It’s a rare sighting: A small oblong insect coloured a bright Barbie pink.
It’s a pink katydid, a grasshopper-like insect with a recessive gene that turns them from their usual pale green to bright pink.
Geoff Pekor is an insect enthusiast who makes a hobby out of looking for these, and other unusual insects at Ojibway Park. He recently spotted a pink katydid — but it’s not the first one he’s found.
In fact, he has a knack for it.
“If anybody knows anything about pink katydids, they are not common,” Pekor said. “They say it’s about one in 500, give or take, but that’s how it started with me, was just finding a couple at night and then I kept going and I kept finding them.
“It was very unusual… most people only might see one their whole life, and I was able to see a whole bunch.”
Pekor got into looking for them when he was shown a picture by another nature and insect enthusiast. Later, he was out looking for insects at night, using a flashlight to roam the trails.
“I happened to put my flashlight right on this beautiful pink katydid,” he said.
Pekor is a photographer, with a particular interest in macro photographs. He has a collection of pink katydid photos.
Pekor volunteers with some Ontario universities to catalog insects, including some types of spiders, and now, pink katydids. His photos of the rare katydids even caught the attention of the Montreal Insectarium, with representatives coming (permit in hand) to collect a couple of katydids for a exhibit.
As for why Pekor has such a knack for finding the katydids, he thinks it has to do with when he goes looking.
“My theory is that during the day the species in general will stick to the base of a plant and they’ll stay pretty low to avoid predators,” he said. “At night time, I’ve noticed I find my pink katydids pretty much near the tops of plants.
“So I assume that they’re comfortable at night time. And it’s just perfect for me because I’m out at night and I’m scanning the tops of vegetation and they’re there.”
But, he says, Ojibway also seems to be a home for many unusual and rare species, not just katydids.
“It doesn’t stop. You just never know what you’re going to find … it’s a really special place.”
What makes the katydids pink?
An entomologist at Michigan State University says the pink colour is caused by a recessive gene.
“It’s sort of like an albino animal,” David Lowenstein told CBC Windsor.
“Most katydids are green because they are herbivores. They want to blend in with the leaves that they feed on so they don’t get eaten. But occasionally there’s a mutation and you have some cases that are pink.”
Lowenstein said this kind of colouration is believed to occur in one in every 500 insects, and stays with the insect during its life.
“It would stay pink as an immature life stage and as an adult. But if a pink katydid were to reproduce with some green katydid, it’s probably going to be a green katydid as an offspring,” he said.
‘They are not toxic to handle’
If you see a pink katydid, and you are not squeamish, you might be happy to know “they are not toxic to handle.” In fact, Lowenstein said “seeing a pink katydid, that is not any cause for concern. You can approach it. If it’s an adult, it’s probably gonna fly away. But there’s nothing to worry about seeing an insect that looks like that.”
According to the entomologist, this is one of the “unusual quirks” that happen in the insect world.
“Sometimes it relates to the appearance of the insect, other times to the function of it. The reason we don’t see many pink katydids is because katydids can be fed on by predators. They don’t have great defence mechanisms, and if you’re trying to avoid getting eaten and you hang out on plants, it’s usually a good idea to look like the plant and not stick out.”
