An international team of scientists has unveiled seven new species of leaf insects, commonly known as walking leaves.
- These insects are part of the stick and leaf insect order and are known for their unusual appearance: they look confusingly similar to parts of plants such as twigs, bark, or – in the case of leaf insects – leaves.
- Their advanced camouflage not only serves as a defense mechanism against predators but also poses a challenge for scientific study.
- Some individual insects from India were previously thought to belong to a species that is widespread in Southeast Asia. But now the researchers have found out that they are a completely new species of leaf insects.
- The findings are important not only for the systematic study of leaf insects but also for the protection of their diversity.
- The loss of these Indian insects would not merely reduce numbers within a known species; it would mean the extinction of an entirely separate species.
