Platypleura
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| Platypleura | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Platypleura deusta | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Auchenorrhyncha |
| Family: | Cicadidae |
| Tribe: | Platypleurini |
| Genus: | Platypleura Amyot & Serville, 1843 |
| Species | |
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See text. | |
Platypleura is a genus of cicadas, occurring widely across Africa and southern Asia; it is the type genus of the tribe Platypleurini and species previously included here are now placed in other similar genera, such as Planopleura and Dyticopycna.
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]
The Platypleurini are distributed from the Cape in South Africa, throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, through India and south-eastern Asia, to Japan.[2] 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.[3]
