Some kind of Orthopteran?
Location: Southeastern Peru, Manu Area
February 28, 2011 4:03 am
I stumbled across this while hiking through foothill forest of Southeastern Peru in Manu National Park around 900 – 1000m elevation. The insect almost perfectly camouflaged itself by fitting its body into a lengthwise cavity in a hollow twig while holding its antennae and legs outstretched and parallell with the twig. It’s body fit almost perfectly.
Thanks!
Signature: Rich
Hi Rich,
We agree that this is an Orthopteran. We will try to contact Piotr Naskrecki, an expert in Katydids, to see if he can identify this unusual creature.
Piotr Naskrecki provides tribe identification
Hi Daniel,
This is a nymph of a katydid of the tribe Pleminiini (Pseudophyllinae), but it is too young for me to be able to tell the genus.
Cheers,
Piotr
Hi Daniel,
Thank you! I saw Piotr’s response on the website. This is very interesting. Sorry, I have a couple more questions: I was curious as to whether the insect makes the cavity itself or finds existing ones. Is hiding like this typical of nymphs the tribe Pleminiini? Also, what do adults look like? Are they typical green katydids?
Thanks a lot!
Rich
Hi Rich,
This response is mostly speculation. We doubt that the nymph excavates the cavity. Most Katydids practice some form of camouflage mimicry. We are unable to locate any images of individuals in the tribe Pleminiini.