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Photo#30808
Greater arid-land predaceous Katydid - Neobarrettia spinosa - female

Greater arid-land predaceous Katydid - Neobarrettia spinosa - Female
Hill Country, Kerr County, Texas, USA
August 19, 2004
Size: 11 cm long
I did a search on Neobarrettia spinosa and found no entries, so I thought I'd share this one.

It is a Greater arid-land predaceous Katydid, Neobarrettia spinosa (female).

This thing hopped in my window and landed on my workbench here in the Texas Hill Country.
It is not your average Katydid!

It eats Praying Mantis' for breakfast. If you were to harass it with your finger, rather than hopping away, it will charge and CHOMP you, drawing blood!

It has an extra set of arms under it's chin that it uses to feed it's mouth with scraps and titbits while it's dining.

Since I'm unfamiliar whih how things work here, maybe someone can tell me how to have my comments reviewed and how to post the image to the proper place.

....Ed Johnson....

Another specimen
Here's another female, taken June 19, 2012 in Kerr County, TX:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40151551@N02/7405100718/

My buddy has a "semi-tame" one
I drove down to Castroville, TX (about 15 miles East of San Antonio) from Fort Worth where my friend has a variety of creatures. This one though was one of the most intriguing! Yes, it will draw blood as it has from him. However, he has had it long enough to where it will crawl on your arm without biting (although it looks like it is about to at times). It's mouth is fierce looking and kind of reminds me of the movie "Alien" when it eats. We fed it a piece of plum, and it chomped much of it away in no time. And you can also see it's lungs fill with a good amount of air while breathing. It seems fairly intelligent, when you observe it's mannerisms, as it seems to be thinking of and acting on it's immediate surroundings.

This is truly one of the coolest bugs I've seen around the Texas Hill Country, even when I was living in S.A. and exploring around with my buddies.

This bug!
I went ot move this thing off the mirror at Inks Lake and it latched onto my finger, began biting me and when I shook it loose it went after my arm. I brushed it off and it went after my face.

I finally placed it into a jar and went to show my friend from PA and it began posturing and hitting the side of the plastic jar.

I let it go later and it began posturing again. No one believed me until she verified my story and came across your site.

Thanks for the information.

Thom Humphreys
Wharton, Texas

Cool!
Really cool! It looks however, like this is a female. The protrusion on the rear of the abdomen is an ovipositor.

 
Thunderhopper
Thanks much, Sean. I have edited my comments accordingly.

....Ed....

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