These absolutely magnificent looking insects are adult females of a species of LEAF KATYDID from the rainforests of Malaysia known only by its scientific name of Ancyclecha fenestrata.

You can see just from these few pictures how fantastic their camouflage would be when they are hiding in their treetop habitat, as they very closely resemble a leaf. They also have amazing ‘eye’ spots on their wings and thorny spines on their rear legs to warn off predators as you can see here:

Their antennae are among the longest (when compared to the overall size of the body) of any insect I have ever kept, you can see on the picture below that the end of the katydid’s right antenna is actually off of the left-hand edge of the picture!

As juveniles this species looks possibly even more amazing than they do as adults, with a fantastic mix of greens and browns. You can also see their thorny leg spines much more clearly when they are juveniles as you can see below!

This is undoubtedly one of my favourite insect species in my collection and I am very grateful to my breeder friend Curtis Lakin for letting me buy individuals of this beautiful species (as well as so many of my other stick insects / grasshoppers / praying mantises) from him!

There are many different species of katydids worldwide and during my trip to Costa Rica in December 2013 I was lucky enough to see a number of species, my favourite two were those pictured below. The first was a deep brown colour (more like a dead leaf in appearance) and the other bright green with beautifully patterned wings and a large horn on its head!!