Found a Newborn Scudderia Mexicana

We have found a newborn Mexican bush katydid (Scudderia mexicana).

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Well this is quite odd. Just yesterday we were looking at our Scudderia mexicana eggs that we had collected from our captive females lasts summer in a petri dish, and had observed that they were near hatching. Well, today we found a newborn nymph, but it wasn't from these eggs. The katydid was inside the cage we had used to house the captive females last year and are currently using for our lineatas and achemons. It was resting on the grape cuttings we had put in for the moths and could've only gotten in the cage by hatching out of an egg lodged in some corner of the cage by the captive females last year. It seems, then, that the wild and captive eggs in the petri dish are quite in synch, as they are hatching around the same time. Also, historically, May has always been when have begun finding the young katydid nymphs of this species. 

The newborn katydid is very small and orangish brown, decorated in many black spots and other colors. The antennae are very long and have alternating white and black sections. The hind legs are very long and thin. We remember seeing nymphs like this in past years, but were never quite sure if it was the first instar or not, but apparently it is; they can't possibly get smaller than this when given the size of the egg.

For now, we haven't done anything with the katydid and plan to just leave it in the cage and feed on the grapes. Maybe when it gets larger we'll have to get some larger plants for it.

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Authors
Alan Liang

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