Leaf Mimic Katydid from Borneo
Location: Mt Kinabalu,Sabah,Malaysia
February 4, 2012 7:24 pm
Congratulations on a wonderful website. Could you or Piotr please identify this katydid? It was on a begonia leaf and about 5cm long (2.5 inches) and was found on the slopes of Mt Kinabalu in the forest during a trip we made in August 2011.It was an ornithological trip but the bugs were almost more compelling. Thanks
Signature: Mark Eller
Dear Mark,
This Katydid is truly stunning, and the patterns and colors on its wings look gorgeous with the patterns and colors on the begonia leaf. We had no luck with our initial attempts to identify this species, and we will contact Katydid expert Piotr Naskrecki to see if he is able to assist us.
Piotr Naskrecki provides an identification
Hi Daniel,
This looks like Eulophophyllum (Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae), but probably an undesribed species. Very pretty.
Piotr
Update: January 4, 2017
Peter Kirk just provided us with a pdf copy of the journal article that was published this past December.
Wow, not only it is undescribed, I have never seen this before in real life or in photographs.
However I know where to find this based on it’s appearance.
The color and patterns on it matches a distinct species of plant.
We would love to include any additional information you can provide.
Mark Eller – could you please contact me regarding this photograph? I appreciate that it is a few years old now, but myself and two colleagues are carrying out some taxonomic work on this genus and would like to obtain some more data if possible. Also, we would like to include the photo (if you have one at higher resolution it would be better) in the paper.
My email address is [email protected]
To Peter:
We don’t know how often Mark Eller will visit our site to see this comment. Our WTB? submission form states: “By submitting an identification request and/or photo(s), you give WhatsThatBug.com permission to use your words and image(s) on their website and other WhatsThatBug.com publications. Also, you swear that you either took the photo(s) yourself or have explicit permission from the photographer or copyright holder to use the image.” Though we do not own the rights to the image, we frequently allow nonprofit groups to use images from our site. When we have a moment, we will look for the original digital file of this image and email it to you. When we do, please credit Mark and Whatsthatbug.com in the publication.
Thank you – that would be really useful indeed.
Regards,
Peter.
And now it is known as Eulophophyllum lobulatum.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311866033_The_Pink_Katydids_of_Sabah_Orthoptera_Tettigoniidae_Phaneropterinae_Eulophophyllum_with_Description_of_Two_New_Species
Thanks for providing a link to the publication. Peter Kirk contacted us for permission to use this image, which we granted.
Great to see the follow up…..thanks everyone……pleased to see the scientific paper and the new name. Mark