Celeb Sighting: Texas Bush Katydid / Long-Horned Grasshopper

Ironically Lives in Atlanta, All of Florida...

Spotted chilling on a chair, out on my walk.

“Perhaps a misnomer, the Texas Bush Katydid is broadly distributed east of the Rocky Mountains. An elegant-looking katydid, its green body is often accented by varying amounts of purple or rufous on the legs and the abdominal segments. Late-season individuals, especially after a frost, can be rufous all over and may at first appear to be a different species. While it may be difficult to home in on a singing male, this species is easy to approach and capture,” says Songs of Insects.

From the Texas A&M Forest Service website, a source I shouldn’t quote with my Texas Longhorns grad status rivalry:

“Katydids are members of the order Orthoptera, which include the grasshoppers, crickets, and other species of katydids. They are a form of long-horned grasshopper (family Tettigoniidae). Katydids get their name from the sound males make as they rub their wings together. The song of the male katydid, a form of insect communication, is a familiar sound on warm summer nights. The females do not make sounds.“

Distribution map, courtesy of Songs of Insects below.