Insect Emotions

 Today was a beautiful day for a bug walk... and I was out all afternoon, and busy all evening, so I didn't do one. But when I got home after my outing I decided to check out my hazelnut trees, which are near the front door, and found today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

I thought maybe you would like to do some bug-spotting yourself.

Here she is. Katydid. Adult, because she has fully developed wings. Female, because she has an ovipositor, which is the brown, curved thing at the back end of her body.

I think that katydids always look annoyed, but this one looks more gobsmacked.

To my surprise, I did not find any other insects on the hazelnut trees; usually they are very popular with bugs. I was dressed in my nice, going out clothes, so I didn't want to get involved in a full bug walk, but I did wander around the house, and found one other bug:

Tree cricket. This is related to the katydid, in that they are in the same order, Orthoptera. You can probably see the family resemblance. Grasshoppers belong to this order, too. This one is a nymph, which you can tell from undeveloped wings. In fact, they are so small that you really have to look closely to see them.