Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 : Week 37

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 :Week 37 Sept 6-12 

Nature is just so awesome with a never ending supply of surprises ! Summer means there are so many insects in the yard singing away merrily- katydids, cicadas, crickets, grasshoppers …along with the chorus of chirping frogs. I have to often get  help at songsofinsects.com. with identifying the insect songs and I have spent many hours during the pandemic stay-at-home year doing just that - though I may now be more confused as well ;) 

This cicada - Neotibicen davisa davisa (identified by insect experts in INaturalist ) was by the pine tree (alive) in the yard by the pine tree. It stayed around just long enough for me to photograph. I had misidentified it when I first saw and sketched it - hence the wrong info below the cicada. The photograph of the Rhinoceros spearbearer (Copiphora rhinoceros)katydid in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 paired nicely for the week.  Unlike the cicada I found in the yard, these awesome conehead  katydids are found in the rainforests of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. They have powerful jaws to feed on plants, other invertebrates and even small reptiles. Staying home during the pandemic though has helped me see  and document by either sketching or photographing so many different creatures in my own yard !