A Dose of Wild and Wonderous Wilderness: The Display of the Brown-faced Conehead Katydid

Katydids (family Tettigoniidae) are an enormously diverse group of insects, especially in the tropics. At La Selva, they constitute an important part of our insect fauna and a great food resource to birds and mammals…if they can see them. Their shrill calls fill the nights in the forest and some are truly deafening. Their courtship (the male calls using stridulation, rubbing one part of a wing over the other) is an extraordinary affair, which we will tell in a future DDoW. Today’s featured species of this great family, Copiphora hastata or the brown-faced spearbearer (subfamily Conocephainae), is one of the spectacular ones. The common name probably arose from the extraordinarily long ovipositor of the females, which is literally as long or even longer than her whole body. The “cone” on their heads is not sharply pointed as in other species but rounded as seen from the side. And its leaf-like camouflage is subdued but effective. But most impressive is the frontal display, with heavy mandibles, red-brown face, bulging eyes, and a spiny appearance topped by an elegant little “hat.” Described in 2000 by the extraordinary entomologist, author, and photographer Piotr Naskrecki, it was one of the most notable additions to our La Selva fauna.