It seems that overnight, the songs of Sword-bearing Coneheads have suddenly filled the meadows of NE Ohio! Walking in Lake and Cuyahoga Counties in the past few days, a conehead was singing every several feet. They are impressive insects, and whenever participants on my insect song hikes find a Sword-bearing Conehead, they are thrilled! Let’s listen and take a look at these enchanting, beautiful coneheaded katydids.
Yes, they obviously have coneheads. In fact, one can identify the species by the shape of the cone and the amount of black on its tip. However, that would imply that it’s easy to get a good look at these insects and their cones. You’re going to have to work harder at this than you might expect!
See the Sword-bearing Conehead? She’s right there in the grass. In fact, she looks just like a blade of grass when she dives head first into the vegetation. That is exactly the plan.
It is far easier to identify them by their songs. The species we encounter here in NE Ohio sound quite different from each other, so it’s not so difficult.
Here is a singing male Sword-bearing Conehead:
How well you hear this – and how loud it seems to you – will depend on your high-frequency hearing. Conehead songs are loud, but they are also higher than many mid-life adults can hear at a distance. The most prominent frequencies in this particular recording are between 10,000 and 12,000 Hz. Tree crickets generally sing only between 3000 and 4000 Hz, so they are much easier to hear and sound like they have more distinct pitches.
Sword-bearing Coneheads, like crickets and katydids in general, sing lower and slower at cooler temperatures. They don’t start singing until dusk, and how long they sing into the night is determined in part by how far– and how quickly– the temperature drops. Insects are cold-blooded, and they can’t move their wings as fast on a chilly evening. They keep trying, but eventually they just grind to a halt and give up for the night. This conehead is singing at 60 degrees, and you can hear that his song is much slower than the conehead the first recording.
This species gets its common name from the very long ovipositor of the female – it does indeed look rather like a sword!
If someone does not know that ovipositors are for depositing eggs might think that the ovipositor is actually a giant stinger of some sort. But there is nothing to fear from a conehead. These insects are shy and gentle, and their only defense is to fly or hide.
Coneheads are seed eaters, and they especially seem to love grass seeds. I am always pleased to watch the males singing, but recently I had the opportunity to watch one enthusiastically dining and Cleveland Metroparks’ North Chagrin Reservation near the Cuyahoga/Lake county border.
Sword-bearing Coneheads will be singing for quite a while, so you’ll have time to hear them. I hope you also get to see at least one!
The time has finally arrived for the first of our native katydids to take the stage! The Gladiator Meadow Katydids (Orchelimum gladiator) have begun singing in wetlands and damp meadow areas across NE Ohio.
People who only know the Common True Katydid understandably confuse meadow katydids with the green grasshopper nymphs and Northern Green-striped Grasshoppers that are so common in similar habitats right now. There is an easy way to the difference: katydids have long antennae and grasshoppers have short ones. Grasshoppers also appear to have bulkier, more powerful “thighs” as if they do squats (see the comparison photos below).
Really, though, just look for long or short antennae - it’s that easy.
Gladiators
sing anytime from late June through July in the afternoon as well as
into the evening, so their songs often are accompanied by bird songs and
calls. The Gladiator’s song is primarily a long “purrrr” with a few short, soft “tics” at the end. The “purrrr” can be fairly long, but the length is variable. The number of “tics” is variable as well. The songs cover a wide band of frequencies from about 7000 Hz up to 20,000. At these frequencies, it is more of a swishing sound that anything we humans will perceive as pitches. (The song is only loud to children and people in very early adulthood, becoming softer and less easy to hear with age.)
These little katydids blend beautifully with grasses and sedges. They can be very difficult to spot even when they are singing right in front of you! Look on stems of sedges, rushes, timothy, and even thistles, asters, and goldenrod. A bulrush stem is a perfect singing perch, but they will shift their bodies in an instant to place the stem between you and them. You may only see their feet and long antennae – IF you’re lucky to see them at all!
Like all katydids, Gladiators are very gentle and their only defenses are hiding and escape. They can be coaxed onto hands and fingers, where they will nibble at your skin so lightly that you will barely be able to feel it.
It’s a great way to admire their beauty up close!
Their movements and curious positions are fascinating to watch, and they seem to have exceptionally beautiful eyes. It’s worth the effort to find them, and you can enjoy their soft, pleasant songs while you search for them.
There’s a new sound in the meadows now – it sounds like an electrical buzz in the tall grasses or damp sedge meadows. You look and look, and don’t see where it’s coming from... but it’s right down there somewhere!
Wait a minute….what's clinging to the stems?
Roesel’s Katydids – the first katydid to sing in our area. (And that picture of the tall grasses has three Roesel’s Katydid nymphs staring right at you from their perches.)
Now I will be the first to admit that it’s not the most delicate, melodic song, but it announces the beginning of the katydid concert. And they are very pretty little insects with an interesting story!
This species is an accidental European introduction, having reached our continent around 1950. It landed in Montreal and spread throughout the Northeast; until recently, the range map for this species only showed it in that area…and a curiously isolated population in Illinois.
That wasn’t really the case, however. They are all over NE Ohio and are actually quite common. I’ve recorded and photographed them in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, and Summit counties, and they are certainly in other nearby counties as well. Illinois naturalist Carl Strang (Forest Preserve District of DuPage County in the Chicago area) has now tracked these katydids from his area back to our NE Ohio katydids, so we now know that these populations are connected. (You can follow his singing insect research in his blog, “Nature Inquiries.” There is a link in my sidebar)
Roesel’s Katydid – Roeseliana roeselii - is a type of katydid called a “shieldback.” In the pictures below, you can see the “shield” behind its head.
We have native shieldbacks as well, but they are not as colorful and are less likely to be seen during the day. In fact, I see our native shieldbacks far less often. This is not because of competition from Roesel’s, however. Roesel’s Katydids are a late spring/early summer insect that does not seem to compete with our native katydids, and their time onstage is ending when our first native katydids begin to sing. The recording below is a Roesel’s Katydid singing with Spring Field Crickets at Springfield Bog in southeastern Summit County.
So how did they get here? Roesel’s Katydids have short wings that barely seem long enough to create songs, let alone fly anywhere.
But although most of them do indeed have short wings, there are also long-winged males and females that are capable of flying into new areas when the population gets a little crowded. Here is an example of a long-winged female.
Even short wings can generate those high-pitched songs. One wing has a file and the other a scraper, and they rub one wing against the other at an incomprehensible rate of speed. Their wings are a blur when they sing.
The most prominent frequencies in their buzzy, crackling songs is between 12 -19 kHz- higher than many older adults can hear – and my WAV file recordings show frequencies well about 20kHz (the threshold of human hearing. The mp3s I use for this blog actually cut off the top frequencies of the songs!
In my opinion, the nymphs of this species are adorably cute.
Actually, I think the adults are quite attractive as well. Katydids are gentle, harmless insects and will often be quite willing to sit on your hand.
They really have no defense other than escape and camouflage, but they blend astonishingly well with the plants in which they live. They eat plants – and they certainly seem to like grasses.
Good luck searching for these little singers. Our earliest native katydids will start singing any time now, so you only have a few more weeks to find Roesel’s Katydids!
