Return Of The Katydid

After several weekends of cool, rainy weather that's about as close to Fall weather as San Diego ever gets, we had a warm, sunny day yesterday and decided to sit out on the front porch in the late afternoon.

While we were sitting there, we heard a persistent clicking sound coming from the rose bushes.  We wondered if it might be the sound a katydid makes, so we went over to see if we could find one.

From our last experience with a Katydid, we knew they're so well camouflaged that they're hard to spot; they look so much like rose leaves that's probably why they seem to prefer those plants.

As we were checking it out, Cindy zeroed in on a rose bud that was covered with thrips.  She suddenly jumped backward and said, "Oh, there it is!"  The katydid was just inches from her nose, but she hadn't noticed it at first since she was focused on the thrips.

We were able to get a pretty good view of this katydid since it was perched up on top of the leaves.  We invited him to eat as many of the thrips as he wanted, but he soon flew off and landed on the palm tree.

I'm always amazed when I see one how much these insects look like leaves; both the shape and the coloring are perfect.  The only way we usually find them is by noticing that leaves don't have legs and antennas.

Or by finding one inches from our noses.