Platypleura divisa

Platypleura divisa (Germar, 1834), is an African cicada first described by Ernst Friedrich Germar, entomologist and professor of mineralogy at Halle, who also studied beetles.

Platypleura divisa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hemiptera
Family:
Cicadidae
Genus:
Platypleura
Species:
P. divisa
Binomial name
Platypleura divisa
(Germar, 1834)

The genus Platypleura occurs widely across Africa and southern Asia. Some of the South African species are remarkable for their endothermic thermoregulation that enables crepuscular signalling, an adaptation that reduces risk of predation and enables a greater range for their calls. In field experiments their maximum body temperature while calling at dusk, was measured at 22 °C above ambient temperature.[1]

Platypleura divisa is even more noteworthy in that it has been collected only from one species of foodplant, the small tree Maytenus heterophylla.[2] The closely related coastal species P. maytenophila shares its strong bond with Maytenus heterophylla, but is distinguishable by a quite different call.

The Platypleurini are distributed from the Cape in South Africa, throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, through India and south East Asia, to Japan.[3] The faunas of West Africa and Madagascar are distinctive, while those of southern and east Africa resemble the Asian group. Endothermy occurs in several large-bodied South American and South African species, but not in related small-bodied species.[4]

References
  1. Sanborn Allen F (2003). "Hot-blooded singers: endothermy facilitates crepuscular signaling in African platypleurine cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Platypleura spp.)". Naturwissenschaften. 90: 305–308. doi:10.1007/s00114-003-0428-1. PMID 12883772.
  2. Sanborn Allen F (2003). "Thermal responses in some Eastern Cape African Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae)" (PDF). Journal of Thermal Biology. 28: 347–351. doi:10.1016/S0306-4565(03)00013-5.
  3. Ben Price; Martin Villet. "Historical Biogeography of African Platypleurin Cicadas - Platypleurini, cicadas". Department of Zoology & Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa. Archived from the original on 2007-06-29. Retrieved 2017-02-04.
  4. pers. comm. prof Martin Villet, Rhodes University


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