[1] This species was first described in 1843 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray, who gave it the name Phyllium bilobatum.

The holotype is a female from the Philippines, which is kept in the Natural History Museum, London where Gray worked cataloguing insects.

The single pair of wings lie flat on the insect's back, and only the adult male can fly.

They are hemimetabolous, the eggs hatching into nymphs which pass through a number of moults as they grow, but do not undergo metamorphosis.

[5] Young nymphs tend to hide in withered leaves, which at this stage they resemble more closely in colour than they do green foliage.