Lost specimen returns (and promptly leaves)

deformed male

Today I caught the missing Scudderia mexicana deformed male! Previous attempts had been thwarted by the animal, which refused to eat my baits and positioned itself in a heavily tangled region where its songs bounced off the leaves (making it impossible to locate by ear).

I found it in a conspicuous position on a palm frond; there was another rose pruning today and this may have disabled its auditory camouflage. Fortunately, the species seems largely oblivious to danger unless touched/blown on and I easily caught and repositioned it to a shorter rose bush. It calmed down and resumed singing very soon after I left it alone with a pollen cluster.




Edit: after the sun set, I saw the katydid slowly approaching a nearby taller bush and then making an attempt to fly onto it. It landed near the tall bush's basal stem (too deformed to fly) but I failed to recapture it. Evidently the short bush is not suitable for some reason; perhaps the animal somehow senses that the foliage is insufficiently dense? I have also previously seen females feeding on the short bush's roses and then promptly fleeing after satiation.

I both win and lose the staring contest

The lethargic Scudderia mexicana  deformed male has vanished for the past several days. I still cannot find it and probably never will.




Assorted news:

I have discovered another "aphideating party" composed mostly of what appear to be adult Cycloneda sanguinea.

Phaneroptera nana lives in my area! I thought it was a small pure green Scudderia sp. until a Bugguide expert corrected me yesterday. Today I took some more pics of nana and have put them below. They are on the same bush as the coccinellids.

Unfortunately I will probably be unable to do any katydid or coccinellid posts for quite some time due to troublesome circumstances relating to the front yard.

Phaneroptera nana male

Same male

Nearby inseminated female

Same female (note spermatophore)

Staring contest continues

News:

Scudderia mexicana deformed-wing male (pictured above) is still doing fine. Yesterday the rosebushes were pruned and nearby resident female(s) have moved elsewhere. The male simply relocated itself to a taller bush next door.

Night walks have been unremarkable; surprisingly, the katydids seem very lethargic even in the darkest hours, although they do wave their antennae near-constantly once the sun sets. The deformed male often assumes an odd nighttime position in which it sits on a tall stem with head down and two front legs slightly in the air; perhaps this is a mate-searching behavior because scarabs have been known to use the same posture. I also did see a few small carabids (mostly Tanystoma maculicolle) and a pillbug with abnormally large yellow splotches, but the carabs failed to perform interesting behaviors.

No more coccinellid posts for a while; their aphids are all gone