I found this guy (a grasshopper?) on my dwarf Calamondin this morning? Should I let him be or will he chew up all my leaves?
friend or foe?
It looks like a Katydid. There are several species and most prefer foliage of certain plants and trees.
I don't find them terrribly destructive and don't go out of my way to get rid of them.
They make the unique night sound that makes me think of hot summer nights, fireflies and hand churned ice cream. I'll trade a few leaves for the memories.
I recently let one stay on a ligularia for several days. He/she did eat part of a couple of leaves, but nothing excessive. As a child I used to catch them and keep them in the "bug box" my father made for me. I would feed them and release them after a few days. I still only kill things that do significant damage (slugs, Japanese beetles).
Looks very distructive to me. A big hungry grasshopper.
I used to catch what we called Katidids in Amarillo, Tex.
but they were big crusty critters that shed their shells.
I take a pair of sissors and cut these in two if I can sneak up on them.
MHO
sidney
I think it's a female Forked Tailed Bush Katydid, Tettigoniidae Scudderia furcata. If it's not the Forked Tailed...then it's one of the other Bush Katydids.
It's range is throughout N. America to the treeline of Canada. Eats leaves of trees and shrubs.
Katydid it is, then. Thank you for the ID, melody.
I wouldn't have killed her, anyway--too beautiful and she was all by herself. I like most insects and bugs (except for cochroaches, yuk!). I even kept a black widow in a jar for 2 years. She died of starvation, I think, because her web stopped being sticky (too old?) so none of the flies that I threw in for her would get stuck on the web. I moved her to a new house and it still didn't help.
oops, got sidetracked.
Thanks for reading.