Nimble Meadow Katydid (Orchelimum volantum)
Song of a Nimble Meadow Katydid (scroll down for explanation and additional recordings!).
Nimble Meadow Katydids are slender, long-winged and covered is small dark spots. Their faces are light-cream in color with extensive dark-brown mottling along the caudal aspect next to the pronotal shield. The top of the pronotum and wings are a dingy-brown helping them to blend in with the emergent vegetation in their freshwater wetland homes. They can be found from early August through frost.
As the name implies, this species is very hard to catch – jumping long distances multiple times when evading predators. This habit and the fact that they are fond of wetlands with knee to waist-deep water makes the capture all the more tenuous.
A big thank you to Carl Strang for collecting this specimen for inclusion on this site.
Nimble Meadow Katydids are found from central Michigan south to the lower third of Ohio and west to extreme eastern Kansas and Nebraska. A small population can be found in southern New Jersey.
Song: The song of the Nimble Meadow Katydid is distinctive – a quiet pulsing of 0.3 second, low-pitched buzzes separated by nearly a second of silence. The major frequency bands of the broad-spectrum song are 8.7, 10, 13, and 14.7 kHz. Each buzz is composed of 20-24 pulses.
Sonogram of a Nimble Meadow Katydid. © Wil Hershberger 2017. Click to play.
Nimble Meadow Katydid
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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