Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
 
Photos from the gathering
 
Photos from the 2007 gathering in Minnesota

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#64056
Cricket or spider? - Scudderia

Cricket or spider? - Scudderia
Lexington, Maury River trail, Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA
July 14, 2006
I believe this is a spider but not sure. Can anyone identify it,please?

Images of this individual: tag all
Cricket or spider? - Scudderia Cricket or spider? - Scudderia

Moved

Probably Scudderia
Probably a false katydid or Scudderia, we have a few juveniles that look very much like yours for instance.

 
Good match
Scudderia looks like a good match!

I've never understood the terminology of common names in this group. Scudderia are Tettigoniidae so they're katydids, right? But then when you drill down into subfamily there are the true katydids, the false katydids, and a number of other groups like the quiet katydids and the meadow katydids and the conehead katydids. So some katydids are true, some are false (but still katydids) and the majority of subfamilies are neither true nor false!

It reminds me of "False Potato Beetle" which seems like such a dumb common name because it is a beetle, does live on potatoes, and in fact is in the same genus with the famous Colorado Potato Beetle.

In the plant family I tell my wife they should never call a plant something like "false solomon's seal." Without that name you have no trouble identifying it, but with that name—because you know there is a false one and a true one—you get the two mixed up and all you can manage is "Well it's either solomon's seal or false solomon's seal"! Often the two plants in question really don't look much alike.

This is what is known as a tangent, ha!

Orthopteran
Your other guess, cricket, was nearer the mark. This is an Orthopteran, in the same group with crickets.

It is an immature or nymph, and more specifically, a katydid nymph.

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.