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Raising Amblycorypha parvipennis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from Egg to Adult

Amblycorypha parvipennis: Phaneropterinae subfamily » Amblycorypha rotundifolia Group
name: Amblycorypha parvipennis (Stål 1876): the specific epithet refers to the short wings (parvus-small,little; penna-feather).

Adult female Amblycorypha parvipennis:



In spring of 2022, I was able to find seven Amblycorypha parvipennis nymphs, and they were the only seven I had ever seen. I raised the young nymphs to adult. The following spring I got just a few F1 nymphs from my original adults, and while I raised them, I also collected a few more nymphs from the field.

This short article includes the following sections: 1)Housing and Care, 2) Nymph to Adult, 2022, 3) F1-generation Nymphs and Collected Nymphs, 2023, 4) Song, 5) Mating and Alluring Glands, 6) Laying Eggs, 7) Observations, and 8) A Few Resources.



Housing and Care


As with other species of katydids that I rear, I use large butterfly cages for housing. The cages measure 36" x 24" x 24". The insects get natural light through the windows as well as additional full spectrum lighting over each cage for eight hours a day.

Sample rearing cages for Amblycorypha species:


Cage used for Amblycorypha parvipennis nymphs in 2023:



FOOD

For all of my Amblycorypha species, I provide native plants in 4-inch pots as well as organic Romaine lettuce, organic apple slices, rolled oats, cricket powder, pecan/walnut/almond slices, nectar sponges, and fresh water.

This adult female is enjoying her salad:


Here's a nymph and adult munching cricket powder:


Here is an adult and a nymph on butterfly sponges:


This adult is munching on lettuce:


And this adult female munching oats:


Here's a VIDEO of an adult male A. parvipennis munching on apple with background singing.

Here's a VIDEO of an adult munching lettuce with loud background singers.



Nymph to Adult, 2022


NYMPH

I found my first nymph on April 3, 2022.


I do not know how many instars these guys go through, but I would guess around seven. These images show male and female Amblycorypha parvipennis nymphs getting bigger:





Final-instar nymph female:



Here are some moulting photos of a nymph with exuvia:



ADULT

My first full female of the season moulted on May 3, 2022, and my first full male, on May 9, 2022. By May 29, 2022, all of my initial 7 collected nymphs had moulted to full adult.
This is a freshly-moulted adult female:


Another adult female with close-up of ovipositor:


And here's an adult male:


and another adult male:



Adults lived an average of two months after moulting to full adult, and my final A. parvipennis, a male, died on August 8, 2022.



F1-generation Nymphs and Collected Nymphs, 2023


I got very few F1 nymphs from my original collected Amblycorypha parvipennis with only about four surviving to full adult. (It is possible that some or most of the eggs are on a two-year cycle.)
My first F1 was born early in the season, as expected, on March 8, 2023. She moulted to full adult on May 23, 2023.
The following are some images through her development.


My first F1 Amblycorypha parvipennis, shown here from March 19, 2023 to May 27, 2023:


While I was raising my few F1s, I collected a handful of additional nymphs from the field beginning April 2, 2023. Among my collected 2023 nymphs, the first five adults moulted on May 7, 2023 (three females), May 12, 2023 (one male), and May 13, 2023 (one male).
The first small sound from a male was on May 17, 2023, with the first full songs occurring on May 22, 2023. My final adult Amblycorypha parvipennis died on July 28, 2023.



Song


The song of this species consists of phrases to which the female may answer (Galliart & Shaw,1996). The Singing Insects of North America site includes samples of A. parvipennis song. In addition, I am including several videos here.

Here's a male calling and female answering and then swiping left:
VIDEO of male call / female answer.

Here is some katydid flirting going on. Use your song, use your feet, use everything you've got!
VIDEO of gentleman impressing lady.

Here's what it looks like to be flirted with by an Amblycorypha parvipennis:
VIDEO of song.

Here's a gentleman singing while the lady listens in:
VIDEO of song.

VIDEO of song.

VIDEO on song

VIDEO of song with some seriously loud competition! (Do you recognise the competitors?)

VIDEO of song.



Mating and Alluring Glands


The presence of alluring glands (more on this in a separate article) informs mating position for this species. The male delivers a significant spermatophylax. It seems to me that mating for this species is triply expensive for the male, involving a considerable amount of singing, the production of glandular fluids to entice the female into position, and the production of large spermatophylaces.

This species shows alluring gland behaviour considerably more frequently than the other two species I wrote about, A. huasteca and A. rivograndis, and, in fact, I never observed alluring gland behaviour in the latter. Even so, actual mating might occur less frequently in A. parvipennis based on the fact that I rarely observed females with spermatophylaces.

Amblycorypha parvipennis mating:


Females lured into mating position through alluring glands:



This VIDEO shows a singer who successfully interrupts a mating pair, but never gets the lady!

VIDEO of mating attempt


VIDEO of alluring gland behaviour

VIDEO of alluring gland behaviour and mate attempt.

VIDEO of alluring gland behaviour.


Here's a female grooming her ovipositor:



SPERMATOPHYLAX

With the other Amblycorypha species I wrote about, A. huasteca and A. rivograndis, it was common for the female to discard the spermatophylax after mating. With A. parvipennis, however, I saw significantly fewer occasions of females carrying spermatophylaces and only three instances of a discarded spermatophylax.

Discarded spermatophylax:


During mating, the male attempts to deliver a spermatophylax to the female, even though alluring-gland positioning makes this difficult unless she curls her abdomen under him to receive the spermatophylax. As such, I sometimes saw males with dried, undelivered spermatophylaces still attached. On one occasion, I believe this killed the male.
:

The size and shape of the spermatophylax is similar to that of the other Amblycorypha species mentioned in this section.




Laying Eggs


Amblycorypha parvipennis lay eggs in soil, as with other reported cases of Amblycorypha (Walker, 2004). I provided soil substrate dishes in the cage which is what they usually used:


In addition, they occasionally laid eggs in potted plants, as shown here:



Eggs of Amblycorypha parvipennis are cream- to tan-coloured, flattened, and oval-shaped. They measure an average of 6 mm.




Anecdotally, I think there's a remote possibility that this species might also lay eggs in plants. I say this because I found several eggs laid inside a single layer of newspaper used at the bottom of their cage. My other species who regularly lay eggs inside newspaper, Scudderia furcata and Scudderia curvicauda, are species who use plants. Laying an egg inside a single layer of newspaper is comparable to laying an egg inside a leaf: they chew a starter hole and then work their ovipositor into a single layer of newspaper. There might be a possibility that A. parvipennis use both. (I have on occasion seen Scudderia lay eggs in soil.)

Here are eggs laid inside newspaper:


Interesting, some of the eggs I found were stacked, like those of Neoconocephalus:





Observations


These katydids occur earlier in the season than do most other species in my area.

Most interesting to me in this species is alluring gland behaviour, which was observed frequently. The song is quite unique and I was able to hear the female answering the male.

Specific behaviours appear to be more easily observable in some species of Amblycorypha and not in others. Courtship was observed more often in Amblycorypha parvipennis, while the presence of spermatophylaces was observed more in A. huasteca and A. rivograndis. Laying eggs was easy to observe in A. huasteca, but I never observed it in A. rivograndis and only a few times for A. parvipennis. The longest living of the three was A. huasteca and the shortest was A. parvipennis.

Of the three Amblycorypha species I raised, this one was the most intriguing to me. I hope others will consider rearing this species because there is so much to be learned about this species, including alluring gland behaviour and the possibility of two-year or even three-year cycles for eggs.



References


Galliart, P. L., & Shaw, K. C. (1996, August 24). The effect of variation in parameters of the male calling song of the katydid,Amblycorypha parvipennis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), on female phonotaxis and phonoresponse. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02208973

Walker, T. J. (2004). The uhleri Group of the Genus Amblycorypha (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): Extraordinarily Complex Songs and New Species. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3503720

Walker, T. J. Western Round-winged Katydid Amblycorypha parvipennis (Stal 1876). Singing Insects of North America. https://orthsoc.org/sina/013a.htm



A Few Resources


Forrest, T. G., Lajoie, D. R., & Cusick, D. (2006, September 1). Calling Songs, Duets, and Auditory Tuning in Two Cryptic Katydids (Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae: Amblycorypha) . https://academic.oup.com/aesa/article/99/5/978/12202

Galliart, P. L. (1993). The acoustic behavior of the katydid Amblvcorvpha parvipennis and the function of acoustic interaction in sexual selection. [Doctoral dissertation, Iowa State University] https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/63356/

Galliart, P. L., & Shaw, K. C. (1996, August 24). The effect of variation in parameters of the male calling song of the katydid,Amblycorypha parvipennis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), on female phonotaxis and phonoresponse. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02208973

Galliart, P. L., & Shaw, K. C. (1991, September). Role of Weight and Acoustic Parameters, including Nature of Chorusing, in the Mating Success of Males of the Katydid, Amblycorypha parvipennis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). JSTOR. .https://www.jstor.org/stable/3494840

Shaw, K. C., Galliart, P. L., & Smith, B. (1990). Acoustic Behavior of Amblycorypha parvipennis (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). https://orthsoc.org/sina/s001lsg90.pdf

Walker, T. J., Forrest, T. G., & Spooner, J. D. (2003). The rotundifolia Complex of the Genus Amblycorypha (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): Annals of the Entomological Society of America, https://orthsoc.org/sina/s001lwf03.pdf







.

How is it going? Did the eggs
How is it going? Did the eggs hatch?

 
Need to Update
Hi, hemiptamantis.

I need to go through and update all of my katydid articles for both F1 and F2 -- that might happen later this year or early next year.

I did get just a very few F1 Amblycorypha parvipennis from my initial group collected. I had very few of these to begin with, as they are quite rare here and very likely an endangered species.

It is quite possible that these guys are on a two-year cycle with eggs.

Are you working with this species? Do you have this species where you are? There are too few records and too little information on A. parvipennis, and I am hoping that the species will be recognised and carefully preserved.

 
Yes, I do have them in my are
Yes, I do have them in my area. Like where you are they are quite rare here as well. I've only heard one when going to a prairie remnant at night.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/173880071 here is the one I heard
It's a species I'm interested in keeping. I haven't actually seen one yet, but its among my goals. I wonder if they are still active at this time of year...

I 100% agree that they are probably endangered. Since they are flightless they cannot disperse and therefore are forever limited to prairie remnants which are constantly being destroyed.

 
Cool beans!
Hemiptamantis,

First – I am so glad to see you rearing. I'm a very old lady and at the end of my rearing days, so I get quite excited to see young people practicing compassionate rearing and especially folks interested in Orthoptera spp. I can see that you care deeply about conservation, which is my passion and reason for doing what I do.

I want to encourage you to keep doing the wonderful work you are doing, and if I can ever be of assistance to you, please let me know.

Unfortunately, I can barely hear your recording on iNaturalist, but from what tiny bit I can hear (not sufficient for me to guess), I am not convinced that that is A. parvipennis. Have you had others listen to your recording? This is a good representation of what they sound like: here and here. Does what you heard match these?

May I ask where you are located? (I am in Austin, central Texas.) Where I am, Amblycorypha parvipennis appear very early in the season and die off very early, as well. I really do hope you are able to find and rear these rare katydids. Because their song is not very loud, I do not attempt to locate this species by sound; instead, I look for them on mornings early in the season in grassy meadows and on early-blooming wildflowers.

– dvori

 
Yep, it nearly matches perfec
Yep, it nearly matches perfectly, albeit the one in the video is much faster. Perhaps its warmer. I don't think there is anything else here that makes such a sound.

I made a filtered version that should be easier to hear.


I am located in Lancaster county, Nebraska (the southeast portion of the state). The place I heard one was called "nine mile prairie" which is used by the UNL for research and there is a record of A. parvipennis there.

 
Updated
Okay, Hemiptamantis, I've now updated the article a bit to account for the (very small) F1 generation along with a few other 2023 images. So thank you for inspiring me.
I am clinging to the hope that you will be rearing this fascinating species next season, and I hereby pass the mantle to you. :)
Please let me know if I can ever be of assistance.
I wish you every success in all of your future projects. You are a talented entomologist!

 
Ah, thank you for the new recording!
I see that they do indeed occur in your area -- that's wonderful!
I do hope you find this species and rear it. They are easy to rear once you find them. I recommend going out in early mornings where you know they occur (where you have heard them) and searching. If you step very gently, you might flush one, or you might see them perching on vegetation and on flowers. Of course, looking for them by song should work just as well (I haven't tried it, but I believe you would succeed.)
If yours are like ours, they will occur earlier in the season than do most other katydids.
Please keep me informed. I am very excited to see your interest in this species and to know that they occur in your area where you can find and rear them.

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