December 12, 2022
A Year of Tree Cricket Blogging
JANUARY 31 – Tree Cricket Collage
I have this collage framed and hanging on a wall. It allows me to see images with special meaning to me every day.
It includes drawings in papers as far back as 1750, exquisite drawings in papers by BB Fulton and Thomas J Walker, photos I have taken, a photo taken of Raymond H. Beamer’s expedition in 1932, graphs and images from Oecanthinae articles, and journal covers.
This one is from 1884 – Howard Ayers drawings of the development of O niveus (would later be O. fultoni) and its parasite, Teleas. It was in the 3rd volume (#8) of Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History.
Dr. Bentley Ball Fulton’s 1915 paper:
Dr. Raymond H. Beamer expedition in New Mexico, 1932. Imagine the heat during this expedition…no air conditioning in that car! His specimens in the collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University eventually led to the description of Oecanthus beameri in 2022.
A waveform of the song I recorded of Oecanthus alexanderi – the first species for which I was a junior author on a description paper.
Dr. Laurel Symes (working on being a Dr. at the time) in a Tepejuage tree recording what would later be described as Oecanthus walkeri – the first paper I co-authored and was lead author. This was when I really became obsessed with tree crickets.
I included this photo to remind me of Natasha Mhatre, who along with Dr. Walker and Dr. Symes, has been so kind and complimentary to me. Even though I did not provide materials for this particular paper, this figure is so pretty I just had to include it. Changing resonator geometry to boost sound power decouples size and song frequency in a small insect (pnas.org)
Tomorrow: February will be a month of tree cricket anatomy
JANUARY 30 – Habitats and Host Plants
Where can tree crickets be found? They inhabit trees, shrubs, vines and plants…in plush vegetation or sparsely leafed vegetation…in desert landscape or on landscape plants…at moth-baited trees or porch lights…on native plants or invasive plants
So, pretty much you can find tree crickets just about anywhere!
JANUARY 29 – Keys to US tree crickets
Many years ago I came across an interesting key for snakes. It was circular and easy for me to use. I came up with a similar version for tree crickets, which seems to get busier as time passes, because there are several new species added. It may be near the end of its capacity….but I guess I shouldn’t complain about too many species 😉
Other keys can be found at:
https://orthsoc.org/sina/g576a.htm#nigricorniskey
https://orthsoc.org/sina/g576k.htm
https://jor.pensoft.net/article/62000/
JANUARY 28 – Maps
The first map gives a general estimation of the concentrations of currently known species of tree crickets in the continental US. I reviewed SINA, iNaturalist, BugGuide and my own encounters to estimate these totals. The other maps allow comparisons with number of species to the vegetation, elevation and low / high temperatures.
These totals of states where each species can be found were determined from reviewing SINA, iNaturalist, and BugGuide. The totals are not 100% accurate, but give one an idea of how likely it is to encounter each species.
You can view a table showing which species can be expected in each state here: Maps – TREE CRICKETS (oecanthinae.com)
JANUARY 27 – Worms & Flies
I have found both worms and fly pupae inside tree crickets. They develop an overall yellow color and the abdomen becomes abnormally distended.
Below is an adult female Oecanthus forbesi with a healthy appearance – the same female two weeks later – and the worm which had been growing in her abdomen. You can read more details here: Female Forbes’ tree cricket – Oecanthus forbesi – BugGuide.Net
The worm was found in an empty container where I had placed the dead tree cricket.
Here is an Oecanthus niveus nymph with a worm from its abdomen. I wish I had tried to see where the ‘mouth’ of the worm was attached.
The photo below shows the three pupae I found in containers where I had kept yellowed Oecanthus nymphs with abnormally large abdomens. I wasn’t certain if they had worms or flies inside, but knew their appearance was indicative of some type of parasite. Only adult females should have any abdomen distention. I eventually found both a pupa and the dead tree cricket with a shriveled abdomen on the bottom of the container.
They are Stylogaster (Diptera) pupae. The adult female fly’s eggs apparently have a very sharp end which is jabbed into the tree cricket. For more info on Stylogaster: Genus Stylogaster – BugGuide.Net
Here is an excellent article about Stylogaster neglecta and Oecanthus nigricornis:
I would like to see how these flies develop – up until when are they larvae? and when does this pupal case develop? A literature search for the future since I have 337 more blog entries to create!
JANUARY 26 – Thrips and Fairyflies
A critter/s I less commonly find inside stems is/are thrips. 😉 Apparently, only some species are winged. Some species are predaceous on mites and small insects…I do not know if any species would consume the liquid inside developing tree cricket eggs.
For more photos of this adult tube-tailed thrip: Thrips found inside Canada Goldenrod stem – BugGuide.Net
Only once have I found the carcass of a fairyfly in a stem with oviposited tree cricket eggs. From what I read online, while they do parasitize eggs of other insects, the eggs of orthoptera do not seem to be a common host.
Apparently this is a very understudied insect, so I will not attempt to offer information. Here are some links to information:
Family Mymaridae – Fairy Wasps – BugGuide.Net
According to Wikipedia: Despite their relative abundance, fairyflies are unpopular among modern insect collectors because of the great difficulty in collecting them. As one of the least known insect families, a large amount of information is still waiting to be discovered about fairyflies. This is an area of entomology where an amateur naturalist can still make significant contributions.
JANUARY 25 – Mites in or near tree cricket egg cases
All I know about mites is that I often find them inside dead plant stems or in harvested shrub and tree branches with tree cricket oviposition marks. I imagine that they can also be found in stems or branches without tree cricket holes. My guess is that these photos and video are probably showing mites taking advantage of available real estate, but I’m not qualified to say whether they contributed to emptying these egg cases. There are some species of mites that eat fungi, which I commonly see on degraded eggs.
Occasionally, photos are submitted to iNaturalist and BugGuide of tree crickets with mites attached: Two-spotted Tree Cricket (Neoxabea bipunctata) from 1617 Eden Mill Rd, Pylesville, MD 21132, USA on August 10, 2016 at 09:08 AM by richard crook · iNaturalist
Mites have fed upon living Orthopterans for millions of years. (PDF) A Carboniferous Mite on an Insect Reveals the Antiquity of an Inconspicuous Interaction (researchgate.net)
JANUARY 24 – Parasitic wasps and paralyzing wasps
Every winter that I have opened old stems, I have found at least one parasitic wasp. They are almost always still inside the tree cricket egg case, and are dry and brittle. All have appeared to be fully developed. I also find empty, brown-tinted egg cases which I believe once held wasps which managed to emerge.
Thus far I have only found Oethecoctonus oecanthi (superfamily Platygastroidea, family Scelionidae)– a known parasitic wasp of Oecanthus. In May 2021, from a goldenrod stem I collected from along the Mississippi River in NE Iowa, a tiny wasp emerged (3.5mm). I hoped it was O. oecanthi, but it was too small for me to get good photos of the live wasp, and it managed to escape its enclosure before I could attempt more photos. However, note the antennae. O. oecanthi has club-shaped antennae, and this small wasp did not. Additionally, I cannot confirm it came from an Oecanthus egg — only that it emerged from one of the stems I had collected and kept indoors.
I have managed to find tiny wasps outdoors, but they are all too tiny for me to be able to examine or photograph well. I am certainly not a wasp expert, so I would not be able to identify them. I am still hopeful that one day I will encounter a tiny wasp actively ovipositing into an oviposition site of Oecanthus. Although I do not know whether this is Oethecoctonus ocanthi, the video shows how a very tiny wasp can manage to get one of its own eggs into an Oecanthinae egg inserted beyond 4mm deep in a stem.
Another documented parasitic wasp that invades tree crickets is in the genus teleas (superfamily Platygastroidea, family Scelionidae). The drawings below are from Ayers (1884) On the Development of Oecanthus niveus and its Parasite teleas. Note: I cannot guarantee I have the wasp taxonomy correct. 😉
The egg on the right appears to have a wasp embryo inside…it is not a tree cricket embryo.
Fig 1. An egg of Oecanthus with the three stages of teleas in situ.
Another problematic wasp for tree crickets are ‘grass-carrying’ Isodontia. They somehow paralyze the tree crickets (as well as other Orthopterans), and leave them in their nest for their larvae offspring to feed upon. Below are two species: Isodontia elegans (with a Two-spotted tree cricket nymph) and Isodontia mexicana (which emerged from a cocoon found in the grass nest above a crank-open window.) The Snowy tree cricket nymph was with six katydids in that nest.
JANUARY 23 – Opening old stems
These stems were opened following the season during which they should have emerged. I find eggs or empty cases in various states. Some look degraded, some are empty, and some appear to never have developed—perhaps they were never fertilized.
What is interesting is that often there will be a line of eggs, many of which successfully hatched, but a few will look plump with fluid. In a continuous line as shown below, one might assume it was the same female ovipositing that area and that she moved to each subsequent hole. Perhps the eggs that appear to never have been fertilized could be from a female who oviposited before receiving a spermatophore, and then went back and filled in the spaces with eggs after mating and receiving sperm. Or it could be the work of more than one female, one of which never mated….or I could be completely wrong!
Seeing the minimal amount of plant matter surrounding the eggs above, makes the fact that these eggs made it through sub-freezing temperatures the previous winter even more amazing.
Below you can see how discolored and dried these eggs are, even on those that have evidence of an embryo inside (dark eyes).
The most disturbing finds inside stems are fully developed nymphs freed from their egg case that for some reason were never able to exit the stem.
There should have been some wriggling visible. I opened the stem and it revealed the nymph was free of the egg, but for some reason could not get completely out of the stem.
Here is one that never managed to get through the hole.
There are a number of other things encountered after opening old stems…including eggs of other critters and what I assume are fungi.
In the following days, I will cover other critters found inside these stems, including mites, thrips and wasps.
JANUARY 22 – Early nymphs
In my experience, 95% of the time the nymphs emerge from stems between 4-6 a.m. That is from stems I have harvested and kept indoors when the days of emergence seem near. I imagine coming out when there is less daylight, when the night roamers would be thinking about retiring for the day, and the day roamers have not yet come out full force is a good idea, as they are very vulnerable as they go through the process of emerging from the stem.
They are only 3-4mm when they first emerge.
It is amazing how these tiny creatures, free to move for the first time, can scamper so quickly !
This little nymph has emerged from a stem, and within minutes is scampering around.
This little nymph is only 10 minutes old, and seems to be learning what he can do with his antennae.
Here is another very young nymph (1st instar) nibbling on a clump of aphids.
Very young nymphs have translucent bodies and rounded heads.
My current plan is to cover anatomy in February, and a species a day in March.
Tomorrow: Opening stems
JANUARY 21 – Caput Fluidum
I have not seen that term used for tree cricket nymphs’ watery bump on the top of the head for the first 45 minutes of life…but it seems like one that fits the appearance. Fulton (1915, pg. 9) called it a ‘prominent watery bump on the head’ – https://orthsoc.org/sina/s576lf15.pdf
You can see the eye on the opposite side of the head through the clear fluid in the bump.
Although not ideal photos, below shows the gradual reabsorption of the fluid – with a prominent bump within 1 minute of emergence, then after 15 minutes, 30 minutes and finally no fluid at all after 45 minutes. Perhaps someday someone will do an indepth study of this phenomenon, and deem it caput fluidum !
It reminds me of the caput succedaneum seen on human infants – caused by prolonged pressure against the head as it emerges. I am not sure if orthopterans that emerge from soft soil also have this bump. If not, perhaps the fluid is a protective phenomena ?
Tomorrow: Early nymphs
JANUARY 20 – Hatching
The first time I opened a stem, very early in my study of tree crickets, I mistakenly thought it was too late in the summer and would no longer have viable eggs inside. While examining an area where holes were evident on a stem, I remember thinking, ‘Ugh…maggots’. One small yellowish maggot was writhing. It took me a couple minutes to realize it was a hatching tree cricket nymph!
I wasn’t entirely wrong about no longer having viable eggs. There were several unfertilized eggs and empty channels where other nymphs had already emerged. Note the somewhat pointed shape of the head on the emerging nymph.
Below is a drawing from Fulton’s 1915 paper. It amazes me that he managed to capture the process so well considering macrophotography in the early 1900’s was certainly not what it is today. Perhaps he had a photographic memory.
These videos show an emerging nymph early in the process, and a nymph tugging to free himself at the end of the process. They don’t just pop out.
JANUARY 19 – Eggs
Tree cricket eggs are 3-4mm in length, and only 0.5mm wide. How these tiny units survive many, many freezing days and nights in the northern US boggles the mind.
Spacing of eggs in a very slender stem.
Spacing of eggs in a slightly wider stem.
The top / head end of the eggs have a white or brownish matter with a lattice-like pattern. The tips do appear to have slightly different shapes based on the Oecanthus species group or genus. I believe these eggs below are: Oecanthus californicus, Oecanthus pini, Oecanthus niveus, Oecanthus forbesi, Oecanthus quadripunctatus, Oecanthus walkeri and Neoxabea bipunctata. The last photo is a closeup of the intricate pattern of a cap.
This egg came from a stem that was found lying in water from a winter thaw. I tried keeping it slightly moist, but it slowly shrunk and a nymph never emerged. You can see the eye inside the egg case.
These photos show the entire egg of Oecanthus bakeri and Neoxabea bipunctata.
JANUARY 18 – Diapause
This is a topic of which I admittedly have a poor understanding. I think I will cover all my lack of deep knowledge topics for a later month (and thus most of you will forget I ever mentioned them 😉 ), and for now I will give a simple overview.
Definition: a period of suspended development in an insect, other invertebrate, or mammal embryo, especially during unfavorable environmental conditions.
Even I can certainly grasp that tree cricket eggs in areas with very cold winters must go through diapause in order to survive to the next season. In northern areas of North America, these tiny eggs miraculously survive subzero temperatures December through March.
This article includes good information on diapause: https://orthsoc.org/sina/k340lm87.pdf
Here are other sources for information on diapause:
(PDF) Insect Diapause: A Review (researchgate.net) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322701317_Insect_Diapause_A_Review
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eea.12753
Dr. David Denlinger seems to be an expert on diapause: Denlinger DL – Search Results – PubMed (nih.gov)
Tomorrow: Eggs
JANUARY 17 – Stems
In cold, snowy Wisconsin, the only tree cricket activity available to me during the winter months is to search for oviposited stems. Bentley B Fulton’s 1915 article does an excellent job of showing the oviposition patterns for the different species groups. https://orthsoc.org/sina/s576lf15.pdf
These photos (taken in SE Wisconsin) show a recently oviposited stem in late summer; a twig that went through the winter, which was oviposited the previous season awaiting emergence of nymphs in early summer; and a stem in late autumn showing the openings where nymphs emerged in early summer.
Oviposition marks are found in a variety of patterns and on a large number of host plants, shrubs and trees.
More details about oviposition pattern for each species will be covered in another month.
JANUARY 16 – Oviposition – Ensuring the Next Generation
Females have ovipositors that are capable of drilling through bark and creating channels in the soft pith of plant stems and the softest areas of twigs or branches on trees.
From Bentley B Fulton’s 1915 paper.
Drawing above is an ovipositing tree cricket drawn by BB Fulton in 1915.
Photo below is Oecanthus forbesi in Wisconsin – 100 yrs later.
Plugging up hole after ovipositing
JANUARY 15 – Collections
A dream job for me would have been to visit every insect collection in the world to examine their Oecanthinae specimens 😉 I should add, however, that examining tree cricket specimens is stressful because they are extremely fragile. It is not uncommon to find an unattached limb or two in a box. Sadly, over time they lose their beautiful coloring.
University of Wisconsin – Madison Insect Research Collection
Bishop Museum Entomology Collection Honolulu
Florida State Collection of Arthropods – Gainesville
California Academy of Sciences – San Francisco
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University – Philadelphia
Cornell University Insect Collection – Ithaca NY
There are many unidentified species in boxes. Antennal markings can be very useful in some species, but many can have similar or no markings, and without their original colors it is very difficult if not impossible to identify them. Even specimens in alcohol lose their coloring. Below is an ANSDU vial.
JANUARY 14 – Journal of Orthoptera Research & The Orthopterists’ Society
The Orthopterists’ Society has over 300 members from 60 countries across 6 continents, and publishes a newsletter, Metaleptea, and the Journal of Orthoptera Research (JOR).
JOR is dedicated to articles about Orthoptera – which is basically Grasshoppers, Locusts, Katydids and Crickets…and also occasionally includes closely related insects such as Mantids, Cockroaches, Walking Sticks and others.
One of the great joys of my life was having a photograph of mine on the cover for the issue which included the description of Oecanthus walkeri, a new species found in Texas and named after my mentor, Thomas J. Walker. Oecanthus walkeri: A New Species of Tree Cricket from Texas (bioone.org)
One of the best things about JOR is that accessing it is completely free online…anyone can check out the articles. Older articles can be found at the BioOne site: Journal of Orthoptera Research publishes on the behavior, cytology, and ecology of the insect Order Orthoptera and relatives. (bioone.org)
They changed to Pensoft publishing in 2016/17. https://jor.pensoft.net/
I hope to co-author two more description papers as lead author. There is one new species in Honduras and one, possibly two, more new species in Mexico that I have already put into motion as far as getting them described, with drafts written. We are awaiting song recordings for the Neoxabea in Honduras, and DNA results for the Oecanthus in Mexico. My last goal is to get a species named after Margaret W. Brooks, a female entomologist from the late 1800’s…so I guess that means authoring one more last paper. 😊
Membership in the Orthopterists’ Society comes with the awesome benefit of getting papers published in JOR at no cost to the author. As a citizen scientist, this has been immensely helpful.
JANUARY 13 – Orthoptera Species File – World Database of Orthoptera
The Orthoptera Species File (OSF) describes itself as ‘a website and a database created specifically to provide a source of taxonomic information for researchers and others working on Orthoptera’. It contains an immense number of links to supporting documentation for each species, literature citations, keys, images and other data.
subfamily Oecanthinae Blanchard, 1845: Orthoptera Species File
http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1128056
I am honored to have my website mentioned under the subfamily of Oecanthinae.
Images and song recordings are included for many species of tree cricket.
OSF is also an excellent source for old papers and species descriptions.
They do an awesome job of keeping taxon placements up to date – with new species and moving of genera based on results from DNA projects. There’s a big project taking place at Texas A&M University, for which I have provided many tree cricket specimens. Fingers are crossed that most of those specimens were in good enough shape for processing, and that not too many of those I have co-described end up as synonyms !
JANUARY 12 – iNaturalist.org – A World Database of All Living Things
iNaturalist includes photos and recordings of tree crickets from around the world. The website is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
This is a great site for finding unusual or undescribed species. I personally have co-described three new species of tree crickets in Mexico, which underwent the necessary investigations by the people who had posted the photos on iNaturalist. We corresponded via internet to make sure all the necessary measurements, photographs and recordings were obtained.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19793312
I concentrate on trying to ID Oecanthus and Neoxabea, and dabble in Xabea from Australia. There are many photos of Oecanthus and Neoxabea from South America that I wish could be ID’d to species…perhaps one day an avid Oecanthinist from that area will pop up.
To give you an idea of how vast a resource iNaturalist is, as of January 2023 there are over 26,000 observations of Oecanthinae from around the world. Since these photos are for only 79 species, it indicates that many more observations (or identifications) are needed to match the many hundreds of known species. There are thousands of photos stuck in subfamily and genus. Tree crickets can be difficult to ID by photos…especially when it it a single view without a clear view of the necessary characters.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=148912&view=species
JANUARY 11th – BugGuide.net’s Value in Tree Cricketing
BugGuide is a great online resource (created by Troy Bartlett in 2004 and currently hosted by Iowa State University), for photographs and locations of tree crickets within the continental US and Canada. As stated on their homepage: Our Mission Using the best resources we have access to, we are creating a knowledgebase to help each other and the online community.
There are currently close to 4,000 photos of tree crickets on BugGuide: Subfamily Oecanthinae – Tree Crickets – BugGuide.Net
They try to have a gathering every summer in a different location. Some past gatherings took place in Wisconsin, Tennessee, Iowa, New Mexico, Virginia and Louisiana. One of the best tree cricket teaching moments occurred in Tennessee.
Musical Male Tree Cricket, Gathering_2008 – Neoxabea bipunctata – BugGuide.Net
I appreciate being able to see my postings back to the beginning of my tree cricket journey. Here they are in descending order: BugGuide Advanced Search
Although identifying tree crickets from photographs is not 100% accurate, having maps of locations and dates when tree crickets are found there is valuable data. As climate changes over the years, it will be interesting to see how future tree cricket data compares to years past.
While tree crickets chose me (January 1st Blog Entry), I imagine it would be fairly easy for any citizen scientist to find another relatively small family, subfamily or genus of insects in an area by looking through the taxonomy tab on BugGuide, and then peruse online sources to see how well studied they are.
Hint: Ateloplus seems like a good candidate
JANUARY 10 – Dr. Thomas J. Walker and the Singing Insects of North America (SINA) website
Just as Fulton’s paper is my bible, Walker’s website is my database. Dr. Thomas J. Walker co-founded the Singing Insects of North America (SINA) website – which contains copious amounts of data for many species of Orthoptera, including numerous papers focused on tree crickets. Singing Insects of North America (SINA) (orthsoc.org)
I am truly honored to have my website mentioned on SINA.
Subfamily Oecanthinae
To view distribution maps and photographs and hear the songs of North American tree crickets, go to the list of species and access the species pages, which are under development.
For keys to species see Walker 1962 and Walker 1963.
For a beautifully illustrated, informative website devoted to Oecanthinae, go to http://www.oecanthinae.com/. This site, created by Nancy Collins (an energetic oecanthine enthusiast), is organized into more than 20 sections and has impressive still photos and videos.
References
Allard HA. 1930a. The chirping rates of the snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus niveus) as affected by external conditions. Can. Entomol. 62: 131-142. [=Oecanthus fultoni]
Allard HA. 1930b. Changing the chirp-rate of the snowy tree cricket Oecanthus niveus with air currents. Science 72: 347-349. [=Oecanthus fultoni]
Bell PD. 1979. Rearing the black horned tree cricket, Oecanthus nigricornis (Orthoptera Gryllidae). Can. Entomol. 111: 709-712.
Bell PD. 1980. Multimodal communication by the black-horned tree cricket, Oecanthus nigricornis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Can. J. Zool. 58: 1861-1868.
Blatchley WS. 1920. Orthoptera of northeastern America. Indianapolis, IN: Nature Publishing. 784 p. Oecanthinae (pp. 709-727). (The introductory pages to Blatchley’s book are accessible on SINA’s references page.)
Block BC. 1966. The relation of temperature to the chirp-rate of male snowy tree cricket, Oecanthus fultoni (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 59: 56-59.
Brown WD, Wideman J, Andrade MCB, Mason AC, Gwynne DT. 1996. Female choice for an indicator of male size in the song of the black-horned tree cricket, Oecanthus nigricornis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae). Evolution 50: 2400-2411.
Brown WD. 1997. Courtship feeding in tree crickets increases insemination and female reproductive life span. Anim. Behav. 54: 1369-1382. [Oecanthus nigricornis]
Brown WD. 1997. Female remating and the intensity of female choice in black-horned tree crickets, Oecanthus nigricornis. Behav. Ecol. 8: 66-74.
Brown WD, Kuns MM. 2000. Female choice and the consistency of courtship feeding in black-horned tree crickets Oecanthus nigricornis Walker (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae). Ethology 106: 543-557.
Collins N. 2010-date. Oecanthinae – tree crickets. A website devoted to all aspects of the biology of oecanthines with an emphasis on Oecanthus and Neoxabea, by a dedicated naturalist and profusely illustrated with photographs and videos.
Fulton BB. 1915. The tree crickets of New York: life history and bionomics. N. Y. Agric. Exp. Sta. Tech. Bul.l 42: 3-47.
Dr. Walker is the reason I began my journey into studying tree crickets. Despite my lack of scientific training, other than nursing of humans, he must have recognized my obsessive tendency 😉, and suspected I would be a good candidate for making observations and gathering data for the small number of US species of this subfamily of insects. Neither of us had any idea how far my obsession would grow. (I wasn’t, however, as obsessed with taking successful selfies.)
He spent the majority of his career at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Dr. Walker was involved with many research projects (online free access to journals, butterfly migration, Natural Area Teaching Laboratory), but also wrote many important tree cricket taxonomy papers. UFDC Home – Entomological Research of T.J. Walker (ufl.edu) After retiring, he remained on as a Professor Emeritus for many years. Thomas J. Walker (orthsoc.org)
It was his including me as a co-author on the description of Oecanthus alexanderi that led to my co-authoring other description papers. He convinced me I would be able to write them. s576lwc10.pdf (orthsoc.org)
My obsession led to numerous field excursions and the description of five new species in Nicaragua with Dr. Eric van den Berghe; two new species in Texas with Dr. Laurel B. Symes; three new species in Mexico with Isabel Margarita Coronado González, Bruno Victor Alfons Govaerts, Dr. Aurora Y. Rocha-Sánchez, Wilbur Hershberger and Dr. Carlos Gerardo Velazco-Macias; one new species in California (found by Ken R. Schneider); and one new species in New Mexico with Dr. David C. Lightfoot.
None of this would have been possible without the mentorship and kindness of Dr. Thomas J. Walker.
Metaleptea_37_1.pdf (orthsoc.org)
JANUARY 9 – Dr. Bentley Ball Fulton – and My Tree Cricket Bible
I want to pay homage to Dr. Bentley Ball Fulton, an entomologist who specialized in Orthoptera (i.e. crickets and katydids). I consider his 1915 paper, The tree crickets of New York: Life histories and bionomics, my tree cricket bible. His investigations were so in depth he described the chirping song of Snowy tree cricket as ‘a series of clear, rhythmically repeated whistles with a pitch about C, two octaves above middle C’.
Bentley Ball Fulton (1889-1960) – siris_arc_382990|Smithsonian Institution Archives
His drawings are scientifically intricate and aesthetically beautiful, and include eggs inserted in stems, embryos emerging as nymphs, body systems and parts down to the cellular level, full body views of adults and nymphs, abdomen patterns, wing development and a pair mating at night. https://orthsoc.org/sina/s576lf15.pdf
It was his many drawings of oviposited stems that taught me how to search for eggs.
All of his drawings are so precise, and the capture of the intricate design of the caps of eggs is amazing.
JANUARY 8 – Tree Crickets Through the Microscope
I clearly remember the first time I looked at a tree cricket through a microscope at the Insect Research Collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was astonished that a very old specimen would have such clear black markings on the base of the antennae, and matched what I had been seeing on the SINA website: snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni) (orthsoc.org)
Here are a few other photos taken that day, early in my journey of studying tree crickets. These are Forbes’, Pine, and Narrow-winged tree cricket antennal markings.
On a later trip to the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (Gainesville), I found other characters that look amazing through the microscope, like corrugations on a male’s wings, the elevated projections on the abdomen of the Two-spotted tree cricket male, and intricate details of males’ metanotal glands (In February we will concentrate on anatomy.)
I will add here that examining old tree cricket specimens is difficult as they are very dry and brittle. One minor bump and a leg can easily come off. It’s fairly common to find a loose limb or two in boxes with pinned tree cricket specimens.
Because tree crickets get so dry and brittle when pinned, it’s not just legs that fall off. The holotype (main specimen used to describe a new species) for Oecanthus marcosensis (Baker 1905) at the Smithsonian Institution (U.S. National Entomological Collection) is missing its head – a vital part for making tree cricket ID’s. This species was demoted to a synonym in 1932. In 2010, we found tree crickets matching Baker’s description near the location where he had found O. marcosensis and named them O. bakeri, because without the head, we couldn’t prove or disprove they were the same tree crickets.
They also lose their nice green colors – to the point that all species eventually look brown or tan. Some darker areas do remain, but reds turn brownish, while orange and yellow disappears.
JANUARY 7 – Often Heard But Rarely Known
Tree crickets are often heard, but rarely known. My mission is to change that. I want tree crickets to be as easily recognizable as butterflies and lady bugs!
Since tree crickets in the US occur in so many habitats, most people have likely heard one – without realizing what it is. I have even heard them on landscape plants in the middle of large parking lots. Even if folks have legitimately not heard one outdoors, chances are they have heard one on TV or in movies. The chirping songs of the Snowy and Riley’s tree crickets are often heard in the background in US films and TV shows to depict a warm summer evening.
To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).mp4 – Bing video Best heard at 30:45
Rawhide i.e. 1951 Rawhide (1951) Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward – directed by Henry Hathaway – Bing video Best heard starting around 48 minutes
Next time you hear one outdoors, teach anyone nearby what it is….please 😉
Below: Snowy tree cricket male singing on a potted Geranium plant
Below: Narrow-winged tree cricket male singing on a potted Coleus plant
Below: Pine tree cricket male singing on a White pine tree.
JANUARY 6 – An Obsession is Born
These two individuals were captured in 2008. I kept them indoors to study them further. It was then I began to understand more about the male’s song and the female’s ovipositing process. By recording the song, Dr. Thomas J. Walker (my soon to be mentor) confirmed that these were Forbes’, and not Black-horned. Although they can look identical, Forbes’ sings faster than Black-horned…and is most easily ID’d at high temperatures. Dr. Walker determined that my recordings of males singing in close to 90F temperatures revealed a very fast rate – above 80 pulses per second. (Which means the wings were moving back and forth/opening closing 80 times per second!…the same as the fastest hummingbird wing flap speed.) Black-horned would have had a rate of 68-72 pulses per second. Both of these species can range in color from mostly black on the head, pronotum and limbs, to mostly green. The individuals I was finding in SE Wisconsin and NE Illinois tended to have yellowish heads.
Knowing that I had been able to provide an entomologist with scientific information was mind-blowing, and an obsession was born.
To give you an idea of how obsessed I was, while at this beautiful tropical resort on the Pacific coast in Nicaragua, the most exciting moment was hearing this:
JANUARY 5 – More of My Early Encounters
This is the second tree cricket I found after learning about my patio tree cricket a year earlier (Blog #1). From what I could find online back then, and seeing those black antennae, I assumed it was a Black-horned tree cricket – but I was wrong. (More about that in a later blog.)
This is the third tree cricket I found near my apartment complex (in 2007). It was singing during daytime, but the yew shrub was so thick and he was camouflaged so well that it took me about 30 minutes to find him! Look how he has his rust-colored head against the rust-colored limb, and his green body and wings up against the green needles.
That second season, I spotted a female tree cricket (Narrow-winged vs Snowy) on the ceiling at the entrance to my workplace. I was elated, but surprisingly, none of my co-workers shared my enthusiasm. 😀
By the end of 2008, I had found a total of seven species: Two-spotted, Forbes’, Pine, Snowy, Narrow-winged, Four-spotted and Davis’…adults and nymphs (young).
I found tiny nymphs of Two-spotted and Narrow-winged on a VERY windy day. They had been knocked off leaves in an apple tree, and were climbing back up the tree. In subsequent years, I have learned to look for nymphs after VERY windy events. One year, in Janesville WI, my family helped me find 19 nymphs of Neoxabea bipunctata on the ground after a storm with EXTREMELY high winds.
Two-spotted (Neoxabea bipunctata)
Narrow-winged (Oecanthus niveus)
With no background in insects other than raising monarchs and cecropias as a child, my 50 yr-old eyes and mind were just being opened to the wonders all around. I also quickly realized I needed a decent camera!
JANUARY 4 – Oldest Known Tree Cricket Specimens in Amber
In 2022, an article described two new genera and species of tree crickets found in amber from Myanmar, from the mid-Cretaceous period (80 to 115 million years ago).)They are the oldest representatives of tree crickets, a truly remarkable scientific discovery. Insects | Free Full-Text | The Oldest Representatives of Tree Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae; Oecanthinae) from Northern Myanmar (mdpi.com)
NOTE: Despite the important contributions to science, debates continue regarding obtaining amber from Myanmar after 2017, when the military took control of the mines, as the mines are felt to be responsible for many human rights violations and funding its civil war. See this article for more pros and cons: Ethics, law, and politics in palaeontological research: The case of Myanmar amber | Communications Biology (nature.com)
Here is a little information about amber. Amber is fossilized tree resins. I suspect most of us have seen the dripping of resin from trees, such as conifers. Here is a photo I took of a hanging glob of resin from a tree in south Texas, with insect eggs on it.
This is a tiny spider beetle stuck on a leaf on the ground covered with pine sap. I managed to free him, but his hind legs would not move and he died two days later. It shows how easily insects were trapped on amber thousands of years ago.
Food for Thought: Cretaceogekko burmae is a prehistoric gecko known from a foot and partial tail preserved in amber 97 to 110 million years ago in Myanmar. These geckos could have been a predator of the two tree cricket species described in the above article: Birmanioecanthus haplostichus and Apiculatus cretaceus
JANUARY 3 – First Official Description of a Tree Cricket
Johannis Antonii Scopoli was the first person to describe a tree cricket in 1763. It was named Gryllus pellucens, and would later be changed to Oecanthus pellucens. (This is likely the species Salvi drew in 1750 – see Blog entry #2.) Entomologica Carniolica exhibens insecta Carnioliae indigena et distributa in ordines, genera, species, varietates methodo Linnaeana – Biodiversity Heritage Library (biodiversitylibrary.org)
New species of tree crickets continue to be described each year…there were two new species of Oecanthus in 2022 – one from the U.S. and one from Brazil.
It’s interesting to compare Scopoli’s 1763 description of a new species with Zefa’s 2022 paper. I admit that many modern scientific papers are beyond my ability to fully understand. My equipment is basic (My First Lab microscope) vs Zefa’s sophisticated lab equipment (Discovery V20 Zeiss stereomicroscope, equipped with Ax-ioVision system), and DNA is completely over my head. Therefore, the end of my days of being the lead author for describing new species is probably overdue, but hopefully younger folks will continue to find and describe new species. It would be sad for tree cricket species to become extinct without documenting and honoring them.
In the words of Carl Linnaeus, who formalized the naming of organisms: The first step in wisdom is to know the things themselves; this notion consists in having a true idea of the objects; objects are distinguished and known by classifying them methodically and giving them appropriate names. Therefore, classification and name-giving will be the foundation of our science.
JANUARY 2 – An Encounter 273 Years Ago
Here are the first known drawings of tree crickets. Lodovico Salvi, an Italian philosopher, drew an adult male, an adult female and a stem with eggs inside.
This was published in 1750, and the first tree cricket was not described until 1763. If you can read Italian, you can find the article here:
I wanted Lodovico Salvi to get the credit he deserves, so I named a new species found by Ken Schneider in 2019 Oecanthus salvii (Sage tree cricket). Oecanthus salvii sp. nov. (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae): A new tree cricket species from Modoc County in northeast California (orthsoc.org)
I must admit it is gratifying to ‘have the glorious privilege’ of having my name inscribed in the ‘deathless roll of zoology’ [The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]. Over 270 years from now, perhaps someone will be reading my name in association with tree crickets.
JANUARY 1 – The First Encounter
I suspect I am the most avid amateur investigator of tree crickets (Oecanthinae) in the Western Hemisphere. I am a citizen scientist / amateur entomologist, but I call myself a citizen oecanthinist. I was 50 yrs old when I encountered my first tree cricket in 2006 – a male Two-spotted tree cricket (Neoxabea bipunctata). I am literally the accidental oecanthinist. You can read the story here: Wisconsin Oecanthinancy – BugGuide.Net
