Katydid Gallery

Adult Katydids

No Rules

I found this katydid on a rose bush beside our house, devouring a spent rose blossom. After taking some more traditional pictures from the side, I moved around in front and was delighted at what I saw. The rose petal it was eating was nearly vertical and by positioning myself just right, I could split the katydid down the middle with an eye on either side of the petal. The petal mostly obscures the katydid's formidable mandibles, giving it a less threatening look.

One of the things you learn as a young photographer is a few simple rules to improve your images, things like not putting your image dead center and instead following the rule of thirds. Things like never shooting macros handheld.

As you grow as a photographer, you learn that the rules are not rules but suggestions and the key is to know when to break the rules. This rule-breaking macro is one of my favorite images.

A Sign

I’ve adopted a live-and-let-live policy towards the katydids in our yard. Unlike the swarms of little aphids, there aren’t very many of them and they don’t do much damage, so I tolerate a few chewed up plants in exchange for a few pictures. It’s actually more than a live-and-let-live policy, as when I trim the roses I try to make sure that any katydids on the cut stems make it safely back to the main plant before the stems go in the yard waste bin. The fact that I go to any effort to save the lives of some of my garden pests is probably a sign that I need to see a therapist.

This adult preferred the gladiolus over the roses, you can see a hole in the stem that it has gouged out. The flowers were already spent so it wasn’t really hurting anything.

A More Worrisome Sign

We’ve had two adult katydids this year, both of which are hanging around the side of the house where there are a handful of rose bushes and a few stray gladiolus (at least I think that’s what they are). This one prefers the gladiolus and is usually close enough to photograph, while the other prefers a particular rose bush where it is often nearly out of sight and too far away for pictures.

Given this, I’ve named them Katydid and Katydidn’t.

Perhaps an even more worrisome sign than saving the lives of your garden pests is giving them nicknames.

Immature Katydids

Empathy Is A Dangerous Thing

One unexpected consequence of photographing the bugs of your yard is that you realize how splendid some of these creatures really are, such as this immature katydid. All of the details too small for the human eye are shown in their glory in the macro photograph.

Suddenly they are no longer an unseen pest wreaking havoc on the flowers of the garden, or even unseen predators of those pests. They will all suffer equally at the hands of a general-purpose insecticide. Empathy is a dangerous thing — something politicians and religious leaders have known for millenia — and while I've never been a big believer in widespread use of insecticides in my gardens, I'm even more hesitant to use it now.

Perhaps too much so by the look of some of the plants ...

Immature katydid standing on rose petals

Mountaintop

This immature katydid was exploring one of our rose bushes, the gentle curves of the rose petals reminded me of standing atop the rolling hills of the southeast.

Immature katydid standing in a rose blossom

Immature katydid cleans its hands while standing on rose petals