I spy with my old eyes something big and green! This beauty and I crossed paths last September long weekend walking on the Last Mountain Lake Wetlands Trailhead. She is an adult female Anabrus simplex, AKA a "Mormon Cricket". These large Katydids are not members of the Cricket Family but get their common name from their alleged involvement in the Church of Latter Days Saints' Miracle of the Gulls. According to the Churches traditional story legions of Gulls, summoned by prayer, arrived to consume a host or plague of these insects and saved the 1848 harvest, and thus the settlers were saved from starvation.
I am a bit skeptical about legends and religious history in general but Anabrus simplex has been known to form large and impressive swarms. They usually have low population density in its territorial range across Western North America but if weather, migration, and food conditions are just right they can form large massive populations in the millions. In these swarming phases they can be a destructive agricultural pest and have become traffic hazards on roads as large masses of them can make the driving conditions dangerously slick and slippery. Saskatchewan is in the Northern most part of the species range and we do not see these massive swarms so we can enjoy the rare chance meetings as they come!
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My name is Sara from Saskatoon!Hello! I am an amateur photographer with a passion for bugs and insects! Archives
January 2024
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