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Many Southeast Asian pseudophylline katydids, such as this delicate species (Lacipoda immunda), possess the remarkable ability to rotate their wings sideways and thus lay completely flat against the surface of a leaf. Their textured patterns combined with their often semi-translucency gives them very effective visual camouflage, but this adaptation may also serve to help them avoid detection from an even more important non-visual predator. Foliage-gleaning nocturnal bats, for whom color mimesis is a poor defense, hone in on their prey by echolocation – presumably recognizing an insect’s distinctive posture while it is perched upright on a leaf. By flattening their profile at the first sign of a predator, these katydids may thereby disappear abruptly from a hunting bat’s sonar. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).

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© Chien C. Lee
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Keywords
Contained in galleries
Borneo, Insects, Camouflage
Many Southeast Asian pseudophylline katydids, such as this delicate species (Lacipoda immunda), possess the remarkable ability to rotate their wings sideways and thus lay completely flat against the surface of a leaf. Their textured patterns combined with their often semi-translucency gives them very effective visual camouflage, but this adaptation may also serve to help them avoid detection from an even more important non-visual predator. Foliage-gleaning nocturnal bats, for whom color mimesis is a poor defense, hone in on their prey by echolocation – presumably recognizing an insect’s distinctive posture while it is perched upright on a leaf. By flattening their profile at the first sign of a predator, these katydids may thereby disappear abruptly from a hunting bat’s sonar. Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo).