Category: Phaneroptera_nana

Mediterranean Katydid Brown Form Adult

8/7/2017

Pictures of an adult female brown morph Mediterranean katydid (Phaneroptera nana). Originated from eggs laid by captive reared wild-caught females of Summer 2016.

Our last Mediterranean katydid (Phaneroptera nana) molted to adult today and, as it was before, is a rare brown morph. In the pictures, it still wasn't not completely dried yet, so the antennae and legs are a bit pale.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Mediterranean Katydid Pictures

7/29/2017

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Today we took some pictures of our sixth instar Mediterranean katydids (Phaneroptera nana). Originated from eggs laid by captive reared wild-caught females of Summer 2016.

Just like with the Mexican bush katydids (Scudderia mexicana), we haven't been keeping up with these very well this year. We have been rearing the two species side by side so when we took the mexicana out to photograph, we also took these out. They are currently in sixth instar and very close to molting to adult. This mexicana have already been adults for several days but these hatched later (which is consistent with when and what age we usually find them in the wild).

Although we have so few of them this year, we still managed to pull our luck with a brown morph. It looks like it's going to be mostly brown as an adult too. The only problem is that it has a broken hindleg. . . A green morph is also shown below.

Authors
Brian Liang

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Found a Mediterranean Katydid

7/27/2017

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We found an adult female Mediterranean katydid (Phaneroptera nana) in our front yard.

We haven't been going really crazy with katydids this year, although we are still rearing a handful that hatched from last year's eggs. I'm sure that if we had tried, we could have easily caught a ton of them. In fact, we have already encountered several katydids throughout this year that we didn't bother to catch.

As the summer progresses, we are started to hear some katydid chirping. Today we even came across an adult female Mediterranean katydid (Phaneroptera nana) in our front yard on thistle. Not too common of a sight, even if the species is common. It stayed there for many hours without changing spots. Perhaps it was eating the flowers (because the leaves don't seem edible)?

Authors
Brian Liang

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First Mediterranean Katydid Hatches

5/26/2017

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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

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P. nana Rearing Notes (8/23/16-9/24/16)

9/24/2016

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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:

9/24:

Molted to adult, finally!

9/21:

Wing buds getting thick

9/17:

9/6:

Molted to sixth instar; one of the antenna is crooked

9/3:

Fed a yellow rose bud; she is almost ready to molt to sixth in just a week!

8/28:

8/27:

Molted into fifth instar today

8/24:

The fourth instar found on 7/26 as a second instar that we are keeping inside is doing well; fed it a leaf of American plum (Prunus americana) today

8/23:

Since we removed all of our outdoor katydids out of their mess screening enclosure for our Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) females, we had to keep them in a different little container temporarily; today, we found seven of the katydid killed by ants because there was not enough room for them to move around in the overcrowded container; we released the 20+ remaining adults

- Brian

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First P. nana Eggs and More S. mexicana Eggs

8/23/2016

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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

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P. nana Rearing Notes (8/11/16-8/18/16)

8/18/2016

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The eighth installment of our rearing notes for Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) from 8/11-8/18.

Rearing Notes 8/11-8/18:

8/18: Nothing significant worth noting.

8/17:

Fed the third instar some rose petals (Rosa) and a plum leaf (Prunus americana)
Put in some blue hibiscus flowers (Alyogyne huegelii) into the outside enclosure

8/16:

Another brown morph molted to adult and has maintained brown coloration rather than than being tinged with green!

8/14-15: Nothing significant worth noting.

8/13:

Two more females got mated
A brown morph appears to have molted to adult
The third instar is doing well (shown below)

8/12:

Another female got mated

8/11:

Another female got mated
Supplemented with blue hibiscus flowers (Alyogyne huegelii) and yellow rose petals (Rosa)

- Brian

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P. nana Rearing Notes (8/3/16-8/10/16)

8/10/2016

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The seventh installment of our rearing notes for Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) from 8/3-8/10.

Rearing Notes and Stats 8/3-8/10:

8/10:

Another female got mated and has a brownish spermatophoryx instead of the normal clearish kind (top left)
One of the remaining brown morph six instars has become greener without even molting; it now has thick wing buds which are green (top right and bottom row)

8/9:

Another female got mated
Found an escaped sixth instar on the rose bush right next to the enclosure

8/8:

Tried to get the nine females to lay eggs on the orchid, but all refused, despite the fact that some of them must be fertile; most either took no notice of the flower or only showed interest in eating it!

8/7:

Another female got mated (top middle and right)
Since many have escaped, there are only nine perfect females left (some shown in top left); we took all nine inside to test for fertility and see if we can get any eggs out of them
Many of the sixth instars in the enclosure have thick wing buds and will molt soon
The second instar is now a third instar (shown in bottom row)

8/5-6: Nothing significant worth noting.

8/4:

Another female got mated

8/3:

There are no longer any more thick wing budded sixth instars inside; there are a few currently in the enclosure but it is difficult to take them out (this means that it will be almost impossible to track new adults eclosing in the future)
Fed the second instar some yellow rose petals (Rosa); seems to be growing well

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

- Brian

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P. nana Rearing Notes (7/26/16-8/2/16)

8/2/2016

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The sixth installment of our rearing notes for Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) from 7/26-8/2.

Rearing Notes and Stats 7/26-8/2:

8/2:

One female molted to adult and is in perfect condition
Another female was mated

8/1:

One male and one female molted to adult; the female mismolted and has crippled wings
Another female was mated, this time the brown morph

7/31:

One male molted to adult and is in perfct condition; it is the second brown morph to molt to adult and also has slightly green colored wings (first row and second row left)
Second row middle and right show a sixth instar just about ready to molt
Some of them seem to have slipped through the opening of the enclosure and escaped because there seem to be quite a few less than before; we found one on our tropical milkweed (last row)

7/30:

No new adults
Two more females got mated (one shown below)
They have completely destroyed a newly opened morning glory flower (Ipomoea acuminata), probably because they are starving for some more proteinous foods such as the petals and pollen

7/29:

One female molted to adult and is in perfect condition
Another female got mated and had a spermatophoryx attached to her genitalia at around 9 AM (first row and second row left and middle)
Still a lot of sixths with thick wing buds (second row right, third row, and fourth row left)
The fourth and fifth row show some sixth instar skins
The last row shows the second instar that we caught on 7/27

7/28:

One males molted to adult and is in perfect condition; gender seems to be skewed toward males in this particular group with a total of 15 adult males and 10 adult females so far (or it is possible that the males mature faster?)
One of the females mated overnight and had the male's spermatophoryx attached to her genitalia when we checked at 8:30 AM (shown below); it is impossible to identify which of the females it was and which of the males she mated with
Found a sixth instar female on Apple at the Albany Middle School garden (Albany, CA)
Found one of the severely injured katydids that we released on our plum tree (Prunus) still living in the same area; though it still had three cannibalized legs, it had already molted to sixth instar and was one of our most brown colored individuals that we decided to take it back in and put it in the enclosure

7/27:

One male molted to adult and is in perfect condition
A brown morph sixth instar is shown below to the left; the second instar we caught yesterday is shown in the middle and right

7/26:

Two males molted to adult and are in perfect condition
A fifth instar brown (pinkish) morph molted to sixth and now has green wing buds (initiating molting shown below)
Found a second instar on wild mallow (Malva) growing directly beneath a large grape vine (Vitis) in the Albany Middle School garden (Albany, CA)
Added two blue hibiscus flowers (Alyogyne) into the enclosure to supplement their diet with some proteinous petals and pollen; also put a blue hibiscus flower into the little glass jar that we are keeping the newly caught second instar in

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)

- Brian

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First Mediterranean Katydid to Get Mated This Year

7/28/2016

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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!

According to our stats in the P. nana rearing notes, we should currently have a total of 13 live adult male and 10 live adult female Mediterranean Katydids (Phaneroptera nana) though two of the males and three of the females suffer from some sort of imperfection such as broken or cannibalized limbs and mismolted wings. In addition, a few more could have molted into adult inside the enclosure without us knowing since it is difficult to keep track of all of the sixth instars with thick wing buds and are ready to molt. But no matter what, there are enough individuals in that enclosure to get some action going for a while now.

Unlike our eight Mexican Bush Katydids (Scuderria mexicana), it would be a painful task to search out all of the adult females every morning to see if any mating had occurred. The best that we usually do each day is just take a glance and investigate every adult that we come across but not actually keeping track of how many we checked. It is very possible that we may have already missed a few matings, but if we did not today was the first day that it happened. This morning around 8:30 AM when went out to check, we found a female (one in perfect condition) sitting at the top of the enclosure with a little gelatinous spermatophoryx attached right below her ovipositor on her genitalia. Though it shouldn't be a surprise because Mediterranean Katydids are much smaller in size than the Mexican Bush Katydids (nana is derived from Greek "nanos" meaning dwarf), the spermatophoryx was puny! Just a tiny little four-sacked blob unlike the massive jello cake on the Mexican Bush Katydid.

According to multiple sources, Mediterranean Katydids insert their eggs into leaf tissue as reflected by the shape of the female's ovipositor (relatively wide, flat, and slightly curved) and the shape of the eggs themselves (ovular and flat). At this point it is simply a waiting game to see when or whether our mated females will lay the eggs readily in the enclosure on the leaves of the blue morning glory vine (Ipomoea acuminata).

- Brian

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