Please can you identify this creature
Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Hi, please could you help us identify this creature which my brother snapped in his little corner of the jungle near Cayenne, French Guyana – it is obviously hanging on a tree in the photo, is well camouflaged and looks pretty scary – he has never seen anything like it before, despite living there for about 5 years. Is it poisonous or dangerous (should he be worried??!)
Frankie
French Guyana
Hi Frankie,
This is a harmless female Katydid. What appears to be a dangerous stinger is really an ovipositor. We thought this might be a Moss Mimic Katydid like one from Costa Rica that Katydid expert Piotr Naskrecki identified for us in the past. When we wrote to Piotr, here was his response: “Hi Daniel, Very hard to say from these photos. It looks more like Acanthodis than Haemodiasma (which does not occur in Fr. Guiana.) Piotr”
