Insect Observations

A brown and white butterfly resting on bare ground It was sitting on the bare ground of a trail in Medog, surrounded by scattered gravel …

A deep red stag beetle with a golden stripe In late June I found this one in Medog, sitting calmly on a piece of grey …

A bold jumper staring back from a plastic wall This one turned up on the inside wall of a clear plastic container in Pittsburgh in …

A green hitchhiker on the last warm days On October 21 in Pittsburgh, a bright green katydid was clinging to a black plastic fitting on …

A cone-headed singer near the end of the season On October 21 in Pittsburgh, a green katydid landed on a hand and stayed there long …

A red-headed cricket on a plastic bag It was a crisp October afternoon in Pittsburgh when I found this little cricket perched on a plastic …

A soft-bodied hunter in a velvet coat, now with a name On October 10 in Pittsburgh, a small dark creature was crawling across the concrete, …

A coil in the grass that kept its stripes On September 22 in Pittsburgh, a dark shape in the dry grass at the edge of …

A Bug with a Cog on Its Back: Meeting the Wheel Bug in Pittsburgh It was a warm afternoon in September 2025, on the campus …

The genus Tenodera comprises large, robust mantises, typically found in shades of green or brown for camouflage.

Body of adult female is about 1.5 mm long and 1.3 mm wide (excluding the ovisac), brownish olive green; dorsum mostly bare of wax except for two narrow logitudinal rows of 12 small white wax processes, these rows situated on either side of the mid-line; the dorsal wax processes fairly short, the longest and most curled occurring towards the posterior end.

Order: Orthoptera; Family: Tettigoniidae