Drumming Katydid

Meconema thalassinum

''Meconema thalassinum'' is an insect in the family Tettigoniidae, known in North America as the drumming katydid and in Europe as the oak bush-cricket.
Meconema thalassinum  - Oviposition Older image (2008) of a female Meconema thalassinum ovipositioning at night. Stumbled on this today and decided to upload it despite low quality as I see this species less and less (it's being replaced by its southern European congener Meconema meridionale). Drumming Katydid,Ensifera,Geotagged,Meconema,Meconema thalassinum,Meconematidae,Netherlands,Orthoptera,Tettigonioidea,nl: Boomsprinkhaan,oviposition

Appearance

''M. thalassinum'' is a small bush cricket, reaching only 20 mm long, including the female's long ovipositor, although the antennae may reach a further 40 mm forwards. It lives in the foliage of trees, including oaks, where females lay eggs singly under the bark, and where males make an almost inaudible noise by drumming on leaves.
Young Meconema thalassinum(?), Heesch, Netherlands Found in our garden last July. I'm quite horrible with identifying crickets and katydids, yet the Netherlands does not have a lot of species. I've excluded several of them based on distribution and appearance. This seems the most likely candidate to me. Europe,Heeswijk-Dinther,Meconema thalassinum,Netherlands,World

Distribution

It is native to Europe, but was introduced to the United States, becoming established first in the west of Long Island and having since extended its range there to Rhode Island and Scarsdale, Stony Brook, and Ithaca, New York.
Meconema thalassinum - Male Older image (2009) of a male Meconema thalassinum. Stumbled on this today and decided to upload it despite low quality as I see this species less and less (it's being replaced by its southern European congener Meconema meridinonale). Drumming Katydid,Ensifera,Geotagged,Meconema,Meconema thalassinum,Meconematidae,Netherlands,Orthoptera,Tettigonioidea,nl: Boomsprinkhaan

Predators

''M. thalassinum'' is a host for the parasitic worm ''Spinochordodes tellinii''. The parasite is able to change the behaviour of the insect making it more attracted to water when it is close to water. This is necessary because the parasite requires open water to complete its life cycle.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderOrthoptera
FamilyTettigoniidae
GenusMeconema
SpeciesM. thalassinum