22 March 2026
Katydids are usually hard to find because their green color and leafy shape provide camouflage in their natural habitat. This one in Costa Rica can only be seen because his leaf is lit from below.
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When scientists in Panama occasionally found a hot pink version of a normally green katydid (Arota festea) they assumed it was a mutant. Out of curiosity they kept a pink one in captivity and were amazed to discover that it slowly changed color. Within two weeks it turned green.
At every stage, from hot pink to vibrant green, its color camouflaged it among the leaves.
In the [insect] animals’ native jungle home of Suriname, Colombia, and Panama, about 36% of plants turn pink before adopting their typical mature green—a process of delayed greening sometimes called “red flushing.”
This photo from the study, Pink Cricket Club: Dramatic color change in a Neotropical leaf-masquerading katydid (Arota festae, Griffini, 1896), shows the match-up.
The katydid’s color is connected to everything else. Now we know the connection.
(Figure 1 caption) Intense hot pink morph of an adult female Arota festae. Photographed at 23:32 on 27 March 2025 on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, using a Sony A7CR camera with a LAOWA 90?mm f/2.8 lens and a Godox Speedlite TT350 flash. The final image was produced by focus stacking 4 photographs in Adobe Photoshop, with brightness increased for clarity while leaving saturation and hue unaltered. Photo credit: Zeke W. Rowe
(Figure 2 caption) Pink-to-green color change in Arota festae (Griffini, 1896) and resemblance to pink leaves in delayed plant greening. (A) Photographs of the same A. festae individual at days 0, 4, 5, and 14 following initial discovery at 23:12 on 27 March 2025 on BCI, Panama. All photographs in (A) were taken by Benito Wainwright. (B) Photographs of local plant species displaying delayed greening (from left to right: Paullinia bracteosa, Coccoloba manzinellensis, Inga ruziana, and Andira inermis). From the left, the first, second, and third photographs in (B) were taken by J. Benito Wainwright, and the fourth photograph (on the far right in B) was taken by Phyllis Coley