An insect named for its noise: the cyrtophyllum concavum.

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1800.  

        Owls, crickets, tree frogs, kitty-dids resound,
And flashing fire-flies sparkle all around.
A. Wilson, ‘Poems,’ &c. (1876), ii. 346. (N.E.D.)    

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1807.  

        Thou’st seen a member of the insect race,
  Known mostly by its chattering noise,
—A green-clad wanderer from place to place,
  Yclep’d a katydid by boys.
The Balance, Jan. 6, p. 8.    

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1816.  [These insects are] called also katy dids; because one seems to say “katy did,” and the other to reply “katy didn’t.”—Henry C. Knight (‘Arthur Singleton’), ‘Letters from the South and West,’ p. 62 (Boston, 1824).

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1818.  

        And from each thicket, marsh, and tree,
The cricket, frog, and Katy-dee,
With various notes attend the glee,
  Nor once through all the night are mute
Samuel Woodworth, ‘Evening.’    

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1829.  The measured creaking of the crickets and catadeds.—T. Flint, ‘George Mason,’ p. 11 (Boston). (Italics in the original.)

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1831.  [He was] as busy as a bee, as noisy as a caty-did, and as merry as a cricket.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The Dutchman’s Fireside,’ i. 43.

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1838.  And throughout that livelong night, be it recorded, even until the morning dawned, did a concert of whippoorwills and catydids keep up their infernal oratorio, seemingly for no other reason than for my own especial torment.—E. Flagg, ‘The Far West,’ ii. 214 (N.Y.).

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1840.  His ire was reproved by a pert young katydid, whose shrill tones indicated that her wings were only half grown, and that the froward thing must be the earliest of the season.—C. F. Hoffman, ‘Greyslaer,’ i. 42.

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