OMG, I saw so many Rain-lilies along the road today while out and about! I loved it! Of course, I took Gracie for her usual walks too. Here are two highlights from the walks.
Stepping out the back door, a brown katydid! It was a new one for me. Usually I see the green ones. The katydids have the long antennas unlike the much the shorter antennas of the grasshoppers. Most katydids are herbivores, but a few species apparently will eat other insects. (Borror and DeLong)
Of course, several shots were taken for further study!
Cooperating, it got a close top shot.
Male, check.
Short wings!
Four parts to the tarsi, check. So this is a characteristic of katydids. So armed with all this information, I tried to ID it. The best I could get was Shield-backed Katydids (Tettigoniinae). The Eastern Shieldbacks (Atlanticus) are supposed to be the numerous and short-winged, so maybe?. However, I could not any closer than that. But it was fun searching and it still is the first brown katydid for me.
A blue belly Spiny Lizard! The blue does not cover the whole belly, only the sides of the male.
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.
A fun new find!
Ive never seen blue on a spiny lizard. Thats a first for me.
Wow, that’s hard to believe with all the critters you have seen 🙂
Interesting katydid. That blue-sided spiny lizard is lookin’ for a gal I’ll bet.
It won’t be hard for him, we have plenty of females here..