Beauty of the BeastBeauty of the Beast

Dazzlingly colorful or wonderfully camouflaged, the tropical members of the orthopteran tribe come in all sorts of surprising shades and shapes

PRAYING MANTISESGRASSHOPPERS AND KATYDIDS

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LONG LEGGEDBEAUTIES

LONG LEGGEDBEAUTIES

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Pycnopalpa bicordataDecaying-leaf-mimic katydid Pycnopalpa bicordata, Mindo cloud forest, Ecuador.

On the opening spread, Spiny Katydid, Panacanthus cuspidatus, Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador

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must admit - from the start -that we are not madly ena-

mored of grasshoppers and katydidsthe way we are of - say - praying man-tises. There’s something undeniablygrotesque in their body proportions -it’s quite difficult appreciating thosejacknife hind legs and how they work- and most grasshoppers and katydids(beware - there is a difference!) willreadily disappear with a startlingjump if approached too closely, ratherthan sitting there and watching youwith the eerily detached, malignantinterest shown by a hungry prayingmantis. However, the more we obser-ve them during our frequent trips toremote tropical rainforests - especiallyin those of Central and South America- the more we are learning to likethem. True, most of them do not showthe supreme grace shown by manti-ses, and prove to be rather more chal-lenging as camera subjects with theirchunky bodies and folded hind legs -but I have to add that the array ofthorns and spines shown by severalspecies, the dazzling technicoloredhues adorning others and above allthe stupefying display of camouflageand mimicry shown by even othersoften leaves us speechless. Believe me- there are few rainforest sights as stu-pefying as that offered by adisplaying Amazon flasher or

Peacock katydid Pterachroza ocellata(see ANIMA MUNDI - Adventures inWildlife Photography Issue 9, January2013) or as startling as the one shownby a leaf-mimic katydid such asRoxelana or Typophyllum when onesees a big green or dry leaf - comple-te with veining, insect bites and moldspots - start sedately walking away.Yes, grasshoppers and katydids canreally surprise you - and in more waysthan expected, as I found out to myown expense when I tried to pick up aCopiphora Conehead - those shinyblack mandibles can rip your skin toshreds and draw blood (besides someperfectly justified howling!). In fact, farfrom being the merry lettuce-chewerswe imagine them to be, lots of katy-dids are fierce, carnivorous predatorswhich will not shy away from catchingand consuming other insects (andeven small lizards and geckos, giventhe opportunity). The following galleryoffers some interesting examples - bothin the fascinating variety and in theinherent difficulty in photographingthem decently - of a few members ofthe orthopteran tribe. Several of theseare only partially identified, sometimesonly by their Family name. There areso many of them that most haven’tbeen described yet. So next time youspot one don’t dismiss it - it mightactually be a new species.

ITEXT BY ANDREA FERRARI

PHOTOS BY ANDREA & ANTONELLA FERRARI

Copiphora sp.Rhinoceros Katydid (Copiphora sp.), Mindo cloud forest, Ecuador

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Paraphidnia sp. Copiphora rhinoceros Lichen-mimic Katydid Paraphidnia sp. (Tettigoniidae), Mindo cloud forest, Ecuador Cone-headed Katydid Copiphora rhinoceros, Selva Verde Nature Reserve, Costa Rica

Steirodon sp.

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Spiny katydid Steirodon sp., Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

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Monkey face Grasshopper Eumastax sp., Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

Eumastax sp.

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Phyllochoreia sp. Pterachroza ocellataHooded Leaf grasshopper Phyllochoreia sp., the Western Ghats, the Sahyadris, India Leaf Katydid Pterachroza ocellata in defensive display, Yasunì National Park, Ecuador

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EumastacidaeMating Monkeyface Grasshoppers (Eumastacidae), Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador

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Championica peruana PseudophyllinaeSpiny Lichen katydid Championica peruana, Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru Lichen-mimic Katydid, Pseudophyllinae, Selva Verde Nature Reserve, Costa Rica

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Orophus sp.Leaf-mimic Katydid Orophus sp., Selva Verde Nature Reserve, Rio Sarapiqui region, Heredia, Costa Rica

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Vestria sp.Helolampis sp.Mating Acrididae grasshoppers, Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador Crayola katydid, Vestria sp. (Tettigoniidae), Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador

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Parableta sp. Leaf-mimic katydid, Parableta sp., Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador

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Colpolopha sp. Pterachroza ocellataColpolopha sp., dorsal view, Yasunì National Park, Ecuador Leaf Katydid Pterachroza ocellata, Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador

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Roxelana crassicornisLeaf-mimic katydid Roxelana crassicornis, Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

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Poecilocloeus cf. lepidusRainbow katydid Poecilocloeus cf. lepidus, Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

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Omura congruaCryptic Leaf katydid Omura congrua (Pyrgomorphidae), Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

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Panacanthus cuspidatusSpiny Katydid Panacanthus cuspidatus (Tettigoniidae), Yasunì National Park, the Amazon, Ecuador

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Pterachroza ocellataFlasher or Peacock Leaf-mimic katydid Pterachroza ocellata, Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

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Paraphidnia sp.Lichen-mimic Katydid Paraphidnia sp. (Tettigoniidae), Mindo cloud forest, Ecuador

Eumastax sp.Monkey face Grasshopper Eumastax sp., Tambopata Reserve, rio Tambopata, Peru, Amazonia

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A special contribution by Juan Manuel Cardona Granda, National University of Colombia and Shimane University, Japan

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JUAN MANUEL CARDONA GRANDAM

http://www.fcgsas.comHomeomastax dereixi

A complex genus whose species are all externally very similar and can usually only be separated by their knownranges and quite esoteric internal genital characters. They all sport the same red bands above the knee.

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ost people tend to think ofgrasshoppers as green or brown littlebugs rarely worth a second look. But inthe neotropics they can be neither mono-chrome nor small. However, many ofthe most incredible species are rarelyphotographed, despite being relativelycommon. The reasons for this are many:grasshoppers are skittish, wary creaturesready to jump away when a stoopingphotographer gets close; many live inplaces where few humans venture (likethe forest canopy or the yearlong drizzlyand frigid paramos); and even if you geta clear shot at them, often you do notknow which grasshopper it is: they arenotoriously difficult to identify becauseliterature on them is nearly nonexistent,long out of print, hard to get and not inEnglish, causing not only photographersbut even entolomogists to shun them infield surveys. This photographer isworking hard to change that with aseries of field guides to neotropical gras-shoppers: the first volume of a projectedtrilogy titled Grasshoppers of NorthwestSouth America - A Photo Guide, isalready out in both English(http://goo.gl/tc3Un) and Spanish ver-sions (http://goo.gl/UVJ3x) and aJapanese one is under preparation. Thesecond volume of the seriesGrasshoppers of Northwest SouthAmerica will be out this year featuringover 80 species of grassshoppers, manyof which had never been photographedbefore. The series totals now over 140documented species and it is available

in both Spanish and English editions(http://www.blurb.com/b/3236908-grasshoppers-of-northwest-south-america-a-photo-gu).The neotropics are home to an incre-dible array of both short-horned (thetrue grasshoppers) and long horned(katydid) grasshoppers, many ofthem with incredible shapes andcolors. I have even been told andbeen reproached by people aboutthe colors and shapes of the gras-shopper pictures featured in thecoming pages being fake ("of course,everybody knows grasshoppers aregreen", they say, looking me in theeye and waving their fingers), but ofcourse anyone who has roamed theforests and grasslands of the tropicsknows that no color is off bounds asfar as grasshoppers are concerned.Some of the most colorful ones areeven the easiest to see, as they preenfearlessly in plain sight on plant lea-ves, because their strident colorationsignals lizards, frogs and birds, theireternal enemies, that they are far frombeing a tasty snack, most surely foul-tasting of even poisonous. What fol-lows is a photogallery featuring someof the rarest - or most outrageouslycolorful - grasshoppers found in myhome country, Colombia. Some do noteven have a name yet, but I find themall equally beautiful and interestingand I hope you will too! .

EumastacidaeThis is a new species (name already assigned but yet to be published) from the Yariguíes mountain range innorthwest Colombia. Its showy colors are similar of those of the Colombian flag.

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Acantodis curvidensAnother one of the moss mimicking Katydids, this one is built like a tank in armor plates.When threatened, these katydids do not flee but try instead to scare away the intruder byperforming strange dances with their legs and flapping their wings threateningly.

Dry forest grasshoppers such as this one have superb camouflage skills, and only a sudden movement betrays their position, as it happened

with this one in the Chicamocha Canyon in eastern Colombia.

Lactista stramineus

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Rhammatocerus schistocercoides Aptoceras sp.Male of the Llanos Locust, which every 15-20 years or so can gather in swarms ofmillions of individuals devastating any plant in their path and rendering the meat ofcows, pigs and any animal which eats it inedible to humans because of its acrid taste.

Some ot the most beautiful species are not so because of colors but because of the waythey can blend in with their environment, as this species does in the mossy fallen trunks

where it is usually found in the Amazon basin. This one was photographed in Peru.

New Eumastacidae sp1 Colombia is a speciation hub for Monkey grasshoppers and many species there are yet to be discovered or named, such as this spectacularly colorful species from the highlands of the northwestern province.

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Trichopaon sp1No need to go to an expedition in the jungle to find new, amazing and colorful species.This Rhytidocrotine grasshopper is in all likelihood a new species, found barely half anhour from MedellÌn, Colombia, in the remnant mountain forests encircling the city.

Sometimes lacking wings, the Lagarolampine grasshoppers are related to lubbergrasshoppers. They all have small, freckle-like white spots and lines in their metallic-

colored bodies, and live in the forests rather than in grassland.

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Parapiezops homalonotusAlthough some Rhytidochrotines are as green or brown as the popular image of thegrasshopper, others have the most amazing colors, as this Parapiezops homalonotus, from the remote Pacific jungles of the Colombian Baudu mountain range.

Chromacris psittacus pacificus

Lagarolampae

This species inhabits western Colombia, where it can be found in sometimes very largegroups feeding off the poisonous leaves of plants from the tomato family (Solanaceae),

from which they pick the toxins announced by their bright and aposematic colors.

Opaon varicolor This could well be my all-time favorite species, found in the western montane jungles of Colombia. As its name indicates, there are several different colored morphs (often at the same site!), ofwhich that seen here is the one I find most striking. But there are blue-orange, black-red or red-white-blue versions, among others. As all of their subfamily (Rhytidochrotinae) they completely lackwings, and their colors and nonchalant behaviour are probably a sign that they are as poisonous or foul-tasting as their distantly related cousins the monkey hoppers.

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Mimetica castanea

Paraphidnia sp.

Megacheilacris bullifemur vallensis

Eumastacidae Caramanta

To me, the most incredible example of mimetism in grasshoppers or otherwise, is thisspecies, found in the jungles of western Colombia. Its similarity to a dead leaf includesminute venulet patterns in its wings, and even necrotized-looking dark spots!

Katydids or long-horned grasshoppers can be masterfully camouflaged, even changingtheir body shape to fit the most incredible forms: this Paraphidnia sp. mimics the lychensand mosses it lives around and feeds on in the jungles of Colombia.

A montane species from the Antioquia Department in Colombia.The females of thesespecies do not let males mount them, and the coupling is then an awkward dance in

which the male soothes the female with his curvy antennae while mating from the side.

Monkey grasshoppers are some of the most colorful insects I know, and individualssporting metallic blue, red and orange at the same time are common. This is a newspecies, yet to be classified, discovered in 2012 in an Andean valley in Colombia.

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Carbonellacris is another genus of the Eastern Plains which mimics grasses almostperfectly in color and shape. It is almost imposible to spot one if it does not move.

Lychen- and moss-mimicking katydids as this spectacular species rely on their incrediblecamouflage to avoid predation, and only will try to flee if they are touched.

Championica bicuspidata

Carbonellacris sp. Taeniophora sp.Grasshoppers of this genus are some of the most colorful in the neotropics.

Despite their garish coloration, they are rarely noticed by people because they tend toperch fairly high in plants and they are extremely skittish and agile jumpers.

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