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Sticker of Handsome meadow katydid
Bug card No. 2176 of 4,939

Handsome meadow katydid

Orchelimum pulchellum
Eats: PlantsGrasshoppers and cricketsPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The handsome meadow katydid really is handsome. Its body is green with reddish marks around the head, and it often has blue eyes on a white or yellow face. When its wings are folded, they seem to have a turquoise stripe.

Lives in
Eastern United States, from New York to Florida and west to Mississippi, in damp forests and wetlands
Length
1.8 to 2.3 cm (0.71 to 0.91 in)
Top speed
about 3.2 km/h (2 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a gentle katydid that only eats plants.
What does it eat?
It eats leaves and the pollen of flowering plants.
For real!Photo of Handsome meadow katydid
Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Handsome meadow katydid about 2.3 cm long (0.91 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.1 secondsmoves 39 times its own body length every second

How big is Handsome meadow katydid compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is about 2 centimetres long, as long as your fingertip to the first knuckle.

2

Its song is a row of clicks that ends in a short buzz.

3

The female has a long, curved tube at the end of her body for laying eggs. It is shaped like a sickle.

4

In Alabama you can hear it from the middle of July until the middle of November.

5

In some places it mixes with a close cousin, and their young share features of both.

you asked

Most asked questions about Handsome meadow katydid

?What does the handsome meadow katydid eat?

Leaves and the pollen of flowers.

?How big is the handsome meadow katydid?

About 18 to 23 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Orchelimum pulchellum
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Tettigoniidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Tettigoniidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Orchelimum pulchellum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Grasshoppers and crickets

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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