Location: Daroo National Park, Cape Province, South Africa
April 17, 2013 6:32 pm
Dear Daniel
Sorry to be so presumptuous by emailing you directly… but hoped that this little guy (attached) may be one of the more unusual bizarre looking crawly-things. It certainly was to us.
The photograph was taken by my father, Meredith Nel in South Africa during a trip to the Karoo National Park in the Cape Province.
Would you be so kind as to ID it for us?
With many thanks
Marlise
Dear Marlise,
We really do prefer that you use our standard form since things are nicely and uniformly submitted for our website that way.
We couldn’t help but to notice that horn in the middle of this Ensiferan’s forehead, so on a lark, we did a web search of “unicorn katydid south africa” and we immediately found the I Spot Southern Africa website and some photos identified as the Unicorn Corn Cricket, Acanthoproctus vittatus, that is described as: “About 4-5 cm long with numerous sharp projections on carapace, single “horn” on forehead.” We sought additional verification and searched the scientific name which led to Taxa Hierarchy. Finally, the Animal Diversity Web website confirms that this is a Katydid in the family Tettigoniidae. We don’t know how official the name Unicorn Corn Cricket is, but is seems so descriptive and our initial impulse led to what might otherwise have been a much more difficult identity search.
Thank you Daniel, and sorry for overstepping the boundaries 🙂
Really do appreciate it… especially the detail into which you provide references (which I looked at) and information.
Thanks again and take care
Marlise
PLease don’t worry about it Marlise. We are thrilled to have gotten your wonderful photos to add to our archive.