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Leafy Insect in the Water Street Parking Garage
Water Street Parking Garage, October 10, 2003,
Charlottesville, Virginia
George,
That's a [Bush]
Katydid, probably a variety called the Angular-Winged Katydid (Family: Tettigoniidae
Subfamily: Phaneropterinae, if you want to know.)
"Eventually the female selects a male with a particularly pleasing
(LOUD?) song, mates with him, and uses her long, scythe-shaped ovipositor
to make a slit in vegetation or soil into which she deposits her newly fertilized
eggs.
(The male's external equipment is called a "clasper" because
it actually holds the female's abdomen in position during copulation.) At
winter's end, the eggs hatch into pale, nymphal katydids that somewhat resemble
the adults but lack wings and don't usually become bright green until a
few molts have occurred." (Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural
History, September 1, 2001) |
Defecating is what it's doing. The schmitar shaped thingy at its lower
rear is an ovipositor, currently inactive. But you can guess it'll be
positing ova sometime. They do that.
David Lee (electronic mail, October 12, 2003)
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