Ruud Kleinpaste: Cicadas, Weta and Katydids

Believe it or not, I did hear a cicada chirping just a few days ago. Must have been a Late-Comer Boy, trying to attract a female. The buzzing sound is made in the Tymbals (on the belly side of the insect). It literally is a quick clicking sound that creates a smooth buzzing. If you hear clapping as well, it will be smacking the wings on the abdomen. 

Egg-laying is very easy to spot: a characteristic “Herring bone” pattern on twigs with a thickness of a pencil.  

We’re also not far away from the end of the Black Field Crickets’ truuu truuuu truuu singing in the evening. The further north you go, the longer you’ll hear those quite loud sounds in your lawn. They’re male mating calls, attracting females who are laying eggs in soil to hatch next spring (November). 

Damage: eat a lot of grass from lawn/paddock. Easily attracted to lights, and noisy all night. 

A fabulous characteristic rasping sound can be heard during the nighttime, starting about 30 minutes after dark: the sound is made by both male and female tree weta. 

They communicate to keep in touch – Auckland and Wellington tree weta are rather social species. They live in harem-like communities with a dominant (large-headed) male and a couple of mature females, plus some juveniles. They shelter during the day in the same cavity. 

This is mating season and often you can hear frequent communications. Females lay eggs in soft soil, and young ones emerge in spring. 

Go outside into the garden with a torch and you’ll find them – patience! 

In the afternoon to early evening, you can often hear a faint “Zzitssss” noise – often impossible to tell where it originates. It's usually a call with an irregular pattern, and it’s unmistakable as Katydids.  

These orthopterans have the ability to “throw their voice” —like ventriloquists— to put off possible predators that may hunt by following the noise to its source.  

They chew buds of flowers and foliage and can do a bit of cosmetic damage to roses and dahlias in autumn (although Julie tends to disagree with that statement – she moves them on with force!). 

Generally speaking, the katydids overwinter as eggs and hatch again in springtime as “nymphs”: miniature versions of the adult insect. But I have seen a few of them going right through the winter, snacking of tasty leaves of Mistletoes in the garden.   

No doubt they shelter from the occasional frosts by staying deep within the host plants  

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be Man in the Garden is rude? Climb past the Rude?

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hey good a Jack, Yeah, it's good. If you got
four things we can talk about in terms of sound,
you choose cicada, crickets, wetter or Katie DIDs.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Do you know what I reckon? The difference between a
cicada and the cricket. Can anyone describe that in a moment?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah? You can. Well. Cicada is very simple. Cicada is
one of those things that there's timbles at the bottom
of its belly and it makes it makes it the
same exactly. And also this is the cold thing on
the bottom. They can do They can do clicking with
their wings at the same time, so it's like that

(01:02):
sort of stuff. It becomes a bands literally.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, right, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
So they are basically finished. I heard one or two
the other day, so it's not that long ago, but
this is the end of it. And yeah, they'll be
laying eggs inside twigs. I've got it all on the system.
It's all there on the website. You'll find it right there.
Second thing, Blackfield Crickets for you guys in the north.
It's a black thing that goes at night. This is

(01:30):
the end for them. Basically, they've laid their eggs already
in February and all that, so you are too late
to control it now. The best time to do it
is December. I'll come back to that when that time
comes anyway, but that noise will finish as well. What
is really coming up is wetter because that's their mating season,
and boys and girls are talking to each other and

(01:51):
it's like, it's absolutely fabulous the way they communicate, and
of course yeah, and then they make and then the
females lay their eggs right there from now one basically
in soft soil. But the cool thing now is Katie
because it talks during the end of the day sort
of afternoon, and then through the night and it goes

(02:12):
like this. It's very soft, it sounds and you can
pick them up for miles away. It's absolutely brilliant. And
here comes the thing. As soon as it gets dark.
They climb into Julie's roses and they start eating eves. Yes,

(02:33):
you know, there's no sorry, because she is ridiculously relentless
in getting the little buggers. As she saw one over
the kitchen window last night. It was about to fall
out of the window to get it. Very funny, but
there you are. But the cold thing about Katie Ditches
their ventriloquists. So you think you hear them coming from
the right inside of your body, and they come from

(02:56):
the left, and they know exactly how to do that.
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
They bounce the sound around. Yeah yeah, okay, cool yeah. Well,
like I said, to say goodbye to those four sounds
as we head into the cooler months. But you'll put
some tips and some pictures of those up on the
News talks 'B website. Thank you very much, sir, Catch
you soon. Rude climb us in the garden for us
as he is this time every week.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to Newstalks 'DB from nine am Saturday, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.