katydid

English

a great green bush-cricket (Tettigonia viridissima), a species of katydid

Etymology

Onomatopoeic, from the sound a common true katydid (Pterophylla camellifolia) makes by stridulating.

• katydid song:

  (file)

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪtiˌdɪd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

katydid (plural katydids)

1. (chiefly US) A cricket of the superfamily Tettigonioidea

   Synonym: (UK) bush-cricket

   • 1889, Charles Conrad Abbott, Days Out of Doors, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 194:

     I have noticed all these, and some at a much earlier date than the first faint lisping of a timid katydid; and all such sights and sounds are similarly suggestive—the summer is drawing to its close.

   • 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 52:

     In the night the katydids and crickets screeched in waves, soft then loud, back and forth.

Derived terms

• angular-winged katydid
• false katydid (Phaneropterinae spp.)
• fork-tailed bush katydid
• juniper bush katydid
• leaf katydid (Phaneropterinae spp.)
• round-headed katydid (Phaneropterinae spp.)

Translations

cricket of the superfamily Tettigonioidea — see bush-cricket

See also

extant orders of insects in English

• jumping bristletails, archaeognathans (Archaeognatha)
• cockroaches and termites, blattodeans (Blattodea)
• beetles, coleopterans (Coleoptera)
• earwigs, dermapterans (Dermaptera)
• flies, dipterans (Diptera)
• webspinners, embiopterans (Embioptera)
• mayflies, ephemeropterans (Ephemeroptera)
• ice crawlers, grylloblattodeans (Grylloblattodea)
• true bugs, hemipterans (Hemiptera)
• hymenopterans (ants, bees, wasps, etc.) (Hymenoptera)
• butterflies and moths, lepidopterans (Lepidoptera)
• mantises, mantodeans (Mantodea)
• mantophasmids (Mantophasmatodea)
• scorpionflies, mecopterans (Mecoptera)
• megalopterans (alderflies, dobsonflies, fishflies, etc.) (Megaloptera)
• neuropterans (antlions, lacewings, mantisflies, etc.) (Neuroptera)
• damselflies and dragonflies, odonatans (Odonata)
• orthopterans (crickets, grasshoppers, katydids, etc.) (Orthoptera)
• stick insects, phasmatodeans (Phasmatodea)
• stoneflies, plecopterans (Plecoptera)
• booklice, psocodeans (Psocodea)
• snakeflies, raphidiopterans (Raphidioptera)
• fleas, siphonapterans (Siphonaptera)
• strepsipterans (Strepsiptera)
• thrips, thysanopterans (Thysanoptera)
• caddis flies, trichopterans (Trichoptera)
• zorapterans (Zoraptera)
• silverfish, zygentomans (Zygentoma)

Further reading

• Tettigoniidae on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Tettigoniidae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Tettigoniidae on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons