Libanasidus vittatus
| Libanasidus vittatus | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Libanasidus vittatus |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Libanasidus vittatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Kirby , 1899) |
Libanasidus vittatus is a Weta species of long- antennae terrors endemicto South Africa . It is commonly known there as Parktown prawn ("Parktown shrimp"). The English name is an ironic combination of Parktown , a suburb of Johannesburg , where the animals can often be found, where they drown in the swimming pool in search of damp, dark places, and Prawn (English shrimp), due to the external Similarity.
features
Libanasidus vittatus reaches a body size of 60 (exceptionally up to 70) millimeters and thus belongs to the large species of grasshopper. The animals are brownish to reddish in color, with orange and black striped abdomen. The legs are colored yellow and darkened brownish in sections. Typical of the genus Libanasidius is the oval, freely visible, perforated tympanic organ on the front and back of the rails of the forelegs in connection with thighs of the hind legs that are thornless on the upper side and toothed on the underside and four thorns on the rear edge of the rails of the hind legs.
The female wears a 12 mm long, brown-colored, pointed ovipositor at the rear end , this is long and evenly curved upwards, at the base about five times as wide as at the tip. The yellow cerci are conical and curved upwards. Males are notable for the horn-like appendages of the mandibles ; these are bent upwards at right angles in the middle, their tips overlap in the rest position. The processes are at least as large as the mandibles, but can also be considerably larger. They can be easily distinguished from Libanasidus impicta , the second species of the genus, by this characteristic .
Distribution and Biology
The species is endemic to South Africa, north to southernmost Zimbabwe . It occurs quite widespread in the northeast of the Republic of South Africa, in Gauteng , Limpopo and Mpumalanga , for example on the Soutpansberg and the Drakensberg . The natural habitat of Parktown prawn are forests. Usually they only come out of their hiding places at night and go looking for food during this time. The species is omnivorous . If she feels threatened, she hurls smelly feces in the direction of the attacker in defense . She spends the day in self-dug earth caves. The males use the horn-like appendages of the mandibles to fight among themselves for access to females.
The clandestine, nocturnal Parktown prawn only became known to the wider public in the 1960s, when it moved from its natural habitats to the artificial, newly created irrigated lawns of the cities and suburbs, especially the city of Johannesburg , with their moist, loose soils offer them good life opportunities. Since it also enters houses and sometimes drowns in open swimming pools , it is viewed by residents as a nuisance .
Phylogeny, taxonomy, systematics
The species was first described in 1899 by the English entomologist William Forsell Kirby , as Carcinopsis vittatus . Type material were two females from Barberton in Mpumalanga. In 1916, the South African entomologist Louis Albert Péringuey transferred it to the genus Libanasidus , which he had newly described , of which it is a type . The taxonomy of the grasshopper species of the Stenopelmatoidea superfamily in South Africa was confused for a long time and has recently been clarified by the work of the zoologist Helene Brettschneider. The genus was long considered monotypical, in the modern understanding it contains two species. The second species, Libanasidus impicta (Stål, 1878), is hardly known, it has only been recorded in a small region in the North Cape Province . There is evidence that the species Libanasidus vittatus comprises two genetically separated populations, possibly cryptospecies .
The Anostostomatidae family , called Weta in New Zealand, is widespread in the southern hemisphere. In Africa it comprises eight genera with around fifty species, some of which are quite similar to one another. The species is included in the Anostostomatini tribe , which lives predominantly in Africa (only Onosandrus is also found in Australia and New Zealand).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b " The Biology of Wetas, King Crickets and Their Allies ". Laurence H. Field, 2001
- ↑ Alan Weaving; Mike Picker; Griffiths, Charles Llewellyn (2004). Field Guide to Insects of South Africa . New Holland Publishers, Ltd., ISBN 1-86872-713-0
- ↑ a b c d Helene Brettschneider: Systematics of southern African Anostostomatidae (Orthoptera) based on morphological and molecular data. Thesis, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, 2006. Chapter 2: Review of southern African Anostostomatidae (Orthoptera: Ensifera), with a key to genera, Genus Libanasidus Péringuey, 1916, pp. 40-47.
- ↑ a b c Brettschneider, Helene; Chimimba, Christian Timothy; Scholtz, Clarke H .; Bastos, Armanda DS; Bateman, Philip W. (2009): The tusked king cricket (Libanasidus vittatus (Kirby, 1899) Anostostomatidae) from South Africa: morphological and molecular evidence suggest two cryptic species. Research Articles (University of Pretoria) online
- ^ " Johannesburg's Garden Invader - The Parktown Prawn ". Intekom.com. 1999
- ↑ Mcneil, Donald G. (March 24, 1999). " These Streets Belong to the Pre-Millennium Bug ". New York Times
- ^ Species Libanasidus vittatus (Kirby, 1899) . Orthoptera Species File (Version 5.0 / 5.0), accessed May 25, 2020.
