Rearing katydids from eggs

Hi. I've been searching and searching and finally I have found you. I am interested in rearing a Katydid, or two. Where I live there are usually only two to three during the summer. I would love to add a few, or keep in home? Whatever is best. Oh that beautiful sound they make. Thanks, Jen

Hello, do you happen to know what species you have? Care does vary somewhat between them.

I am new to having insects, but my students have given me lots of practice recently! I live in Colorado, and recently acquired a female angle-wing. We already have a male, however, she must have come to us ready to lay her eggs, because within 12 hours of having her, she began to lay!
She laid about 10 eggs the first night we had her, 1 the next day, and 5-6 last night. How long will she continue to lay? And, how do I properly care for the eggs? I've read so many conflicting suggestions, it's hard to know. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

This is a Microcentrum, right?
She will continue to lay eggs for most of her lifespan, so as long as you take good care of her (and her husband), she'll be fine and lay eggs.
The eggs will overwinter and hatch in spring.
To care for them, you should care for the plants on which they were laid. (If it's Microcentrum, I assume she laid eggs along the stem of a plant?)
Please email me (I use gmail with username "dvoripix") and I will walk you through everything and help in any way I can.
Congratulations on your very special katydids and I am delighted to know that you are interested in rearing them. I am a retired teacher, so I have a special affinity for fellow teachers who work with their students to rear native insects and observe their fascinating life cycles.

hello! my katydid I just got recently just laid eggs and was wondering if I could get some help? thanks!

Hi, Roe. That's great that she laid eggs. You can email me directly and I can walk you through everything as you continue to care for her, or you can post specific questions here and any one of us can help you.

Thank you so much! I will email you more questions and pictures! I believe so. her first eggs she laid in the coconut fiber substrate in the bottom of the habitat, and these last two days she laid them in the netting covering the top of their habitat! I will have to move the eggs from the netting to feed and clean their habitat.

Microcentrum prefer dry or hardened branches for oviposition in my area, though eggs may be laid on leaves in some places. It will be a lot easier to collect and incubate eggs if you provide some of those for her to lay on.

I look forward to your email. In the meantime, please see my article on rearing a similar species for some tips.

That'd be an interesting topic I think.

Sure, I reared M. Differentialis and Femurrubrum/Sanguinipes from 1st/2nd instar to adult.
(Edit: I didn't really get enough pictures or documentation for a proper article, so I might do that if I rear them again.)

Know the species (or genus at least)?

I think it’s a fork tail brush but not positive.
I’m 75% certain.

Sean, can you post a picture of the eggs, please? I'm curious to see what they look like and where they were laid.
I thought they laid eggs inside stems or leaves.
I've never seen katydid eggs. I've only raised them from nymphs.

Just tell me how.
I tried to upload a photo last night on here but was unable to figure it out.

You can click ID request (https://bugguide.net/node/view/6/bgimage) and "add image."
Then fill out the form and choose the file to upload and submit. You will be able to edit it if you make a mistake.

Have a look. Want to keep the eggs warm through a Chicago winter

I'm thumbnailing your image here:


Those do look like the photographs I've seen of katydid eggs (Microcentrum? maybe someone can ID them). Did you get any other images of Mom? Is she still there? Does she have access to plants where she can lay eggs?

I've never gotten to raise these guys from eggs so you'll have to wait for someone else to advise you. I'm very curious as to what you learn.

My instinct would be to not disturb Mom and let her lay as many eggs as she wants. Then I might try to collect the eggs and put them on a potted plant (an organically-raised native perennial) that I could protect. However, someone who knows might advise you to leave the eggs where they are and just watch them. I don't even know how they are attached and if they can be moved easily. (I've safely moved beetle/butterfly/bug/etc. eggs, but these are different!)
It would depend on what type of katydid it is as to what plant I would choose. I'm raising a Microcentrum nymph right now who eats peach tree leaves, but I just discovered that she likes okra leaves, as well. I'm also raising Scudderia nymphs and Orchelimum nymphs, but none from egg.

It would help to know what Mom is. I assume that whatever it is, it would be univoltine so you would want to keep the eggs in your natural outdoor temperatures. If the eggs are laid this early, I wonder if they would hatch this season, however? I'm no help, I know -- just adding my curiosity as I love katydids and would like to raise them from egg someday, so I want to see what others advise you to do.

"Just give me a project" you say! I'm sure you can find katydid *nymphs* that you can raise this season and watch the progress. Whatever species you find, there will be folks here to help you and your kiddos raise them safely.

Thanks.

Metrioptera, regarding wild grape, do you mean the leaves or the fruit?
Also, how exactly do you prepare the lettuce/spinach? Do you mince it, or ?
I don't suppose you can tell the sex of a nymph, right? (I found one yesterday and brought inside because of severe storms, quite tiny, might be Scudderia, no idea.)

I know this question wasn't directed at me, but I can answer part of it. At my house, it is the wild grape leaves that they like to eat. It just happens to grow on the neighbor's property. I'd strongly advise washing lettuce or spinach extremely well since most of the food grown commercially has lots of chemicals on it. My husband found an organic veggie wash (Rebel Green Fruit & Veggie Cleaner) that takes all that stuff off. If I can taste the chemicals on the lettuce in my salad, the katydids may well get a dose of chemicals that would do them in. When we had katydids, we just tossed in pieces of lettuce that we tore up just like you'd do for your own salad.

I have some wild grape growing in my yard, so no chemicals. :) I will try this.
I did put a bit of romaine lettuce and minced carrot (washed thoroughly) in his cage, but there's no indication he's eating anything at all. I assume he's not pre-moult because he's still moving around, and my other creatures (no experience with orthoptera rearing) are still before a moult.
I did put some Flukers cricket powder on the top leaves of the plant he is on. I found him on milkweed, which can't possibly be his plant unless he was looking for aphids, so I don't know what plant to give him. Right now he's on a 4-inch potted Chromolaena odorata, and there's a 4-inch potted Gregg's mistflower and parsley in his cage, but so far he's not eating any of those. I can't figure out what he likes.

Allowing basking behavior seems to encourage feeding (but do beware of overheating)

His cage does get some sunlight through the window and I've got a full spectrum light over it, as well. Today I will try some oak leaves. I thought about getting a 4-inch potted vegetable plant - not sure what kind he might like. This is all new to me, and as of right now, I still don't know what genus / species he or she is, but he's Conocephalini tribe.
Does anyone know how many instars they go through? I read that one species, Neoconocephalus triops, goes through 7 but another web site goes through seven, but another web site suggests a general 4 for katydids.

Nontoxic pollen (I use wild pillbugs to assess palatability) is a powerful phagostimulant for most omnivorous grazing arthropods, and I have seen that well-fed Scudderia mexicana refuse all food (even petals!) except pollenclusters.

Thank you, Eleodes. Can you recommend some flowers that are best for providing pollen for him? I'm pretty sure he ate nothing at all today. (Do you happen to know if meadow katydids would feed at night or by day? I can't figure out if they are diurnal or nocturnal.)
I've got plenty of pillbugs - what exactly do you do with them?

Hibiscus (at least it looks exactly like hibiscus, am terrible botanist) pollen is very excellent in my experience because the grains don't fall off the stamens easily; furthermore, the tall thick "stem" the stamens are clustered on can easily be detached from the flower and used as wide-spectrum herbivore bait.

I know that Scudderia mexicana and Phaneroptera nana will call and move most vigorously at night but also eat large quantities and call intermittently throughout the day; I think it is highly probable that many "typical" katydids are not strictly nocturnal. However, Scudderia often only moves toward pollen after many hours of stillness, so don't be too hasty in assuming that an item is unpalatable.

As for the pillbugs, it is really just a taste test; since they are omnivorous grazers with seemingly little immunity to many plant defense chems, anything they are willing to eat probably isn't from a poisonous plant. I imagine they may not be able to identify pesticidal food though; furthermore they appear completely unable to detect any food items unless it contacts the antennae, and often walk right past high-value foods as a result.

Thanks. That was exactly what I needed to know. I provide sticks for molting, although my mantises and katydids seemed to prefer the wire screen mesh at the top of the terrarium, which makes for more successful molts than when they hang in net cages.

My anglewings really loved wild grape leaves while they were available! Thankfully those can be found in my backyard. I didn't tried carrots or fish flakes with any of the meadow katydids. I will keep that in mind come spring.

All my critters have UVA/UVB lights on timers in their terrariums along with a thermometer and hygrometer to monitor humidity to ensure the best chance at molts and a healthy environment. I mist to control humidity. I have all that equipment for my reptiles and amphibians, and just do the same for my insects.

Raising katydids is new. I've had adults in the fall along with rearing countless mantises. But I never tried to raise katydids from eggs. I really enjoyed filming the female Black-legged Meadow Katydids ovipositing. I learned so much about them by watching the process. Plus the IL DNR is interested in purchasing the video and stills because the shots were staged to look as if they were in the wild, even though the DNR knows the katydids were in captivity at the time. I pointed that out repeatedly so that they didn't think I was misrepresenting my photos. I might even get my photos displayed at the IL state fair next year. I filmed the Short-winged Meadow Katydids and other meadow katydid males singing, but missed both my anglewings when they laid their eggs. They must have laid at night. I was surprised that my second anglewing female didn't lay hers until just recently (well into November). Do they lay eggs even if they are not fertilized by a male? I don't know if they can mate as nymphs. One of my anglewings was a nymph just prior to its final molt; the other was an adult when I got it.

Can I ask, how did you get katydids from PA when you are so far north? I grew up in Pittsburgh. I have yet to find anyone who will ship me anything except mantises. I almost bought a huge Florida katydid at a Chicago reptile show in September, but I had no idea how long-lived the species is or how old the one was that he was selling. Florida species are frequently born much earlier in the year than species up north. So it could have been really old. (Seasonal dragonflies, not the year-round species, start hatching in late February in FL, while they don't start here until late April or much later.) I didn't want to shell out big bucks for a katydid that might die in a week. It was too late to do any research when I was already at the show. I didn't expect insects at a reptile show. But it was tempting to buy the katydid. It was enormous! I can never bring back insects from out-of-state trips to FL, TX, or out west because I always have a 2-day or 3-day drive back home, either in very cold or very hot weather, depending on the time of year. Plus motels aren't thrilled to find an insect in a motel room, even when in a cage. They want to charge a pet fee or throw me out entirely if I leave anything in the room where they see it. They are extremely unhappy to find refrigerated specimens among my food in their fridge. I can't leave any animals in the car because it gets too hot or cold. The motels don't know that a caged insect can't pee on their carpet or infest their rooms with bedbugs.

Thanks again so much! You are a gem.

Glad I could help, and good luck with your rearing!

Anglewings will lay eggs regardless of whether or not they have been fertilized. They can only mate as adults.

I acquired my PA katydids when a few friends and I drove down to the Harrisburg area to collect in September. I just put the "do not disturb' sign on my door at hotels, bring the bugs inside in a backpack or something, and I've never had problems. Definitely don't leave them in the car, I've made that mistake before :o

I usually just bring back dead specimens, but sometimes I can't resist bringing one or two live katydids or hoppers back. I just bring back males so I don't have to worry about introducing a new invasive or anything. I like to hear them sing too!

The big FL species is probably Stilpnochlora couloniana, they are huge indeed! Here is a care sheet for the species. In Europe they are apparently found in the pet trade. Jealous! Somebody needs to get them in culture here in the US.

Oh no, that means my first anglewing's eggs cannot be fertile because she came to me before her final molt. She was with a male, but the male didn't survive his last molt. They were the same size and on the same hibiscus plant. So her eggs cannot be fertile. Maybe I'll get lucky and the second anglewing's eggs will be fertile. I was looking forward to babies, but now I know the first one's eggs are duds.

When I do collect a few katydids from places other than my own backyard or a neighbor's yard, I put the specimens in a cooler for the day until I get home. We come prepared with a large cooler with ice packs that are separated from the insect containers so that they don't come in direct contact. It keeps the specimens cool enough to be safe until we get home at night. Farmers and people out in the country seem to be more than happy to rid themselves of what they call "grasshoppers," but are really katydids.

I can sneak a few specimens into the motel room, but somebody always comes into the room on any long-term stay (more than three days) to empty garbage and check the towels even if I put up a do not disturb sign and specifically ask the front desk that my room not be cleaned until I leave. Only little private motels respect my privacy, and those are risky bets because they never change the locks even after decades. Old fashioned keys! Watch chain motels. I had one give me the owner's pass key that opened all the rooms in the motel just because he didn't want to have someone come fix the lock on the door to my room. So I could have entered anyone's room during our week's stay. Sometimes maids come into rooms looking for electronics/camera gear to steal since I travel with at least $50,000 worth of camera and computer equipment. The nicer the motel, the more theft there is. We couldn't find any place near Bosque Del Apache NWR in New Mexico that didn't have complaints of theft, including the most expensive place in town. We found bathroom windows apparently closed, but really unlocked. Our room was entered no matter what we did with do not disturb signs. Thankfully those thieves weren't checking for insects. In fact, the rooms already came with their very own supply of insects, just not any insects I wanted to take home!

Thanks for the info on the Florida katydid. Next time I go to the reptile show, I'll be ready to snatch up any good insects they have. I just didn't expect mantises or katydids at a reptile show. I just went to look for a new Bearded Dragon. I'm more comfortable buying insects in March than in September because insects aren't as likely to be very old in March. I appreciate the care sheet. If the same dealer is there in March, I would gladly buy a katydid from him.

Lots of our native North American species are popular as pets in Europe, but not so here. Our most overlooked herp pet here is the Gray Treefrog. Europeans love them. They make great pets. Love to be hand fed. Recognize their owners. But nobody here breeds them because they aren't exotic and colorful and aren't legal in many states. But they are easy keepers for beginners, much better than the green treefrogs or green anoles sold in pet stores. A few unscrupulous people take gray treefrogs from the wild to sell. It's a quick buck. Thankfully the species is plentiful and not endangered. The frogs have little fear of people. Mine live on barred crickets and blue bottle flies, both of which are very expensive to have shipped in during the winter. I wish I knew an easy way to raise blue bottle flies. But everyone I talked to said it involves manure, which I cannot keep in my house. My husband is tolerant of a dozen terrariums with 40 herps and a dozen or more insects, mostly non-native mantises, but in some years hundreds of Chinese mantises. I don't want to push my luck. I have a wonderful husband who is learning to love herps and insects.

Flies and manure: Musca domestica (common housefly) is not a bluebottle, but it has been reared on fermented wheat bran, which is apparently quite clean. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep33017

Insect fertility: Insects normally cannot mate or reproduce unless adult. This is one of the entomological rules with few exceptions.

Motels: Why not just dunk your insects into a backpack or someplace else they are not allowed to check?

Gray treefrog: The situation is quite similar with insects, but much more dramatic. Carabid and tenebrionid beetles (even many of the smaller "sidewalk" species) make fascinating captives, but most insect-keepers ignore them. The adults of both are typically quite low-maintenance and long-lived, too.

My mantises had trouble catching house flies. They are faster and more agile than blue bottle flies. Blue bottle flies are really easy for them to catch. The same goes for the frogs. Even the very tiny baby gray treefrogs can snag a blue bottle fly. Bottle flies seem kind of dumb in comparison to house flies. They will sit and buzz at the bottom of the window sill or the blinds when they escape, making it easy for me to recapture them with a vacuum cleaner and a special attachment I made to suck the flies up into a net pouch where they remain unharmed. I finally learned that was the easiest way to transfer flies from net cages where they hatch to the mantis, frog, and anole cages without having hundreds of loose flies in my house. I'm very tolerant of loose flightless fruit flies (providing they don't manage to breed with the flying variety), but my husband hits the roof when there are more than a handful of loose bottle flies or house flies in the house. I don't blame him. I do have a limit when it comes to some bugs in my house. Pets insects are different. A loose katydid or mantis isn't the end of the world.

Mantids will eat non-living prey and fruit if you hand-feed them. This is based on personal experience and reports from expert insect keepers.

Apparently, there are also vibrating food dishes which trick reptiles into eating dead bugs, but I've never kept reptiles or amphibians.

House flies will not cause trouble once dead :)

I always fed my pet Chinese mantids dead flies and other dead insects using forceps. However, I haven't had any luck with my Ghost Mantises or my Giant Asian Mantis taking any food from forceps. They still recoil in fear when they are offered something by hand, probably because I don't spend as much time with them as I did with the Chinese mantises last winter.

I trick mantises in the wild into taking dead prey in front of my camera by putting the prey on a long piece of spider web and jiggling the web in front of the mantis. That way my hand isn't present to scare the wild mantis. That works without fail. But feeding from forceps has its drawbacks. My mantises would grab the forceps instead of the prey, which forced me to hang onto the forceps until they finished eating their meal. The forceps were far too heavy for the mantis to hold on its own.

Even my treefrogs will take flies, larvae, and worms from forceps with ZERO regard as to what I am offering them. In their minds, ANYTHING on the end of forceps must be edible! The treefrogs lunge at the forceps and try to force everything into their mouths, forceps and all. Sometimes when I try to pull the forceps away, I end up dragging the little treefrog or mantis off its perch because they won't release their grip on the forceps. I'd love to offer Dubia roaches to my pets, but I definitely don't want live roaches getting loose in my house.

I wish I could figure out how to hand feed my Ghost Mantises and Giant Asian Mantis. The G. Asian mantis is positively frightened by the presence of a human. It runs around frantically. It still hasn't learned that "scary human" equals "good food." The treefrogs were much easier to acclimate to hand feeding. In just a matter of days they learned to associate anything on the end of forceps with good food.

However, I'm just having no luck with this year's three mantis species. I have one unidentified rhom sp. (probably Rhombodera extensicollis), several ghost mantises, and one giant Asian mantis. The rhombodera is still too small to offer food by hand. It is still eating D. melanogaster. But I was hoping by now that the giant Asian and larger ghost mantises would take food from forceps. Some of the Ghost mantises have figured out that if they perch over the cubes of gel cricket food that I put in their cages for the bottle flies to eat that all the flies will come within reach sooner, rather than later.

One female ghost mantis doesn't even bother to hang upside down in an attempt to look like a dead leaf. She just perches upright on the rim of the bowl with the gel cricket food. She snags the flies whenever they come to feed. Her intelligence has really paid off. She understands the relationship between those little orange cubes and the flies she wants to eat. So she's much larger than the other ghost mantises from her brood. She made that connection very quickly. Only one other female has made the connection between the gel cricket food and where she should perch when hunting. However, she still wants to hang upside down over the gel cubes. So she isn't growing quite as fast as her sibling. I'm surprised that the other ghost mantises haven't figured out that the flies are always on or near the gel cricket food.

Thanks. I know not to buy house plants for the katydids to eat because I also keep treefrogs and have to ensure there are no chemicals of any kind on plants in their terrarium, in the soil in which the plants are potted, and that insects the frogs eat haven't fed on any plants with chemicals. My herp vet gave me that lecture at the start. The sedum I was using for the anglewing is from my own garden, where no chemicals of any kind were ever used. Our yard is planted specifically to attract all wildlife, especially insects. I didn't know exactly what store-bought greens the two species would eat since each species has different food preferences. I know from previous years that Greater Meadow Katydids will also eat smaller insects, including crickets and other katydids. But these were my first Anglewings and Lesser Meadow Katydids. I see on the species pages that my anglewing can live until mid-November. I was hoping to narrow down "late spring" hatching time to a particular month. Everyone's idea of spring seems to be different (calendar vs. meteorological) For now, I will assume late spring means May in Northern Illinois. Thanks for the quick response.

Bugguide page for Conocephalus and Orchelimum: Various seeds, pollen, fruits, leaves of forbs and grasses. Suggests they are generalist herbivores which will eat anything

Ah. Thanks. Got it.

I’m pretty sure most orthopteran insects are generalist feeders to some degree. Bugguide editor Eric Eaton has informed me that nearly all orthops will take animal protein. This does not always mean a herbivorous species is capable of snagging hapless beetles off leaves and killing them; peaceful species not adapted to predatory behavior will scavenge dead insects, though a few katydids are mostly carnivores that hunt prey.

Also, the lifespan included on bugguide is probably wild lifespan, not maximum possible lifespan. My Cotinis scarab was wild caught, but it’s nearly December and bugguide says the season is mostly July to Oct. There are no freezing winds and veggie shortages indoors, so your angle wing will probably continue living for quite a while.

I forgot to mention Microcentrum’s diet, but I am willing to bet it will adapt well to eating lettuce and greens for the above reasons. A long while ago, I found what looked like a Microcentrum nymph near oak trees, and it ate hibiscus at home. You can probably just visit the supermarket for some vegetables if the eggs of any of your species hatches prematurely.

My first two anglewings were found on hibiscus plants in my neighbor's garden as nymphs just prior to their final molt. So clearly they like hibiscus. We fed them wild grapevine leaves and maple leaves. Only one is still hanging on. The other died a month ago. I will definitely hit the grocery store if the eggs hatch sooner than our local plants are ready. Thanks.

I'm just seeing this and enjoy reading others' experiences in rearing insects.
Regarding hotels, can you tell them you're travelling with your emotional support katydid? ;)
I mostly rear creatures who depend on milkweed (beetles, bugs, and butterflies, and, less intentionally, folks who eat aphids ...).

I almost fell off my chair laughing when I read the part about "an emotional support katydid." Maybe I should see how far I can push that concept. Then I could travel with my entire emotional support menagerie (100 to 150 exotic mantids (between 15 & 25 species), 21 frogs (6 species), 2 species of geckos, 2 bearded dragons, 1 anole, and 1 medium-sized exotic lizard). After the hotel sees that support group, how could they say no to a little old katydid? Of course, if I brought the entire menagerie, I'd have to bring their food: roaches, crickets, nightcrawlers, houseflies, bottle flies, fruit flies, hornworms, waxworms, butterworms, black soldier flies, etc. Do you think that might be pushing it just a little too far to ask them to accommodate a couple hundred roaches?

I saw a news report of someone travelling by plane with a large adult male emotional support peacock, and I imagine that your portable zoo isn't too much bigger or noisier. They should be happy you didn't bring your 200 singing cicadas.
And I've stayed in plenty of motels where the couple hundred roaches were provided for free.
I'd like to see a photo of one of your terrariums with insects.
I only cared for one cricket, and it has been very recently, an already mature adult who appeared in the dead of winter and I had to bring him inside. With a lot of help from Nancy Collins (Wisconsin Oecanthinancy), I was able to keep him happy. His images, along with comments and cage pictures with details, are here:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1635215

Fantastic pics. I've never taken a picture of my insect terrariums. I only photograph the insects. Last year I shot stills and video of a pair of Two-spotted Tree Crickets while the female was licking secretions off the male's back. The male tree cricket looked as if he was being tortured, but was probably just being tickled. The male got nothing in exchange for the free meal he provided to the female. She snubbed his advances for a more intimate encounter. I swear I could see the dismay on the male's face. He was sure he had sealed the deal with that female. I was hoping to get pictures of them mating or egg laying, but the female didn't cooperate. So I settled for photographing two different species of katydids as they laid their eggs. I have to be careful about bringing insects indoors in Illinois because of our crazy laws. I, like many others, was ignorant of our laws until I was told that I broke one. In Illinois it is illegal to even TOUCH any dragonfly or damselfly. If one is surveying Odonata for a national scientific data collection website that requires close-ups of the hamules or caudal appendages as definitive proof of an ID for certain species, those species are under-represented in Illinois because we can't net or touch dragonflies. So those species are just ignored by survey volunteers or dismissed by the website because the necessary close-up photos weren't provided. Illinois is crazy. The state provides an information packet for school teachers, explaining that they cannot keep an insect or, say, a mantis ootheca, in their classroom, not even if a student brought it to them. Children under 12 are permitted to keep an insect collection at home, but such collections cannot be in the possession of an adult. When the child ages out of that exception, the collection must be turned over to the state! So Illinoisans can squash or poison insects around their home or yard, but they can't bring an insect inside or to a teacher's classroom. Dumb laws can truly kill one's interest in science and the natural world!