The video of "katydid spinning silk and weaving a web" has gone viral! But it's not actually a katydid, it's also related to Ultraman...

There is a video that has gone viral online recently:

A blogger said that he found several spider webs in the corner of the wall. After searching for a long time, he found no spiders, but he found a katydid! When you hold this emerald green katydid in your hand, it will spit out silk threads with its mouth in your palm.

Video screenshots from the Internet

The katydid can actually spin silk? Why is it different from what I usually see? Today we are going to talk about this "katydid" that suddenly became popular~

The video is not a katydid

But "Digayou Cricket (zhōng)"

First of all, the insect in the video is not a katydid. The katydid we usually raise is the common name of the elegant katydid ( Gampsocleis gratiosa ), which is a large orthoptera insect. The last pair of legs have evolved into jumping legs, and the wings have degenerated into very short ones. The wings of males have "sound files" and "scrapers" that make sounds by friction to attract females. However, katydids have not learned the skill of spinning silk, and can only make a "clucking" sound.

Grasshopper. This image is copyrighted by the gallery. Reproduction or use may lead to copyright disputes.

This guy in the video is a relative of the katydid. Although only the front of the head and part of the forelegs are seen in the video, based on its front face, especially its big yellow eyes, emerald green forelegs and yellow little feet, combined with its habit of spinning silk, it is most likely a cricket. The name of this cricket is very special, called "Eugryllacris tiga " .

A, B. Final nymphal stage; C, D. Female adult

You must have a question here, Tiga? Could it be... you are right, the Tiga here is the Tiga of Ultraman Tiga! So the Tiga U-Gryllis is also called "Ultraman Katydid" by insect lovers. (Currently, Tiga U-Gryllis has been artificially bred on a small scale, but the number is relatively small and the price is relatively high)

Image source: Edited by

The Tiga-Ultraman katydid not only has a strange name, but is also a "new species" of insect that was discovered in Xishuangbanna in 2021. The eyes of this katydid are yellow or red and bulge, which is a bit similar to Ultraman's eyes. In addition, 2021 is the 25th anniversary of the release of the special effects film "Ultraman Tiga", so the discoverer gave this new species the name Tiga to commemorate it. (In fact, it is not the only animal called Ultraman. The author's spotted-headed scapularis is also commonly known as "Frog Ultraman", which shows how much everyone likes the Ultraman IP)

"Ultraman the Frog". Image source: provided by the author

Some friends may ask, why is the name of the Tigayou grasshopper so down-to-earth and funny? This matter has to start with the person who formulated the naming rules for organisms.

In the mid-18th century, Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus proposed the "binomial nomenclature" as a rule for naming biological taxonomy, which has been used to this day. Simply put, the scientific name of each species must consist of two Latin words, the first word is the genus name (with the first letter capitalized), and the second word is the species name (all lowercase), and the scientific name of each species is unique and cannot be repeated with other species.

Before this, different countries did not have a unified name for describing biological names, and it was very likely that the same species would have different names or different species would have the same name. When people failed to communicate properly, the result would be "You said Qianmenlouzi, but I thought it was Hipbonezi". After the species names were unified, this situation was avoided. Latin was used for descriptions because Latin is a fixed language with less changes, and is more suitable for scientific naming.

When a species that has never been described is discovered, the discoverer is qualified to name the species and needs to write a paper to be published in a well-known and influential journal in the field. The name of the new species will be included in the paper . In theory, the name can be freely named according to the discoverer's ideas, but generally the naming will adhere to the principles of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance, and will be named according to the origin and morphological characteristics of the species. For example, the hairy crab we eat, its scientific name is Chinese mitten crab ( Eriocheir sinensis ), which means it was discovered in China. Some are named in honor of someone, usually their teacher or someone who has made great contributions to the discovery of the species. For example, Mr. Yang Zhongjian, the founder of paleontology in China, named the dinosaur he discovered Lufengosaurus huenei to pay tribute to his teacher Xu Nai.

So why name an animal after Ultraman? Isn't naming an animal a serious matter? In fact, there is a reason for this. There are more than 1 million known species in the world, and nearly 20,000 species are described every year. In 2024, more than 6,000 new species were discovered in China. If you have ever named a child, you will know how difficult it is to name a child. In addition, many young scholars are more open and willing to use new things to name species, so there are some animals with more trendy and strange names.

In addition to Ultraman, many IPs are also used to name animals . For example, Wukongopterus lii and Douzhanopterus zhengi are both named after the Monkey King Sun Wukong in Journey to the West. Moreover, Douzhanopterus zhengi is more advanced than Wukongopterus in the evolution of body structure, just like Sun Wukong obtained the true scriptures after going through 81 difficulties and was named Fighting Buddha.

There is a kind of gibbon called Hoolock tianxing , which is a pun. On the one hand, it expresses the traditional Chinese saying "Heaven moves with vigor and the gentleman strives for self-improvement", and on the other hand, it pays tribute to Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of the science fiction movie "Star Wars".

Why does the Tigayou cricket spin silk?

After talking about the name of the Tigayou grasshopper, let’s talk about why they spin silk.

Gill is a general name for a type of insect. Many members of this family can spin silk, and many species like to live in trees. The silk spinners use silk threads as adhesives to stick the two ends of leaf blades together. In this way, the leaves will bend into a U-shaped nest due to the pulling force of the silk threads , and the grizzlies will hide in it to avoid natural enemies such as birds.

After the sun sets, the Tigayou katydid will crawl out of the nest and go out to look for food. Although katydids will eat tender leaves, twigs or fruits of plants, they prefer to eat meat. Whenever they encounter other insects or small invertebrates, the katydids will use their big eyes to lock onto the target and sneak over. They will use their long antennae to lock onto the prey, slowly sneaking to shorten the distance with the prey. After entering the attack range, they will use a quick sprint to approach the prey. At the moment of contact, they will use their front paws to grab and kill the prey with lightning speed. As long as they control the prey, they will immediately begin to bite it with their large and sharp teeth. At this time, most of the prey can only surrender and become the katydids' meal.

According to friends who have bred them, the young nymphs of the Tigayou grasshopper are more herbivorous, but as they age, they become more predatory . When they reach the late instar and adult stages, they will spread their limbs, open their wings (adults) and show their big teeth to intimidate the opponent when they encounter danger, as if telling the opponent: Come on! Draw your sword! At worst, we will die together!

In addition to crickets, many other insects can also spin silk. The most famous one is the silkworm. As the saying goes, "Silkworms will not stop spinning silk until they die." The larvae of many lepidopteran insects can spin silk. Like silkworms, they will wrap themselves with silk before pupating as a barrier to protect themselves through the pupal period. In addition, the larvae of moths will spin silk to stick together dead branches, leaves and other debris to weave a coat for themselves. Coincidentally, the larvae of hairy-winged insects, also known as stone silkworms, will also use silk threads to stick together small stones, snail shells and other debris in the water to wrap themselves.

Silk. Copyrighted images from the gallery. Reproduction may lead to copyright disputes.

Some ants can also spin silk , such as the yellow ants living in southern China. They use the silk spun by their larvae to stick to leaves and build nests for themselves to live in. There is also a kind of ant called the spinopod ant. Although they are called ants, they are not very related to real ants and termites. They can use special glands on their front feet to secrete silk to build nests for themselves. Many species of spiders can also spin silk . They use silk threads to hunt, build nests, and protect their eggs. Some spiders even jump when they encounter danger and secrete a silk thread as a safety rope to hang themselves. It can be said that they have played with silk in many ways.

References

[1] New and little-known Eugryllacris from Yunnan, China (Orthoptera: Gryllacrididae: Gryllacridinae); Zootaxa; August 27, 2021; 10.11646/zootaxa.5026.4.5

Planning and production

Author: Erzhu Popular Science Creator

Reviewer: Yin Haisheng, Researcher-level Senior Engineer, Shanghai Insect Museum, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Planning丨Yang Yaping

Editor: Yang Yaping

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin