''Plangia'' is a genus of
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
in family
Tettigoniidae
Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids (especially in North America), or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, t ...
, commonly known as Bush crickets or Katydids. In
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
they are generally known as ''krompokkels'', roughly meaning "little fat hunchbacks"; this name refers to their arched
dorsal profile. The genus is indigenous to
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
. It includes the following species:
* ''
Plangia albolineata''
* ''
Plangia deminuta''
* ''
Plangia compressa''
* ''
Plangia graminea''
* ''
Plangia guttatipennis''
* ''
Plangia karschi''
* ''
Plangia laminifera''
* ''
Plangia nebulosa''
* ''
Plangia ovalifolia''
* ''
Plangia segonoides''
* ''
Plangia unimaculata''
* ''
Plangia venata''
* ''
Plangia villiersi''
Description
Typical ''Plangia'' species are moderate-sized katydids, fairly effective green leaf
mimics, that lay their fairly large, flattened oval eggs under bark, or in individual incisions in the edges of leaves of their food plants. They make the incisions into the leaf
parenchyma
Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ or structure such as a tumour. In zoology it is the name for the tissue that fills the interior of flatworms.
Etymology
The term ''parenchyma'' is New Latin from the word π ...
, between, and parallel to, the
dorsal and
ventral leaf
epidermis
The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rele ...
. The
ovipositor
The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...
is specialised for the purpose and it has a peculiar shape rather like the curved blade of a
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
stick. In this respect the ovipositor differs from most other katydids, that tend to have straight, sometimes very long, ovipositors.
The best-known pest species is ''Plangia graminea'', a lightly built katydid; it is not of much commercial or agricultural importance, seldom worth controlling, but sometimes causes damage to foliage in vineyards and gardens.
References
Phaneropterinae
Tettigoniidae genera
{{tettigoniidae-stub