Katydids of Panama (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

Abstract Katydids are a diverse group of medium to large insects related to grasshoppers and, more closely, to crickets. Although world-wide in distribution, most species are found in tropical, wet regions of the world. For example, in the United States there are 107 described species, but in the Republic of Panama, a country less than one-hundredth as large, more than 160 species have been reported. For various reasons, katydids have been overlooked or neglected by biologists for many years. One reason for this oversight may be the fact that these insects are secretive by nature. During the day in the Panamanian forests, katydids are nearly impossible to locate (and even more difficult to study). Their ability to blend successfully with their environmental backgrounds enables them to go undetected during the day, when most researchers usually work; only at night can one understand these incredible animals. Except for a relatively few species, nearly all katydids are nocturnally active. They leave their daytime shelters and hiding places at night, feed at night, and sing at night. Females mate and oviposit only at night. In the minutes preceding dawn, katydids change behaviour abruptly, moving from their active nocturnal mode of pair formation and feeding to a more stationary, diurnal mode of survival against daytime predators. Recent observations in Peru by Nickle, Belwood, and Castner (unpublished) indicate that this behaviour is stereotypic, species-specific, and highly adaptive for individual survival.