I see these green bugs on my zinnias and I'm trying to figure out if they're beneficial or not. I couldn't find them in the Texas Bug Book.

They resemble very small grasshoppers: 1/4" long tubular body with long back legs and very long black-and-white striped antenneas. They can have orange or black eyes. But they have no wings.

The only insect that comes to mind resembling a grasshopper is a katy-did, but I've never noticed if they do or do not fly. We have lots of them this year, but I haven't noticed them hurting anything. The grasshoppers are another story. They have voracious appetites for my vegetables.

I looked at some katydid pictures and it's not them. These bugs have no wings at all.
I've looked at numerous sites to find a photo but to no avail. I took pictures of them but I don't have a website I can load them on.

... one other thing, I've seen the exact same bug , but in orange with black eyes.

Email me a photo if you can, but please don't send a huge file. I have a slow-poke server, and hate to sit for several minutes while a picture file downloads. Or another thought is that you can go to gardenweb.com
They have a garden photo forum where you can download photos directly from your computer onto the forum.

Thanks for all your help, dragonfly. I posted a message with the photo at gerdenweb.com. It's titled "Green bug... what is it?" in the Pests & Diseases topic area:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pests/msg0809095111502.html

I have these bugs also and can't find any pictures in the books. The striped antennas are unusual and a good identifying feature if we could just find someone who knows something about them! They are pretty much solitary, I usually only see one at a time. At first I didn't squash them because I wasn't sure if they were beneficial or not, but then I saw one eating a hole in a rose leaf, so now I squash them all!

Hmm, tough one, at least for me. My first reaction to the photo is some kind of "true" bug, maybe the nymph stage of a damsel bug or something along those lines, but to be honest, that's just a guess. If their numbers aren't great, and they don't appear to be doing much damage, I'd just let them be until they can be proven guilty. I don't like to kill unidentified things that could be beneficial. Hope someone else is able to help. Maybe someone at GW can ID it it for you. Sorry.

On gardenweb.com, someone said it was a baby katy-did. I didn't believe it at first, but I found another site that has a photo of a similar bug and they label it a katydid:

http://www.sphoto.com/photo.php?photo=576&exhibition=16

I compared the two pictures side by side and the insects don't look alike to me. The only similarity is the striped antennas. I forwarded the original green bug picture to A&M's entomology department, maybe they can identify it for us. They have a good web site:
http://insects.tamu.edu

On second thought, maybe it is a baby katydid. I saw some around here and did a visual study of the body shape for awhile this morning. Let us know if you find out for sure. There do seem to be lots of katydids this year, but I haven't had any plant damage from any.

Okay, you were right and I was wrong. I e-mailed the picture to Dr. John Jackman at Texas A&M, entomology department and he says
"That is a long-horned grasshopper or Tettigonidae. Members of this family are often called katydids. That one is an immature.
For more on these see:
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg15.html "

Thanks for the info, pridgeon. I would have never guessed katydid, since it had no wings. But, if I had watched it long enough it probably would have grown wings at some point.

Now I have to figure out if this is the predaceous species or the plant-eating species.

Can't bugs have little tags on them so we know exactly who/what they are?!

The ones I have seen on my rose bushes eat holes in the leaves.

**Orthopterans are herbivores.
http://www.cirrusimage.com/orthoptera_katydid.htm


Grasshoppers belong to the order Orthoptera; there are two forms, the shorthorned grasshoppers (family Acrididae) and the longhorned grasshoppers (family Tettigonidae). **The grasshoppers that are the most destructive to plants are the SHORTHORNED forms. Shorthorned grasshoppers are moderately long, usually dark colored with mottling, have distinctive heads and eyes, antennae are always shorter than the body, and their hind legs are enlarged for jumping. All grasshoppers have chewing mouth parts and gradual or simple metamorphosis. Grasshopper nymphs and adults both feed on foliage.


I found two in my garden last week and took a closeup picture of one. I left him alone; have to admit he's a cool looking little critter.