fork-tailed bush katydid (Scudderia furcata)

fork-tailed bush katydid
Scudderia furcata

Developmental Stages

The photographs below document the development of a nymph sent me in early July by John Spooner, University of South Carolina at Aiken. John had obtained the eggs the previous fall from a female from Rapides Parish, Louisiana, sent to him by Steve Shively, Wildlife Biologist, Kisatchie National Forest. John noted that the eggs had been laid in leaves that died back in the winter and that he had placed them on wet filter paper on May 20. The earliest hatch was June 23. John surmised that "eggs can be laid in deciduous leaves which drop to the substrate in the fall/winter, absorb water from spring rains and hatch."
The nymph was reared in a container that John supplied, on lettuce supplemented by bits of dry cereal and catfood. It traveled with me on a month-long camping/collecting trip from Florida to California and back-- T. J. Walker, 30 Nov 2006.


1st instar	1st instar (late)	2nd instar

3rd instar	4th instar	5th instar

6th instar	7th instar	adult