Subject: Koringkriek
Location: 25 km before Colesberg area
December 27, 2016 12:48 pm
We found this koring krieket at our overnight stay coming back from Betties Bay.
Signature: Hendrik
Dear Hendrik,
Your Koringkriek image is a marvelous documentation of this South African Katydid. According to Piotr Nakrecki of The Smaller Majority: “Despite their bulky appearance and scary-looking armature, these wonderful katydids are, like most insects, completely harmless. Their spikes and horns are nothing more than protection against birds and lizards, and can only be used to make their body more difficult to swallow – they cannot jab, poke, or cut anybody with their armor. The katydids’ only other defense is reflexive bleeding, quite similar to that seen in oil beetles that I recently wrote about. But unlike the beetles, whose blood contains deadly cantharidin, that of the katydids is not toxic. And, in contrast to other katydids who sometimes try to nibble you if handled, armored katydids never, ever bite, no matter how roughly they are treated.”