While visiting a friends house in the country, I came upon something most unusual. This wasn't an ordinary country house mind you. It had a fancy fridge big enough to step into, a stove as smooth as glass, a flat screen TV in every room, a large and shiny BBQ on the porch and an inviting Jacuzzi bubbling outside! I spent a great deal of time opening and closing the screen doors to keep the moths outside that fluttered excitedly just by the porch light! Just then, something flew in and whizzed by my ear! I followed it into the kitchen where it made a rest stop on the counter! Hurriedly I grabbed my camera, and took a few pictures and it wasn't shy either. The closer I got the more it looked to me like a flying leaf? A quick discovery led me to beleaf ..sorry believe that it was a "Katydid" .. a funny name, but the stick insect gets the name from the mating sound that it makes when it rubs or scrapes its two front wings together. But I really don't think it sounds like its saying "Katy-did"?? :) Maybe you can come up with something different! But in the meantime, this is the name it has. A Katydid can grow up to 64 mm long. It has 4 wings and when he or she sits down, they fold nicely. You can usually find them eating leaves in the trees and since this house is surrounded by trees and shrubs, it would make sense to see them around here. Just like the 'cicada' the female Katydid lays her eggs in crevices of twigs, and bark and then in the spring the eggs hatch a nymph which will molt and shed its covering until it becomes an adult in the summer! As for the 'Katydid' on the kitchen counter? I gave him or her a piece of lettuce from the fridge and as it stepped onto the pad of paper, I leafed it alone to see another day...
