A Thorny Encounter

And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers
is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.

                                        - Thomas Moore

 

Hunkered down in the mowed grass alongside the trail, looking for the minuscule grasshopper and katydid nymphs that spring away from my footsteps, I happened to glance to my left at a long green stem nearby.

Wow, those are some fierce thorns!

Curious. I didn't recall seeing anything thorny around here in previous years; the roses and other shrubby plants with prickles and thorns are found in other areas. The thorns were brown and pointy...and there were only two of them.

My eye followed the stem upwards to see the distinctive and familiar yellow petals of Ratibida pinnata, gray-headed coneflower, at the top. Those don't have thorns. 

Closer inspection revealed a set of eyes below the pointy protrusion, and veined wings aft, simulating the broad base of a prickle. A set of chunky, hairy-looking legs below the eyes completed the insect. What a clever disguise! I wonder how many predators are fooled as easily as I....

The Wide-footed Treehopper (Enchenopa latipes), like other treehoppers, has built-in camouflage that renders it difficult to spot when it is feeding on the sap of plant stems. Many species are commonly known as thorn bugs, for obvious reasons.

The long "thorn" is actually a fancy extension of the pronotum, commonly seen as a smooth, shield-like plate on the thorax of insects like grasshoppers and beetles, between the head and the base of the wings. The disguise serves double duty, not only helping the treehopper to blend in with its surroundings, but also deterring investigation by predators perhaps familiar with the sharp end of actual thorns they've encountered in the past.