Leaf insects (family Phyliidae) literally look like leaves. The resemblance is so perfect (including structures that mimic bite marks in some species) that predators can't distinguish them from real leaves. These animals have a very particular walk. They rock back and forth, thereby mimicking a leaf moved by the wind. This behaviour has given them the name dancing leaf insects.
The new species was found on Papua New Guinea and these animals are so rarely found the authors named them after Lelantos, the Greek minor Titan of moving unseen.
For the experts: A new subgenus, Walaphyllium subgen. nov., is described within Phyllium Illiger, 1798 to accommodate three leaf insect species. One of the species included is newly described herein as Phyllium (Walaphyllium) lelantos sp. nov. from Papua New Guinea. This new subgenus of Phyllium can be diagnosed by a following combination of features. This new species is compared to the two additional new subgenus members, Phyllium zomproi Größer, 2001 and Phyllium monteithi Brock & Hasenpusch, 2003. Also for the first time the male morphology of Phyllium zomproi is described and illustrated. To conclude, a brief biogeographical view of the leaf insects on either side of the Torres Strait is presented, as well as a key to species and a distribution map to the known species of Phyllium (Walaphyllium) subgen. nov.
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