Zumala

This beauty was one of the many specials found on our visit to Sinharaja rain forest during the photography tour that I guided last month. It looked bizarre. This was the first time I came across it. And it really looked prehistoric. This effect was further enhanced as it was resting on a Giant Fern Angiopteris evecta —a primitive fern with very similar fossilised fronds having been found in rocks some 300 million years old.

I sought I identification help from Dr.Priyantha Wijesinghe (D.P. Wijesinghe, in most literature) who is a Sri Lankan Systematic Biologist working in the Entomology Department of the American Museum of Natural History (edit: he doesn't work at AMNH anymore).

He got back, "...your photographs are excellent, and I was very glad to see them, not having come across a live specimen of Zumala myself..."

Whoa!
That did not hurt my ego!

According to Dr. Wijesinghe, this Long-horned Grasshopper (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) belongs to the genus: Zumala, which belongs to the subfamily Pseudophyllinae, and tribe Phyllomimini. He confirmed that as far as is known, this genus is confined to Sri Lanka’s wet zone, and is represented by 3 species: Zumala robusta (Walker, 1939)—type species of the genus Zumala; Zumala cingalensis (Walker, 1869); and Zumala intermedia (Henry, 1939). This apparently is a female as can be seen from the ovipositor, the tip of which is visible protruding from between the back end of the tegmina (forewings).

Dr. Wijesinghe identified this individual as Zumala robusta, "...mainly on the basis of the shape and size of ovipositor and the dorsal curvature of the pronotum and tegmina in profile." He had based his identification on a paper done by G.M. Henry, the author of A Guide to the Birds of Ceylon, who was the entomologist of the Department of National Museums (then Colombo Museum), 1913-1945, and specialised in the study of Orthoptera. Henry's post was filled by Dr. Wijesinghe in the 80s.

The paper referred above is:
Henry, G.M. 1939. The genus Zumala Walker, (Insecta, Orthoptera) with description of a new species. Ceylon Journal of Science B Zoology and Geology {Spolia Zeylanica} 21 (3):219-228, 4 plts.

Dr. Wijesinghe explained to me that according to Henry, although this species has wing (concelaed under the tegmina), it is probably incapable of flight. Apparently, the other two species lack hind wings altogether, and therefore are flightless.

This is us after finding the Zumala.