Spine-headed Katydid - Nicsara spuria
Family TETTIGONIIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about the Spine-headed Katydids that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Female, body length 40mm
- The Spine-headed Katydids are active at night. They hide in their nest during the day. They are omnivorous, feeding on different kinds of flowers and fruits.
- Mid summer 2005 in Karawatha Forest, we were chasing a Common Pardillana nymph. It jumped and land on a bundle of leaves, looked like a nest or something. We knew there must be something inside. We changed our point of interest to this nest. We carefully opened it and found the Spine-headed Katydid nymph hiding inside.
- We took the nymph home, fed it with fresh gum leaves. Few days later, it did the final moulting and became an adult. From its long sword-like ovipositor we can tell it is a female. When it just came out from the last moulting, it was pale brown in colour. It body was still soft, had to wait for a few hours for its skin to became harden.
- Then the dark colour patterns also appeared on its body. The first thing the Katydid did after moulting was to eat its old shell.
- On Jan 2010 in the morning in Carbrook Wetland, this Spine-headed Katydid flied passed us from behind, landed and hided under plant materials on the forest floor.
- Male, body length 35mm
- Found this male resting on tree top during the day, Jan 2010 on Daisy Hills near Buhot Creek.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia - CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p382.
- 2. Grasshopper Country - the Abundant Orthopteroid Insects of Australia, D Rentz, UNSW Press, 1996, p96.
- 3. Nicsara sp. (bifasciata?) - Conocephalinae, Tettigoniidae, Insects of Townsville, Australia, by Graeme Cocks.
- 4. A Guide to the Katydids of Australia - David Rentz, CSIRO PUBLISHING, 2010, p94.
