Songs of Insects

Lesser Pine Katydid (Orchelimum minor)

Song of a Lesser Pine Katydid (scroll down for explanation and additional recordings!).

An inhabitant of pine trees and other evergreens, the Lesser Pine Katydid blends in so well that a singing male can be very difficult to find. Although camouflaged when resting on needles or cones, Lesser Pine Katydids are actually very beautiful, with orange eyes and legs, spruce green bodies, reddish brown backs, and yellow accents on their abdomens. Seeing one is well worth the effort required.
 
 
 

Left cercus from above.

Lesser Pine Katydid

Lesser Pine Katydids range across the southeastern US from New Jersey to Central Florida and west through Mississippi.

Song: An evenly spaced series of high-pitched shufflling trills, each lasting about a second. The frequency is 10–20 kHz. Song has a purring quality that makes it one of the most pleasing of all of the meadow katydids, but many people have trouble hearing it. On a quiet afternoon in a pine thicket, the shuffles of pine katydids combine to create a blanket of restful sound, coming from all directions.
 

Sonogram of a Lesser Pine Katydid. © Wil Hershberger.