I am beginning to think that we overuse the word weird. Perhaps it should be reserved for animals like Formiscurra indicus, a new Indian planthopper that is thoroughly, well, weird. Planthopper is the common name for any of the species of the superfamily Fulgoroidea, a worldwide group of true bugs with about 12,000 species. That is, by the way, more than twice as many species as all mammals combined. To say that planthoppers are diverse is putting it mildly. They range in size from less than 2mm to over 100mm, populations exist with both flighted and flightless morphs, many are camouflaged green while others are brilliantly coloured including reds, blues, and hot pinks. And some, like F indicus, are ridiculously shaped.

Most planthoppers feed on the phloem of vascular plants and a small percentage of species are considered agricultural pests, the most threatening of which are vectors of plant diseases. The brown planthopper, for example, is the most important pest of rice in Asia.

F indicus is about 5mm in length, has shortened wings, and is primarily brown in colour. It belongs to the family Caliscelidae, which includes between 200 and 300 species distributed on all continents except Antarctica. Sexual dimorphism is nothing new in the tribe Caliscelini, to which the new species belongs. In fact, males and females of two species of the genus Gelastissus look so different that they were initially described in separate genera! Females of the new species have reduced wings, a very compact body form, and the front of the head elongated into a cylindrical process. But the male is something else entirely.

Even as an entomologist I had to do a double take when I first looked at the photograph of F indicus to be sure I knew which end was which. Males of the species apparently mimic ants, although it can be debated whether the ants should be flattered. The abdomen is exceedingly shortened and bulbous and the main part of the cranium almost looks as if it is part of the thorax, which has impressively long legs, but these modifications pale in comparison to an elongate protrusion on the front of the head that is approximately the size of the abdomen and similarly bulbous. Weird.

F indicus was described by Vladimir Gnezdilov of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg and Chandrashekharaswamy A Viraktamath of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore. Although the phylogeny and biogeography of the new species are not yet clear, it shows some similarities to certain species from both India and Africa. The type locality for the species is a dry, grassy region in Karnataka near Bangalore. The new genus name is a combination of the Latin word formica, meaning ant, and scurra, meaning clown. That pretty much says it all.

Quentin Wheeler is director of the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University