Subject: Dinosaur with bug legs?
Location: Zip 01257 Sheffield, Massachusetts
September 2, 2013 6:31 am
Hello, I was wondering if you might be able to help us identify this little fella! He was lounging on a leaf of my potted lime tree on our front porch. We live in Massachusetts (right in the corner of NY and CT so not on the ocean side). It was taken in the afternoon on September 1 (yesterday).
When my daughter touched it, it moved but did not fly away…and we didn’t notice any sort of wings either. It was maybe an inch or more long, and did not appear to be munching on my tree. It also made no sound that we heard. My daughters are fascinated by insect life and we have searched online to no avail trying to identify it! We also posted it on Facebook but nobody else can identify it there either. We thought it looked a little bit like a miniature dinosaur with insect legs 😉 We’d be ever so grateful if you might be able to help us out! I do have other pictures, too but tried to choose the best three 🙂 Thank you in advance for your time!
Signature: The Martin family
Dear Martin family,
This appears to be a female Two Spotted Tree Cricket, Neoxabea bipunctata, however, the pattern of the spotting is not a apparent as it is in the typical specimen. Your likening this to a dinosaur with insect legs is terribly amusing to us, but it is actually somewhat accurate. See BugGuide for additional information on the Two Spotted Tree Cricket.
Thank you so very much!! My girls are very excited to learn about this new insect! We VERY much appreciate your time! They are quite happy they didn’t feed the cricket to the giant black and yellow orb weaver they found the day before! 😉