Black-horned Tree Cricket (Oecanthus nigricornis)
Song of a Black-horned Tree Cricket (scroll down for explanation and additional recordings!).
An extremely handsome member of the tree cricket clan, the Black-horned Tree Cricket is easily identified by the black markings found on large portions of its body and legs. This species is an inhabitant of brushy fields and roadsides, as well as bramble thickets. The males are fond of eating a hole into a leaf and then using it as a singing perch. They may also sing from the underside of leaves. They are most easily found singing in their habitat in late afternoon.
In the western portion of their range, they are replaced by a look-a-like species, the Forbes’s Tree Cricket. The two species can only be identified by examining their songs. Black-horned Tree Crickets sing at about 45 pulses per second, Forbes’s sings at about 60 pulses per second. The coloration of Forbes’s Tree Crickets is also more variable with very dark to very light individuals being found throughout their range. Black-horned Tree Crickets are found from eastern Ohio east to the Atlantic coast and from the mountains in western North Carolina and western Virginia (including eastern Tennessee), and north throughout most of Maine and southern sections of Canada’s Ontario and Quebec provinces.
Song: A loud, continuous trill, consisting of about 45 pulses per second, with a frequency of about 3.5 kHz. Finding a singing male in a bush is truly an exercise in patience. He falls silent when disturbed and is nearly impossible to find until he resumes singing several minutes later.
Sonogram of a Black-horned Tree Cricket. © Wil Hershberger.
Black-horned Tree Cricket
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Navigate to Species Pages:
Spring and Fall Field Cricket
Southern Wood Cricket
Southeastern Field Cricket
Eastern Striped Cricket
Japanese Burrowing Cricket
Ground Crickets (Nemobiinae):
Allard’s Ground Cricket
Carolina Ground Cricket
Confused Ground Cricket
Striped Ground Cricket
Southern Ground Cricket
Sphagnum Ground Cricket
Variegated Ground Cricket
Spotted Ground Cricket
Tinkling Ground Cricket
Cuban Ground Cricket
Tree Crickets (Oecanthinae):
Black-horned Tree Cricket
Forbes’s Tree Cricket
Broad-winged Tree Cricket
Davis’s Tree Cricket
Fast-calling Tree Cricket
Four-spotted Tree Cricket
Narrow-winged Tree Cricket
Pine Tree Cricket
Snowy Tree Cricket
Two-spotted Tree Cricket
Trigs and Bush Crickets (Eneopterinae & Trigonidiinae):
Jumping Bush Cricket
Columbian Trig
Handsome Trig
Say’s Trig
Thomas’s Trig
Slow-tinkling Trig
Mole Crickets (Gryllotalpidae):
Northern Mole Cricket
Southern Mole Cricket
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Saltmarsh Meadow Katydid
Short-winged Meadow Katydid
Slender Meadow Katydid
Woodland Meadow Katydid
Black-sided Meadow Katydid
Long-tailed Meadow Katydid
Straight-lanced Meadow Katydid
Agile Meadow Katydid
Dusky-faced Meadow Katydid
Stripe-faced Meadow Katydid
Nimble Meadow Katydid
Black-legged Meadow Katydid
Common Meadow Katydid
Gladiator Meadow Katydid
Handsome Meadow Katydid
Lesser Pine Meadow Katydid
Long-spurred Meadow Katydid
Red-headed Meadow Katydid
Coneheads (Copiphorinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Round-tipped Conehead
Nebraska Conehead
Robust Conehead
Slightly Musical Conehead
Sword-bearing Conehead
False Robust Conehead
Marsh Conehead
Black-nosed Conehead
True Katydids (Pseudophyllinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Common True Katydid
False Katydids (Phaneropterinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Clicker Round-winged Katydid
Common Virtuoso Katydid
Rattler Round-winged Katydid
Oblong-winged Katydid
Great Angle-wing
Lesser Angle-wing
Broad-winged Bush Katydid
Curved-tailed Bush Katydid
Fork-tailed Bush Katydid
Northern Bush Katydid
Texas Bush Katydid
Treetop Bush Katydid
Modest Katydid
Shield-backed Katydids (Tettigoniinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
American Shieldback
Least Shieldback
Protean Shieldback
Robust Shieldback
Roesel’s Katydid
Band-winged Grasshoppers (Oedipodinae):
Boll’s & Carolina Grasshoppers
Marsh Meadow Grasshopper