||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (September 2010)|
Temporal range: Carboniferous–Recent
|Male Katydid Scudderia sp.|
Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids or bush crickets. There are more than 6,400 species. They are also known as long-horned grasshoppers, although they are more closely related to crickets and weta than to any type of grasshopper. The name is derived from the genus Tettigonia, first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1748. Part of the suborder Ensifera, it is the only family in the superfamily Tettigonioidea. Many tettigoniids exhibit mimicry and camouflage, commonly with shapes and colors similar to leaves.
Description and life cycle
Tettigoniids may be distinguished from the grasshopper by the length of their filamentous antennae, which may exceed their own body length, while grasshoppers' antennae are always relatively short and thickened.
The males of tettigoniids have sound-producing organs (via stridulation) located on the hind angles of their front wings. In some species females are also capable of stridulation. The males provide a nuptial gift for the females in the form of a spermatophylax, a body attached to the males' spermatophore and consumed by the female. The function of the spermatophylax is to increase the attachment time of the male's spermatophore and thereby increase his paternity.
The eggs of tettigoniids are typically oval-shaped and laid in rows on the host plant.
|This section requires expansion. (October 2013)|
The diet of tettigoniids includes leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds, but many species are exclusively predatory, feeding on other insects, snails or even small vertebrates such as snakes and lizards. Some are also considered pests by commercial crop growers and are sprayed to limit growth, but population densities are usually low, so a large economic impact is rare. Large tettigoniids can inflict a painful bite or pinch if handled but seldom break the skin.
The reproductive behavior of bush crickets has been studied in great depth. Studies conducted in 2010 at the University of Derby by Karim Vahed, Darren Parker and James Gilbert found that the Tuberous Bushcricket (Platycleis affinis) has the largest testes in proportion to body mass of any animal recorded. They account for 14% of the insect's body mass and are thought to enable a fast re-mating rate.
Tettigoniidae is a large family and has been divided into a number of subfamilies:
- Cirrus Digital: Bush Katydid Scudderia sp.
- Vahed, Karim (1998). "The function of nuptial feeding in insects: A review of empirical studies". Biological Reviews (Cambridge Philosophical Society) 73 (1): 43–78. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1997.tb00025.x.
- "Bush crickets". BBC Nature. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- "Tree of Life project". Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- Vahed, K.; Parker, D. J.; Gilbert, J. D. J. (2010). "Larger testes are associated with a higher level of polyandry, but a smaller ejaculate volume, across bushcricket species (Tettigoniidae)". Biology Letters 7 (2): 261–4. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0840. PMC 3061181. PMID 21068028.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tettigoniidae.|
|Wikispecies has information related to: Tettigoniidae|
- Black-sided meadow katydid - Conocephalus nigropleurum - diagnostic photographs
- BugGuide.net--family Tettigoniidae
- Singing Insects of North America (SINA) website.
- Bug guide.net-- Pink Katydid
- North American Katydids, with range maps and audio files of katydid songs.
- NYC Cricket Crawl Sept 11 2009 katydid and cricket counting collaboration
- Texts on Wikisource:
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., “To an Insect,” 1831
- "Katydid". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Miss Katy-Did and Miss Cricket,” Queer Little Folks, 1897
- "Katydid". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Whip-Poor-Will and Katy-Did,” The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1913
- "Katydid". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.