Can you identify this tropical cricket?
Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 12:41 PM
The cricket shown in the photo about is about 7 cm long. The distinctive features of this insect include the turqoise eyes and the long antennae. The specimen shown had just been disabled after being struck by a shoe. My young children cowered in fear after it alighted on a balcony ledge.
Solar
Saint Lucia, West Indies
Hi Solar,
We are more inclined to think this is a Katydid in the family Tettigoniidae as opposed to a Cricket in the family Gryllidae. To be safe, we would only classify down to the suborder Ensifera, the Long-horned Orthoptera until we get some input. We would think that this is a well documented species due to its unusual eye coloration which almost seems to have been enhanced through PhotoShop, but we didn’t have much luck with our web search.
Update: April 21, 2021
Thanks to a new submission, we now know that this is a Forest Katydid, Nesonotus tricornis, which is pictured on Nature Picture Library (where Piotr Naskrecki provided the image).
We found a giant blue eyed (no photo shop!!) grasshopper in our guest house in Saint Lucia, April 19 2021. I hVe submitted photos of it to this website but don’t know how to add the picture here….can I add a picture in a “comment”?