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Photo#139882
A Yellow Katydid - Amblycorypha oblongifolia - male

A Yellow Katydid - Amblycorypha oblongifolia - Male
Great Falls, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA
August 6, 2007
I've seen images of 'Pink' katydids before on this website, which I thought quite weird when I first saw them, but I've never seen a 'Yellow' Katydid before. Any idea as to the reasons for the odd coloration / abberation, and what species this might be? Thanks.

Images of this individual: tag all
A Yellow Katydid - Amblycorypha oblongifolia - male A Yellow Katydid - Amblycorypha oblongifolia - male

Moved

Moved
Moved from Grasshoppers, Katydids and Crickets. Amblycorypha is now known to be more diverse, with similar species being physically indistinguishable. Only the songs are different. So, leaving at genus level for now.

Oblong-winged Katydid
Not positive on the ID, but they do come in green, yellow or pink and are found in the Eastern US. I think this would be the first yellow one for Bugguide. See comparison yellows on SINA here.

Cool shots!
No clue on any tentative ID beyond Tettigoniidae. I've seen several yellow katydids before, too. Haven't been lucky enough to run across any pink ones, though, but the images of them are pretty freakin' cool. As far as I know, the mechanism behind this polymorphism is somewhat unclear. A 2001 paper by Oda & Ishii showed developmental color change in Conocephalus maculatus from green nymphs to a later brown morph, which appears to also be reversible back to a green form. Their study suggested that, at least in this species, color morph is primarly under genetic control, with environmental factors having little effect. However, I wouldn't be surprised if other species may display some sort of plasticity with regards to coloration. I'm not sure how much other work has been done with polymorphism in katydids since then, as I haven't dug too deeply into the literature, but it sounds like something I'd dig, as my current research involves polymorphism in salamanders. Crypsis? Aposematism? Who knows?! Your guy definitely doesn't look too concealed in these shots, though! Discontinuous variation is a nifty thing!

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