Our first Mediterranean katydid (Phaneroptera nana) hatched today. The egg was laid by captive females, Summer 2016.

Just as our Mexican bush katydid have been beginning to hatch, so too have our Mediterranean. We only had a few eggs saved from last year and we weren't sure if any were still alive, but out popped one today. It is extremely small, probably only about two-thirds the size of newborn Scudderia mexicana. It is yellowish green with a yellow head and blackish legs. We placed it in the same container as our mexicanas with some rose petals and plum leaves.

​Authors
Alan Liang

Rearing notes for the Mediterranean Katydid (Phaneroptera nana) that we found as a second instar on 7/26.

Rearing Notes 8/23/16-9/24/16:

- Brian

Today we discovered our first Mediterranean Katydid (Phaneroptera nana) eggs; also an update on our Mexican Bush Katydid (Scudderia mexicana) eggs.

Today while we were moving our Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) our of their enclosure, we discovered three eggs laid in the potted blue morning glory (Ipomoea acuminata) inside. A little sad that there were only three, actually, considering that there are over ten females in there and at least one of them gets mated every day for many weeks now (I'd imagine that every single one is fertile by now!). Like the related Phaneropterinae Mexican Bush Katydid (Scuderria mexicana), the eggs were inserted between the epidermal layers of the leaf. They are slightly smaller than the Mexican Bush Katydid eggs (shown side by side in the right image with the Mediterranean eggs on the right), proportional to the size of the ovipositer, which, in turn, is related to the significantly smaller body of the Mediterranean Katydid. 

As an update on our Mexican Bush Katydid eggs, we collected another 21 of them today, making a total of 101 eggs so far. And this is all by the work of four females at the most. If they all hatch next spring, we shall be swamped!

- Brian

Rearing Notes 8/11-8/18:

8/14-15:​​   Nothing significant worth noting.

- Brian

Stats:
Encounters this year: 81+
Locations:

• Ohlone Greenway at Lincoln Ave., El Cerrito, CA (54+)
• Albany Middle School, Albany, CA (17)
• Residential home, Berkeley, CA (10)  
• Home, Albany, CA (1)                                    

Host plants:

• ​Blackberry Rubus ursinus or Passionflower Passiflora (54+)
• Purple Morning Glory Ipomoea purpurea (15)
• Grape Vitis vinifera (10)​
• Sweet Fennel Foeniculum vulgare (1)​
• Wild Mallow Malva (1)
• Apple Malus domestica (1)

Months:

• May (6)
  • L1 nymphs (2)
  • L3-L4 nymphs (4)
• June (53+)
  • L1 nymphs (1)
  • L2-L3 nymphs (2)
  • L4-L5 nymphs (50+)
• July (21)
  • L2 nymphs (1)
  • L4 nymphs (5)
  • L5 nymphs (5)
  • L6 nymphs (12)

Adult Molt Log:
7/10 (overnight): male caught in sixth instar attempted but was killed
7/15 (overnight): two males but one suffers severe injuries of mild cannibalism and the other mismolted
7/16 (overnight): two females; one mismolted and has wings that dried in the wrong position
7/17 (overnight): one male and one female
7/18 (overnight): one male mismolted and is dead
7/19 (overnight): one female 
7/20 (overnight): two males
7/21 (overnight): one male and one female
7/22 (overnight): one male
7/23 (overnight): one brown morph female 
7/24 (overnight): four females; two mismolted and have wings that dried in the wrong position; one of them also has a bent hind leg and antenna
7/25 (overnight): two males
7/26 (overnight): two males
7/27 (overnight): one male
7/28 (overnight): one male
7/29 (overnight): one female
7/31 (overnight): one brown morph male
8/1 (overnight): one male and one female; the female mismolted and has crippled wings
8/2 (overnight): one female

​Today, just as we had seen a few days ago with the Mexican Bush Katydids (Scuderria mexicana), one of our adult female Mediterranean Katydid (Phaneroptera nana) was carrying a nice spermatophoryx on its genitalia when we checked this morning!

- Brian

Today were surprised to find a second instar Mediterranean Katydid (Phaneroptera nana) nymph on wild mallow (Malva) at the Albany Middle School garden (Albany, CA).

For a while now (about a month) we haven't really been collecting any more Mediterranean Katydid (Phaneroptera nana) or Mexican Bush Katydid (Scuderria mexicana) nymphs since we can't find them. Based on personal observations of the years, we have always assumed that these insects are strictly univoltine since they take so long to mature and their adults have a relatively long lifespan. In the spring, starting around April or May, we would find young nymphs (though the Mexican Bush Katydids seem to tend to hatch about a month earlier than the Mediterraneans). The adult males can be heard chorusing as soon June for Mexican Bush Katydids and the July for Mediterraneans.

This all aligns quite well with our captive raised katydids as seen in the rearing notes. In April, we found our first Mexican Bush Katydid nymph which was in third instar. By June, the katydid has grown to fifth instar and the wild caught katydids we found were also either in fifth or sixth instar. We first found Mediterranean Katydid nymphs at the end of May which were no older than third instar. By June, we were finding fourth and fifth instars while our captive ones were also approaching these instars. At the beginning of this month we are mostly finding fifth and sixth instars and now we are hearing the adult males buzzing around while our own are molting into adult. From this, it is easy to assume that they follow a very typical annual schedule: hatch in spring and die in the winter (eggs overwinter) with only one brood a year. 

But then why in the world did we step upon a second instar Mediterranean Katydid nymph today when our first adult had already molted back on 7/10? The little guy was resting all by itself on a crawling wild mallow plant (Malva) growing directly under a fence with a huge grape vine (Vitis) in the Albany Middle School garden at around 4 PM. In the same area at the same time, we heard adult males chirping. The first thought that came to mind was that this species is not univoltine as we had previously thought, but probably bivoltine with two broods per year. It certainly is possible and the time allows for it since we do not have very distinct seasons around here; if it takes the nymphs about two months to grow, the second instar we found would be an adult by the end of September which wouldn't be bad at all since it is actually the warmest month here, historically. It would still have plenty of time to mate and reproduce before dying sometime in November or December. 

But it could be more complicated than that when we began considering the diapausing strategies of the overwintering eggs. Like most insects under diapause or developmental arrest, katydid eggs are hormonally programmed to only respond to certain environmental cues to break diapause, develop, and hatch. The eggs of some species are not designed to hatch until three or four months after being laid to ensure that eggs laid during midsummer (such as June) do not complete development soon enough to start a new brood and instead enter diapause once winter hits; eggs laid during late summer or fall may diapause for two seasons and hatch in the second spring after being laid cued by photoperiod or day length. In other species, eggs undergo obligate diapause in which they enter diapause no matter what time of year it is (not determined by day length) and can take up for five years to hatch in a system called "bet-hedging". By having eggs hatch at random times after they are laid, it makes the chances higher that at least some of them will hatch during the "right" time. Still, other species in environments with mild winters such as ours, there may really be two generations in which there are two distinct times during the year when eggs are laid where photoperiod cues not when the eggs will hatch but when the adults should oviposit. With all of these different factors in play, it may be impossible to trace the origins of our little second instar katydid. Though there is still a very good chance that we were right and it is just a second brooder.

- Brian

- Brian

The first of our few interesting brown morph Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) has made it to adult and is still maintains a mostly brown appearance.

In a post we made about color variation in Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) and Mexican Bush Katydids (Scudderia mexicana) from a while ago on 6/28, we were hoping that some of our brown morph Mediterraneans would stay brown all the way until adult just for their uniquness. In our experience, the brown morph is relatively uncommon in this species with probably only 10% or so of all encounters having this form (sample size of 80+ this year) with the rest being varying shades of green. In the past we had noted that the brown morphs consistently eventually started turning green with each successive adult and were full green by adulthood in the Mexican Bush Katydids so we were wondering whether the same would be true in the Mediterraneans.

As of now, it does seem true but also not necessarily. We still have a handful (4-5) brown morph Mediterranean nymphs that have stayed exactly just as brown every instar since we caught them (absolutely no sign of turning green), though they range in shade greatly (some are a very dark brown, some are pinkish, and some are a golden brown). But today, a golden brown sixth instar finally molted into adult and is still golden brown but quite bit lighter then before -- almost yellow with a tinge of green. It is clear that, given a few more molts, it probably would have eventually turned green. Yesterday when it was about to molt, its wing buds were so swollen and thick that you could almost see the new wings bundled up inside them and they were tipped with a distinctive green pigment. Of course when it actually did molt today and fully expanded out the wings, the green became much diluted as seen in the image. 

We are guessing that it decided to take the green route this final instar, perhaps because we moved it into the new enclosure then with the Blue Morning Glory vine (Ipomoea acuminata). We have noticed when we have encountered katydids in the wild, they often match their food plant quite well, suggesting that the substrate color does influence the color of the katydid to some extent. For example, one of the pinkish brown katydids we found was on a dying grape leaf (Vitis) that was a very similar pinkish brown and a yellowish Mexican Bush Katydid (overall still green though) with thick pink bands was found on a passionflower (Passiflora) flower which was pink and yellow. When we put this golden brown katydid back into the enclosure, it crawled on a morning glory flower bud that had a strikingly similar golden brown color with a tinge of green. 

- Brian