Stick, Leaf, and Buffalo Insects at the San Diego Zoo

Recently, my family and I visited San Diego for my cousins wedding, and we were able to make a stop at the San Diego Zoo!  Amongst the many fascinating critters that we saw there, we got to see several incredible insects, the best of which were expert camouflagers!  First off, we have the dead leaf mantis, Deroplatys dessicata.  Similar to both the walking leaves and the ghost mantis mentioned in the last post about the greater angle-winged katydid (click HERE to check that out), the dead leaf mantis is perfectly adapted for lying in wait for its prey amongst the leaf litter of the Asian forests it calls home!  If you can't see it, the mantis is in the center of the two pictures below.

Next, we have Heteropteryx dilatata, or the jungle nymph!  The females of this species are one of the heaviest insects, reaching almost ten inches!  This one is less of a camouflager, and more of just an awesome insect!  My mother is used for scale in the zoomed out picture.

This insect is another katydid, just like Damu!  This is the giant katydid, Macrolyristes corporalis, also native to Malaysia, as well as Indonesia.  Though I am not as impressed by the giant katydids camouflage skills as I am of Damu's, it still is a pretty cool insect!

Next up is the children's stick insect, Tropidoderus childrenii!  This guy eats eucalyptus leaves down under in Australia.

If I remember correctly, the jumping stick of the genus Stiphra was in the same cage as the children's stick insect.  This one is one of those really great camouflagers: not only is it an insect camouflaged as a stick, its a stick insect camouflaging as a walking stick!  Despite this superficial resemblance, the jumping stick is actually in the same family as the grasshoppers!  They are native to Peru.

One last camouflaging insect!  Below is the New Guinea Stick Insect, Eurycantha calcarata, native to Papua New Guinea!  According to the zoo signs, the males make up for the fact that they are smaller than the females by having giant spikes on their legs and emitting a "foul-smelling secretion."  I'm not certain whether I have a male or a female pictured.  My mother is again used for scale in the zoomed out picture.

Got two more insects for you!  The first is actually a picture of just one insect, a jade-headed buffalo beetle, Eudicella smithi.  This beautiful African beetle eats tree sap, pollen, and rotten fruit.

Finally, for those of you who don't like ants, you might not want to look at the next picture!  Leaf cutter ants!  Millions of these suckers can fit in a single colony: now THAT would be an infestation!

All of this info was brought to you by the labels at the San Diego Zoo.

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Damu the Greater Angle-Winged Katydid!

A few months ago, I looked up at the dorm room wall and there was a katydid perched there!  I captured him and put him in a container for a week!  I learned a little bit about katydids, so put your listening ears on!

Damu in his container.  "Damu" means "blood" in Swahili, and for good reason.  This little insect was a bloodthirsty demon, I tell you what.  Which is a joke because it eats leaves.  Ha.

I figured out that Damu was probably a greater angle-winged katydid (Microcentrum rhombifolium), native to the southwestern and eastern United States.  The adults are only around from between July and October, except in Florida, where the higher year round temperatures allow the species to live year round.

The greater angle-wing is pretty large as insects go (especially here in Colorado), and looks quite cool!  As you can probably tell from the picture below, the katydid has evolved to superbly mimic its surroundings: i.e., the leaves of trees!  This makes the katydid one of my Top Ten Favorite Camouflagers, one of four insects to make the cut!

Top Ten Favorite Camouflagers
By Zack Neher

1.  Octopus
2.  Walking Leaves
3.  Leafy Sea Dragon
4.  Katydid
5.  Ghost Mantis
6.  Harry Potter Under the Invisiblity Cloak
7.  Arctic Fox
8.  Walking Stick
9.  Optimus Prime
10.  Ptarmigan
11.  Leaf-Tailed Gecko


If you live in much of the United States (refer to the map below), you can probably see the greater angle-winged katydid!  Or, at least, hear it!  I know for me personally, once I knew what I was listening to, I heard them ALL the time!  Click the link to hear a sound clip of the male making its distinctive clicking sound!  (Damu made these sounds, which is why I am almost positive of him being a male).

Male Katydid Clicking Sounds

Damu is sadly no longer with us: I kept him for about a week, and decided to let him go.  He spent a lot of time making his clicking sounds (which are surprisingly loud for a critter of his size), especially at night when we were trying to sleep.  It got quite annoying, and I wanted him to be free, so I released him from his prison.  Plus he pooped WAY more than an insect of his size should.

I caught another katydid later on, this time a female.  You could tell that Damu Mbili (Damu II in Swahili) was a female because she never clicked and had an ovipositor, an organ possessed by some animals to aid in egg laying.  She died in the middle of October, right around when you would expect these katydids to pass away, though I did hear male katydids clicking away intermittently through the 27th of October.  Here are a few pictures.

Check back soon for our next post, where we look at some insects that I saw at my recent visit to the San Diego Zoo, many of which are expert camouflagers!

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