I was quite surprised by these little Katydids as they hopped onto the stem of the flowers I was photographing and once they realised I was there, they flattened their bodies against the stem and moved to the opposite side to hide. It was interesting to see both the male and female together here. I must go back and see if I can get better photos. Both the male and female look as if they are nymphs. Adult males have wings and adult females have very long ovipositors.
Redlegged grasshopper -- Criquet pattes rougesOrder Orthoptera -- Family AcrididaeBas-Saint-Laurent -- Province de Qubec -- CanadaPrise en aot 2007 -- Taken in August 2007
Attribution: Moritz Muschick. Timema poppensis perfectly camouflaged on its host, Redwood Sequoia sempervirens, California. This and other, closely related, species are adapted to live on very different host plants and at different elevations. These ecological specialisations have triggered the splitting into distinct species. How this ecological speciation is promoted, for example by divergent camouflage, can be studied by comparing species of Timema stick insects. Analysis of their DNA also reveals which regions in the genome play important roles in ecological speciation. The results of this research will advance our understanding of how biodiversity forms generally.Overall Winner.BMC Ecology 2013, 13:6 doi:10.1186/1472-6785-13-6www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/13/6
