Great Green Bush Cricket

[Aafke]

My neighbor yelled, come quickly and take your camera with you.
In a few seconds I was in her garden looking at a real BIG cricket.
Later I looked for it and I think it's a Great Green Bush Cricket (Tettigonia viridissima) in Dutch  Grote groene sabelsprinkhaan. I read that it is very common, how is it possible that I never saw it before?
Here are some pictures, it's hard to see how big he was but he was big!!!
  greetings Aafke
 

[valhalla]

No, Aafka - I can see how BIG  he was (I almost thought he was a Praying Mantis at 1st glance).  Great detail - you can see the leg fuzzies, which makes me wonder just how loud he is? 

[Judi]

Whoa!  He not just big...he GINORMOUS! 

Excellent photos, Aafke...great detail.  Wow!

 

[Donna]

I'd probably run if I saw that Dinosaur....He is BIG. Thanks Aafke.

[Bird Crazy]

reminds me of a katydid wonder if they are related.

[Aafke]

reminds me of a katydid wonder if they are related.

I never heard of a katydid. I looked on the internet and saw it and I read: "True Katydids are relatives of grasshoppers and crickets".
Very good of you Bird Crazy!

greetings Aafke

[Aafke]

No, Aafka - I can see how BIG  he was (I almost thought he was a Praying Mantis at 1st glance).  Great detail - you can see the leg fuzzies, which makes me wonder just how loud he is? 

Hi Janet
No, at that moment he made no sound at all.
I read that only males "sing" by rubbing the for legs and you can only hear them between 3 pm and 3 am. De sound is very loud. Interesting! Probably this great green Bush Cricket is a female, she has a  Ovipositor (cannot find the English word), males don't have one. She lays her eggs in september.
Maybe I will have hundreds of them next year!
greetings Aafke

[Paul Hamilton]

We have them here and call them katydids.  I grew up in Connecticut where they really did make a sound like "katy-did" on late summer and fall nights.  I remember looking out at the barn in back of my childhood home in the moonlight and hearing thousands of them, all being very loud.  That's how I went to sleep as a boy.

Here is one that was on our kitchen window on the first of September during our dinner.  Isn't it wonderful how much they look like leaves?  Unfortunately, the population here simply chirps, unlike their relatives up North.  Some day, I want to go up to my old home town for a weekend and find a place with screened windows so that I can enjoy this favorite sound again.

Paul

[valhalla]

We have them here and call them katydids.  
Paul

Believe it or not, I have only seen (1) one Katydid in my 51-years of life AND it was at the Arlington Courthouse.  On a window.  Hung out there for hours.  It was huge.  I don't know where it came from - no grass in that area.

[Dumpsterkitty]

Marie Winn has been posting for the past week or so on her blog about a "Cricket Crawl" in Central Park NYC. 

Friday's entry has some cricket calls

Her blog address http://mariewin.server304.com/marieblog/

[Paul Hamilton]

Believe it or not, I have only seen (1) one Katydid in my 51-years of life AND it was at the Arlington Courthouse.  On a window.  Hung out there for hours.  It was huge.  I don't know where it came from - no grass in that area.

The guys around here in Arlington are Common True Katydids (Pterophylla camellifolia).  They live in trees and bushes, of which the Courthouse area has a lot. 

Paul

[Donna]

4th try to get this up. Ok, Janet sent me this pic of a Katydid she took....I haven't seen one in years.

Thanks Janet..

[Donna]

Looks like a Mantis.....but is it?  Thanks Janet again  

[valhalla]

Thanks so much for posting them Donna - appreciate it, as I wanted to share them and didn't have the time to get the process down straight.       

Anyway, Rich and I thought these 2 guys were a Katydid and a Walking Stick but, I'm not so sure now.     One thing I am certain about is that this group will know "who" these 2 bugs are. 

Big Thanks  again to Donna!     There - a little song in your Honor 

[Tokira]

When we're out camping, in Outer Boondock, WV, we hear, and see, lots of them.  Great music by which to sleep in a tent.  One landed on my leg one afternoon a few years back, and I was fascinated, until it took a test sample of my leg 
Carol

We have them here and call them katydids.  I grew up in Connecticut where they really did make a sound like "katy-did" on late summer and fall nights.  I remember looking out at the barn in back of my childhood home in the moonlight and hearing thousands of them, all being very loud.  That's how I went to sleep as a boy.