#elephantodeta

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Katydid nymph, likely genus Elephantodeta, Perth WA.

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#1242 - Elephantodeta sp. - Hump-backed Katydid

Found dead inside an old car tire, of all places. Hump-backed Katydids are most common in dry areas, near the ground.

There’s two described species in this genus, but there’s a number of undescribed species, including one exceptionally large one from inland WA - i.e. this very region. But there’s also another, completely undescribed genus that’s quite similar.

Basically, if you can find somebody to pay you, you’ll have a job for life describing Australian insects. 

This one is obviously a female, as you can tell from the large bladed ovipositor.

In Elephantodeta nobilis the males and females duet, with the female responding to the male's long and complex four-part call. But the males then had the problem of satellite males, who would sneak in close and then interject their own call call 200 milleseconds before the alpha male’s Part D was due to start. This is apparently effective enough at distracting the females, and annoying enough, that the alpha males respond by repeating Part D repeatedly.

Cue, Western Australia

EDIT: Most likely E. nobilis

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#1804 - Elephantodeta sp. - Mystery Humpbacked Katydid

A known but as yet undescribed katydid species, found in inland Western Australia. Which makes me finding this one doubly mysterious, since it was dead on a concrete slab in Australind, on the SW coast - well outside its known range. 

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[drhoz]

Eclosing (molting) adult katydid of an Elephantodeta species (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), from the Northern Territory, Australia. / Plates / Энтомология