WORKING LIST OF ORDER OTHOPTERA  (GRASSHOPPERS, KATYDIDS, CRICKETS, MANTIDS, WALKINGSTICKS, AND COCKROACHES) OF OTERO MESA, OTERO COUNTY, NEW MEXICO With it’s extensive grasslands and other habitats, Otero Mesa has a wide variety of members of the Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, mantids, walkingsticks, and cockroaches). The following list is a compilation of two currently available books which list grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets by Capinera, Scott, and Walker (2004) and grasshoppers by Richman, Lightfoot, Sutherland, and Ferguson (1993) likely to be found on Otero Mesa....

Blue-green Algae Common on Otero Mesa by Renée West The land was dry and the vegetation mostly dormant during the February field trip to Otero Mesa. And among the list of dormant ‘photosynthetic organisms’ was blue-green algae. We all noticed that the ground was littered with dry, crusty black things that looked maybe like leaves that had blown away from a tree. But upon closer inspection — and upon being wetted from our water bottles — we confirmed that they were indeed blue-green algae, also called cyanobacteria. They were in their desiccated (dried) state, waiting for...