Nihoa conehead katydid

Nihoa conehead katydid
Nihoa conehead katydid
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Tettigoniidae
Genus: Banza
Species: B. nihoa
Binomial name
Banza nihoa
Hebard, 1926

The Nihoa conehead katydid, Banza nihoa, is a species of katydid which is endemic to the Hawaiian island of Nihoa (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands). It is one of the ten species in the genus Banza, all of them native to Hawaii, although it is the sister species to the remaining nine, and may belong in a separate genus.[2] It gets its food mostly from plant leaves, but because of the low population, it does not do significant damage. Unlike Main Islands' species, whose males leap on the females before mating, the Nihoa variants sing to them.[3] It is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List,[1] and as a "species of concern" under the Endangered Species Act.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Orthopteroid Specialist Group (1996). "Banza nihoa". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/40741. Retrieved July 2, 2010. 
  2. ^ L. H. Shapiro, J. S. Strazanac & G. K. Roderick (2006). "Molecular phylogeny of Banza (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), the endemic katydids of the Hawaiian Archipelago". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41 (1): 53–63. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.04.006. 
  3. ^ Mark J. Rauzon (2001). "Life on Nihoa". Isles of Refuge: Wildlife and History of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 14–21. ISBN 978-0824823306. 
  4. ^ "Nihoa Banza Conehead katydid (Banza nihoa) species profile". Environmental Conservation Online System. United States Fish and Wildlife Service. July 2, 2010. http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=I07R. 

Further reading

  • N. Evenhuis and L. Eldredge, Natural History of Nihoa and Necker Islands, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 2004.


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