Tettigonia viridissima, the Great Green Bush-Cricket, is a species of 'katydids crickets' belonging to the family Tettigoniidae subfamily Tettigoniinae. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Katydid

My Home: I can be found on branches of trees or bushes in North America and other parts of the world. I am most active at night and sing in the evening. There are many species of katydids, commonly found throughout the southern part of the United States.

What I eat: I eat leaves, flowers, the stems,
and fruits of many plants and a few species
of katydids are predators and will eat other insects.

What I look like: I am usually green and range in size by species from 1 to 5 inches. My antennae are two or three times the length of my body.

How I am born: I go through three stages of
development: egg, nymph and adult. My egg is laid
in the fall on plants or in the soil and I hatch in the spring. Once I hatch as a nymph, I look like adults except without wings. I shed my skin (molt) to grow. As an adult I will have developed my wings. My lifespan is about one year from egg to the end of adulthood.

Fun Facts
Katydids get their name from how their
song sounds: "Katy did, Katy didn't." They rub their
wings together to produce their song sound, which serves as part of their courtship. Their ears tympana (hearing organs) are on their front legs.