Biography:
Totally obsessed with Tree Crickets :D
An accidentally grown sunflower on my small 3d story patio was the chosen singing spot for a male Neoxabea bipunctata in the fall of 2006. I was smitten with not only his singing; but also the fact that he had made 5 separate holes of the same size, shape and location on each of 5 leaves...which he used as a baffle to amplify the sound of his song by putting his opened wings over the hole. Amazing.
In the summer of 2008, I raised approximately 50 tree crickets in 'Oecanthinariums' in order to gain some expertise in identification of species as well as to document their behaviors. Wisconsin is apparently a great state for Oecanthinae...as I have found Forbes', Snowy, Two-spotted, Four-spotted, Narrow-winged, Pine, and Davis' --- all within a one-block area from my front door.
I only study Oecanthinae...and will begin adding information to the guide pages for all species. My mission is to bring Tree Crickets to the forefront of the insect world -- since the sounds of late summer/early autumn would not be the same without them!
I'm still working on my website:
http://www.oecanthinae.com/
My mission is to increase awareness of, and thus popularity of, tree crickets. I have written a children's book entitled
Trixie the Tree Cricket
-- it can be purchased or downloaded at
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/trixie-the-tree-cricket/5272897
I have also written All About Tree Crickets -- it can be purchased at
https://www.amazon.com/about-Tree-Crickets-Nancy-Collins/dp/147870134X
Nancy Collins
Here are new species I have helped describe:
Walker T.J. and Collins N.J. 2010. New world thermometer crickets: the Oecanthus rileyi species group and a new species from North America. Orthoptera Journal of Research. 19: 371-376.
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s576lwc10.pdf
Collins N. and Symes L. 2012.
Oecanthus walkeri: a new species of tree cricket from Texas. Orthoptera Journal of Research. 21(1): 51-56.
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/574lcs12.pdf
Symes L. and Collins N. 2013.
Oecanthus texensis: A New Species of Tree Cricket from the Western United States. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 22(2):87-91
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s576lsc13.pdf
Collins N., Vandenberghe, E. and Carson, L. 2014. Two New Species of Neoxabea, Three New Species of Oecanthus, and Documentation of Two Other Species in Nicaragua (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae) Transactions of the Entomological Society, 140(1):163-184.
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3157/061.140.0111?journalCode=taes
Collins N, Coronado González IM, Govaerts BVA (2019) Oecanthus mhatreae sp. nov. (Gryllidae: Oecanthinae): A new species of tree cricket from Mexico, with an irregular song pattern and unique chirp-like trill configuration. Journal of Orthoptera Research 28(2): 137-143.
https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.28.33781
Collins, N. & K.R. Schneider. 2020. Oecanthus salvii sp. nov. (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae): A new tree cricket species from Modoc County in northeast California. Jour. Orth. Res. 29(1):93
https://jor.pensoft.net/article/50400/
Collins, N., Coronado González, Rocha-Sánchez, Govaerts & Hershberger. Oecanthus rohiniae sp. nov. (Gryllidae: Oecanthinae): A new chirping tree cricket of the rileyi species group from Mexico. Jour. Orth. Res. 30(1):8
https://jor.pensoft.net/article/50039/[url/]
Collins, N. & Velazco-Macias. 2021. Neoxabea mexicana sp. nov. (Gryllidae: Oecanthinae): A new species from Mexico and a key for Neoxabea in North and Central America. Jour. Orth. Res. 30(2):100 [url]https://jor.pensoft.net/article/62000/
Collins, N. & Lightfoot. 2022. A new species of tree cricket (Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Oecanthinae) from Chihuahuan Desert gypsum dunes in the United States and a key to the nigricornis species group. Jour. Orth. Res. 31(2):183
https://jor.pensoft.net/article/79036/
