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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids (Orthoptera) » Long-horned Orthoptera (Ensifera) » Crickets (Gryllidea) » True Crickets (Gryllidae) » Tree Crickets (Oecanthinae) » Common Tree Crickets (Oecanthus) » Nigricornis Group (Oecanthus Nigricornis Group) » Black-horned Tree Cricket (Oecanthus nigricornis)
Photo#1742969
Oecanthus nigricornis - male
Copyright © 2019 metrioptera

Oecanthus nigricornis - Male
Cornell Campus, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York, USA
October 21, 2019
Two males from the same area as . Some really odd behavior here. When placed in the same container, these two males started courting each other, and then the male that was missing a hind leg climbed up and was actually feeding from the metanotal gland of the bottom male for about 5 minutes. Even after he stopped feeding, they continued to court each other for a while afterwards.

Nancy - have you seen this behavior before? Are they just going crazy at the end of the season?

edit: similar story, with a male O. nigricornis and a male katydid, on Lisa Rainsong's blog here
and another similar situation with O. celerinictus
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Contributed by metrioptera on 22 October, 2019 - 9:21pm
Last updated 27 November, 2019 - 8:58am

Fascinating...
I have not seen that. I am glad you posted it. I did once watch a male O. forbesi try to court a polistes wasp. The wasp kept moving away from the tree cricket. He would sing to it and try to position himself to encourage the wasp to feed from his metanotal gland.
… Wisconsin Oecanthinancy, 24 October, 2019 - 9:43pm login or register to post comments

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