Showing posts with label leaf bug. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leaf bug. Show all posts

Sunday, September 7, 2008

on leaves



The Phylliidae family, also known as leaf insects, possess the ability to mimic the form of a leaf to protect themselves from predators. From Britannica:


"The female has large leathery forewings (tegmina) that lie edge to edge on the abdomen and resemble, in their vein pattern, the midrib and veins in a leaf. Females are flightless and so the hindwings have no function. The male has small tegmina and ample, non-leaflike, functional hindwings."