Subject: hmmm? never seen this one before
Location: Southern Oregon
August 7, 2015 11:59 am
Okay–so I am going to feel like an idiot if this is just a currently wingless ‘cat escapee ‘grasshopper, but I found this creature in my kitchen this morning. I have released him back into the great outdoors via a gentle scooping into a cup. He has what appears to be stingers at his backend, but maybe they serve some other purpose. He also looks somewhat transparent. He hops great. At first I thought maybe a camel cricket, but he doesn’t really look like one to me and we are in Oregon and I am not so sure they are common here. He is a beautiful wheat color and he would have blended into the dry pasture great, but not so much on my whiteboard where I found him this morning. We are currently experiencing a pretty sizeable forest fire just a few miles from our house. Could he be something that was flushed out of the forest on account of the fires? I have never seen a bug like this here and I have been in this area for 24 years.
Signature: Catherine
Dear Catherine,
This is one of the Tree Crickets, probably a Snowy Tree Cricket or Thermometer Cricket, and you can compare your image to this image on BugGuide.
Thank you so much!! I read up on it and will allow the eggs to hatch for next year!
Terry