Katydid

समाधिBot: A katydid is a five-legged insect that’s kind of like a grasshopper —

Miles: It’s six-legged, that one just lost its leg. Sometimes their back legs fall off.

समाधिBot: Why would their back legs fall off?

Miles: I don’t know, they’re just not attached that well.

India: They do it for defense, like if a wasp egg was clinging on it, you know —

Miles: Uhh, no they don’t, they don’t really do it for defense —

India: You know how those sea star things —

Miles: No, it’s not like that. They sometimes get their leg snagged… and then their leg falls off.

India: And they’re not injured at all…

समाधिBot: What do these guys eat?

Miles: Leaves.

समाधिBot: Leaves exclusively? They wouldn’t eat an aphid if one came along?

Miles: Grass… things like that. Things like grasshoppers eat, they seem to have a grasshopper diet. Except they seem to like leaves more. And sometimes they bite people.

समाधिBot: Really? So they would eat an aphid?

Miles: Yeah maybe. And look, they have tiny little antennae right there… and there… [pointing to the sides of its mouth]

India: Is it like a Komodo dragon that smells with its tongue?

Miles: No.

India: So it smells with its nose?

समाधिBot: It also has a weird plate-like thing on the tip of its nose.

Miles: This is what it does… [gestures]

समाधिBot: Oh that’s its upper lip? What’s behind that?

Miles: Underneath there’s… how am I gonna do this… [makes sideways chewing gestures]

समाधिBot: Ah!

Miles: Like that… mandibles. And it looks just like a leaf. Its wings look just like a leaf. They even have veins to go with it.

Taj: Hey guys let’s just delete this one. This one isn’t good. This interview isn’t good —

समाधिBot: It’s never too late! Things can always turn around —

Taj: How much more minutes? How much more minutes?

समाधिBot: Um… we don’t know. You never know how long an interview is gonna go. But I edit heavily…

Miles: So we get out all of the poo talk —

समाधिBot: Yes, any mention of poo gets removed.

India: I know one thing about them: they’re like praying mantises, they lick their legs all the time. And if you look closely at the skin it looks like jelly.

समाधिBot: It looks like bubbly green candy jelly.

Taj: And someone might want to eat this one.

समाधिBot: Oh yeah, and its little hand! It’s got a hook at the end, what does it do with its hook?

Miles: I think it just sits around with it.