She’s laying eggs! – Katydid
She’s laying eggs! – Katydid
Location: Vancouver, Washington
November 27, 2010 10:02 pm
Well, not too long after you responded to my last inquiry…My little Kekoa decided to give me a thing to be thankful for on thanksgiving!
She surprised me Nov. 23rd in the evening, around 9:30 or so, by doing something rather odd on one of her leaves. Well, at first I dismissed it and thought she was pooping again, until I saw where she was. She was on a fresh leaf, as I’d redone her cage that afternoon. She was ovipositing, or seemed to be, and sure enough I found reference photos and she seemed to be laying eggs in the new leaves I’d placed in there for her.
I’ve counted 16 eggs laid inside various leaves, and countless more that have either been discarded onto the floor of the terrarium, or into her gullet, for what I am guessing is just a source of energy.
She lays more and more each day, and I can’t wait until spring to see if any of them hatch! If they do, I’ll be sure to update. I plan to try and keep one or two of the nymphs, and follow them throughout all their stages, so provide both documentation, and fun pictures.
Signature: Sincerely, Kaetlin the bug fanatic
Dear Kaetlin,
Please forgive us for not creating this post earlier. It took some time because we wanted to crop your photos and make them web ready. Your account of Kekoa in captivity and laying eggs is a beautiful document. Your new email just arrived today, jogging our collective memories about this email which was buried in the In Box.
Kekoa, the Scudderia species, is quite graceful when she is twisting her abdomen so that her sickle shaped ovipositor would come into contact with the leaf. We cannot find your response that you were sad that Kekoa’s jumping legs would not grow back. We will post your egg photos, which just arrived while we were working, in the near future.
