Mecopoda elongata
| Distribution: | India, China, Korea, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia |
| Size: | 40+mm body, Overall length 120mm, Wingspan 120mm |
| Diet: | Leaves and other bugs |
Bush crickets in the subfamily Mecopodinae have tegmina (forewings) that resemble leaves. Like leaf insects and many other leaf mimics, this includes the ability to display brown edges and markings that can be interpreted as holes in leaves, along with irregular edges which look like something’s been nibbling on the leaf.
Amazingly, studies have shown that leaf-like camouflage in katydids dates all the way back to the Permian period, over 251.9 million years ago.
These guys are also known as long-legged katydids, for reasons that ought to be fairly apparent.
Take a closer look…
