Silverware Thief

There is that saying, “Stop and smell the roses,” but even if some of us do slow down and enjoy the flowers occasionally, how many of us stop to notice the little dramas in life? I mean the very small dramas in life. So caught up in our hustle, we don’t notice the birds, bees, or bugs toiling, living, and dying. But if you do stop to look, to really look, sometimes you see things that are interesting and even strange. Sometimes you see things that make you wonder.

I was walking up the steps to the back deck when I noticed a katydid(*). I had my camera with me, and my first thought was to get a close-up picture of a katydid. The initial fleeting impression was of a live katydid, but as I stooped closer that impression changed. Dead. The poor fellow had expired.

Stricken Katydid

At this point the mundane observation of a katydid sitting on a step turned into something more. A little drama, a small mystery. How did he(or she) get here, and how did he die? My first thought was that someone had squashed him, but a close examination revealed no smashed body parts. In fact, the katydid seemed quite whole and intact and appeared as if he had simply collapsed.

A continuing examination revealed more facts, and mystery. The ailment of the katydid clearly had something to do with the liquid seeping out of its mouth. A rather gruesome way to go. Was it something the katydid had ate, or had it been infected with some horrible parasite that had burst open inside it and was slowly digesting the katydid’s insides? Or was the material seeping out of its mouth actually something on the steps it had stopped to eat, only to find itself caught or sickened?

Hungry Ant

As if this weren’t enough, I soon discovered the katydid wasn’t quite dead, not yet. A lone ant had discovered the ailing katydid and was futilely trying to haul the creature off to its ant hive for devouring. As the ant tugged at the katydid’s leg the katydid waved a small leg feebly, as if to say, “Go away and leave me in peace.” But the katydid was so far gone as to be unable to move any more then one small leg. It’s body was slouched and unmoving, so the ant kept at its attempted efforts.

I suppose someone might come up with some great analogy for all of this–the dying katydid and the single small ant trying to haul him off as a meal. Perhaps something about the shortness of life, or the suddenness of death. But I just wondered what the katydid had eaten, or if whatever it had was catching. It’s not every day you see a katydid collapsed, internal juices leaking out of its mouth.

Ug. Looking right at you

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(*)This story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that at the time I thought I was looking at a grasshopper, not a katydid. But as it happened, two days after I took my pictures of the dying katydid aSeamstress had a picture of a katydid on her blog, seeking identification of the bug. Those more knowledgeable than myself identified it as a katydid and thus I was educated. In some quick googling I tried to determine how one distinguishes a katydid from a grasshopper and what species my dying katydid was. On one website it was mentioned that katydid’s can be distinguished by the great length of their antennae–I’m not sure if this is the only or most correct method of distinguishing. And as to exactly which species this is . . . good luck. There are a lot of varieties of katydids, and in my quick googling I didn’t find one that looked exactly like mine. If anyone has more information, I’d appreciate hearing it.

Here are three links on katydids:

1# Wikipedia article
2# Whatsthatbug.com
3# North American Katydids