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.
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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!"
