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parktown prawn
"Parktown prawn" is a common name for ''Libanasidus vittatus'', a species of king cricket endemic to Southern Africa. It is effectively unrelated to the prawns, ''Libanasidus'' being a genus in the order Orthoptera, which includes the crickets, locusts and similar insects. The king crickets are not really crickets either, but members of the family Anostostomatidae, whereas true crickets are in the family Gryllidae. The insect gets its English name from the suburb of Parktown in Johannesburg, South Africa where they are common. In Angola, it is found in the southern savanna and semi-arid regions, whereas in Namibia it is found throughout the territory. The Parktown prawn is related to the New Zealand tree wetas, which also are members of the family Anostostomatidae.
The Parktown prawn is held in low regard by many householders, but gardeners value them for controlling garden snail populations and attracting the hadeda ibis. The animal is omnivorous, with a diet that includes snails, other invertebrates, and vegetable matter. In urban environments, they will readily take food made available by suburban dwellers, including cat food and dog food and their droppings.
==History and discovery==
''Libanasidus vittatus'' was unknown within Johannesburg before the 1960s; the first known specimen being found in Barberton in 1899 by William Forsell Kirby.〔〔 They only became prevalent after 1960, when Johannesburg began to expand rapidly in size. The reason for the increase in the insects' numbers is unclear, although they have done much better in an urban environment than in the wild, and it has been suggested that some ecological controlling factor is absent in its suburban habitat.
Johannesburg, being situated on the South African highveld, has a dry climate, and therefore was an unsuitable habitat for the Parktown prawn. With the arrival of suburban dwellers, irrigated gardens provided lush, forest-like conditions, an environment more suited to king crickets.〔 Certain suburbs in Johannesburg are very green and leafy, and represent a radical transformation of local flora.
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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