WHO DAT?

So I was out prowling around our side yard, checking on our pretty-much-inactive tomato plant and a couple of vines to see which one was going to die first.

When a leaf caught my eye, apparently stuck to the wall.

Now it's a rough stucco wall so I could imagine a leaf having been blown up there and becoming attached.

But when I looked closer, I saw this leaf was actually a critter so I took a couple of more pictures of it.

When I showed the pictures to Judy and suggested it might be a Praying Mantis, she said "No, it's a Cicada."

Well, I went to the omniscient Google and the Cicadas it showed didn't look anything like this critter.

So I asked Google to show me some bugs that look like leaves and it promptly convinced me this was a member of the Tettigoniidae Family.

More commonly known as Bush Crickets or (especially in North America) Katydids!

And, just to put a fine point on it, the Google said they are nocturnal and that during the day when they're "resting" they assume a posture that causes them to resemble a leaf!

So case solved and thus ends today's lesson in Insect Identification.

I can't wait until nightfall when it may start "singing".

As I said to Judy, "It may be good that we're practically deaf!"