Aster World, Part 5: Tree Cricket and Katydid

Katydids and crickets belong to a special order of insects--the Orthoptera.   Their hind legs are modified for jumping, with especially large femurs.   

A Common Tree Cricket came to munch on the asters on October 18, 2021:

A female of the genus Oecanthus (Common Tree Cricket)

munching on Hairy Asters, October 18, 2021.  This genus

has only modestly enlarged hind femurs.  

She is sharing the asters with a Cucumber Beetle and with Secondary Screwworm Flies as well as some tiny unidentified flies.

This katydid has a large head, making her look a little like her fellow Orthopterans, the grasshoppers.   However, check out those long antennae.  They say, uh-uh, not a grasshopper!

Here a female Greater Meadow Katydid

(Orchelimum sp.) moves slowly through

the Hairy Asters.  

What is she doing on the asters?  She may be looking for petals, seeds, or pollen to eat.  She is not looking for a place to lay eggs.   Greater Meadow Katydids oviposit in the stems of grasses.