Mo Ganji: Santa Monica Shieldback Katydid | Santa-Monica-Schildschrecke | Aglaothorax longipennis | No. 192/250 from work group 8/99

Santa Monica Shieldback Katydid | Santa-Monica-Schildschrecke | Aglaothorax longipennis

Mo Ganji shifts his focus to the Santa Monica shieldback katydid — a flightless orthopteran insect confined to chaparral and coastal scrub — by letting the single line move toward concentration rather than description. The line gathers the being into a reduced presence, setting aside sound, camouflage and anatomical specificity so that what remains is a quiet core. In Ganji’s thinking, the line is not bound to the insect alone; it remains open, reminding us that every depicted being is also a conceptual moment shaped by human attention.

Aglaothorax longipennis is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Endemic to a very small area in the Santa Monica Mountains of California, the species has one of the most restricted distributions of any insect in North America. Known populations are limited to a few isolated locations, and overall numbers are believed to be extremely low.

The principal threats include habitat loss from urban expansion, wildfire, invasive plant species, and the fragmentation of remaining chaparral ecosystems. Because the katydid is flightless and highly localized, it has little capacity to recolonize once habitat patches are lost. Increasing fire frequency and human pressure further destabilize its already narrow ecological niche.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the katydid can be encountered beyond obscurity or scale. It allows attention to rest on a life existing within a thin margin of terrain, suggesting how disappearance often unfolds not through dramatic collapse, but through the steady compression of space until continuity is no longer possible.