Lake of the Ozarks

[mantidsaresweet]

I am on vaction right now in Missouri at the Lake of the Ozarks and have already caught a few insects on my first day here. There are 2 grasshopper species that I need help with some ID's and also a huge wheel bug!

Any ideas? I'll probably keep the wheel bug and either let the grasshoppers go or feed them to the wheel bug :lol: . Hopefully I can find a few mantis while I'm here .

 

[Idolofreak]

Cool bugs! I don't know what species the grasshoppers are, but that wheel bug is HUGE! We're supposed to have some of those in Nebraska, but I've never even seen one in person. The green grasshopper is my favorite.

 

[mantidsaresweet]

Thanks

I found another wheel bug today! It just flew onto my car while we were driving around a park :lol:

Can anybody tell me how to sex them? I would love to take them home and try to breed. I stopped at a local pet store and picked up some mealworms for them to munch on. They are a really interesting insect!

Oh and I let both of the grasshoppers go.

 

[Peter Clausen]

The easiest way to sex wheel bugs is that the females are larger. The flanges that border their abdomens and extend on either side of the wings splay out more widely in females.

Put two together. If they look nearly the same, they're the same sex.

I couldn't really tell if that one was green, but it looked greenish. I'm going to guess Xanthippus corallipes, from my Kaufmann field guide for the other one.

We love your trip updates and photos, so keep them coming. Try taking some shots of the grasshoppers outdoors (not inside containers). I got close enough to a Carolina locust during a hike this weekend to take a decent shot of it, though it took numerous tries.

That's a site I want to visit someday. Did you walk around at night with a flashlight and check the various lights around the property? Are you camping?

 

[mantidsaresweet]

Here are a few more pictures from my trip. These first ones are of Bridal Cave including the place where people get married, the angel of bacon :lol: and the lake that is under there. It was a very cool cave but not all that big.

 

[mantidsaresweet]

Ok to answer some of your questions Peter, my mom is not a big fan of camping so we ended up staying in a condo with a great view. I did not have the opportunity to walk around with a light and try and find insects. There were still plenty of bugs anyways!

Here is a video of the view from outside my room.

Here is me with a huge Polyphemus moth that flew onto the balcony and stayed there for 2 days! :lol: Pretty sure it was a female and gave her the name Mothra.

This is some insect that I saw as we were leaving so I took a quick picture of it.

Finally an awesome grasshopper that my sister spotted while we were putt putting and flew onto my back while I was trying to take a picture :lol: I just let him/her be there and it stayed on for 3 holes (16-18) and helped me get a hole in one on the 16th!! B)

This was a great trip and if you have ever thought about going I would not hesitate and plan a trip soon. It was awesome with lots of things to do and lots of insects! (Peter you should look for somewhere to camp there. I'm sure there are some places because the lake is over 70 miles long!)

 

[Peter Clausen]

It will be a couple decades probably before I make it there. It's not too high on the list of priority bug destinations, but it looks like you did alright for condo-camping.

The narrow antennae of your Polyphemus moth suggests it's a female. If you'd placed her in a paper bag you might have gotten eggs!

The green one is a katydid of some kind. How big was that grasshopper?

Looks like your skies were a bit overcast in the video.

 

[Malti]

love the moth...just saw a similar katydid over here yesterday (in a public toilet of all places) pity didn't catch it, as I had nothing to put it in for once.

@ Peter Clausen - do all moths lay in paper bags? (if they are gravid that is)

 

[mantidsaresweet]

The grasshopper was around 1.5 in maybe up to 2. Not 100% sure though because I did not have anything to measure it with and it was on my back the whole time :lol:

I thought about putting the moth in a bag but I didn't have one and was just going to let it be free instead. It stayed almost in the same spot for 2 days before it finally left on the day we were leaving.