limits to calling!

DOES THIS MEAN THAT I AM OFFICIALLY A REAL SCIENTIST SLJGHSDLFJHSDFLKSJHDFLKSJH

Holy crap, this is fantastic.