Katydid in an Opuntia flower - Pediodectes haldemanii - BugGuide.Net

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids (Orthoptera) » Long-horned Orthoptera (Ensifera) » Katydids, Camel Crickets, and relatives (Tettigoniidea) » Katydids (Tettigoniidae) » Shield-backed Katydids (Tettigoniinae) » Pediodectes » Haldeman's Shieldback (Pediodectes haldemanii)

Photo#397822

Copyright © 2010 Stephen

Katydid in an Opuntia flower - Pediodectes haldemanii

San Antonio, Eisenhower Park, Bexar County, Texas, USA
May 15, 2010

The Opuntia were flowering profusely over the weekend, and these flowers proved very popular with the Katydids. This angle was the only one that I could photograph this individual at (I'm assuming that it's a female). Is it possible to get a genus and possibly a species? I'm tempted to go with Scudderia, but that's just a wild guess. I'm also going to assume that this is immature since it doesn't have wings, but is that a correct assumption?

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Contributed by Stephen on 19 May, 2010 - 8:58am
Last updated 24 September, 2010 - 3:25pm

Moved

Moved from Pediodectes.

… David J. Ferguson, 31 July, 2010 - 3:47pm

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Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… David J. Ferguson, 24 May, 2010 - 12:25am

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It is a Shieldback Katydid,

and it is a full grown female. She is in the genus Pediodectes, but I am not certain of the species, though I suspect it is P. haldemanii, because of the coloring and presence of wings.

You can actually see white adult wings just back of the pronotum (the shield). They are very short, but they are there. In the nymph they would be of somewhat different form, even smaller, and held in a different position.

… David J. Ferguson, 19 May, 2010 - 5:48pm

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I'm amazed that it's an adult :-)

Thanks David. Wow, you really have to look for those wings, I would never have guessed. I guess that they're vestigial.

… Stephen, 19 May, 2010 - 7:08pm

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A lot of the species

of Shieldbacks have them even more reduced, especially in the females. I'm not sure if the females can do anything with them, but the males still use them for making sound, usually a clicking or rasping (even though there isn't much left). I can remember if Pediodectes do this, but a lot of Shieldback males will click and act rather agressive when you pick them up.

… David J. Ferguson, 20 May, 2010 - 9:24am

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