by Carl Strang
October’s cold gradually is silencing another year’s array of singing insects. In recent weeks I have made some final trips to squeeze just a little more data out of the season.
In early September I succeeded in catching an Autumn yellow-winged grasshopper with actual yellow wings (most of them in the region have had red-orange hind wings).
On October 5 I made a final trip up to Illinois Beach State Park, and found some stripe-faced meadow katydids still singing.
By then, of course, they had developed their full color.
I was able to complete a photo series on the species with some cerci shots.
On October 11 I returned to Gar Creek Forest Preserve in Kankakee County and made more recordings. I did not find any more Cuban ground crickets crossing the trail, but was surprised by several variegated ground crickets doing so.
I had never before seen a variegated ground cricket, like this male, wandering in the open.
This female has an interesting pattern of pale dashes on her wings.
It’s reasonable to assume that they walk about at night for most of the season, but like many singing insects extend their usual nighttime activity into the day as temperatures cool. I was glad to get the visual confirmation that this species is at the site along with the (probable) Cubans.
Probably my last singing insect photo series for 2016 was of this spotted ground cricket at St. James Farm on October 18.
