First Mediterranean Katydid to Get Mated This Year

​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!

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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