Description
The Parktown prawn is one of the larger insects found in Johannesburg homes. A large specimen may grow to be 10 cm (3.9 in) or more, with long whip-like antennae extending to 10 cm (3.9 in), but are usually around 4 cm (1.6 in) to 5 cm (2.0 in) in length, with 2 cm (0.79 in) antennae. The exoskeleton is orange to light brown, with darker brown or black stripes along the thorax and abdomen, which gives it a toxic look to would-be aggressors. The legs have downward-facing hooked barbs, which allow it climb up walls and trees. A large specimen can jump more than a metre high.
The male insect sports a strong set of mandibles, although the need for them is not fully known, other than for use in self-defence against other males. The female has a well-developed ovipositor, through which she will lay between 80 and 200 eggs during mating season in damp or wet topsoil.
Read more about this topic: Parktown Prawn
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any other place.”
—Herodotus (c. 484–424 B.C.)
“An intentional object is given by a word or a phrase which gives a description under which.”
—Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (b. 1919)
“I was here first introduced to Joe.... He was a good-looking Indian, twenty-four years old, apparently of unmixed blood, short and stout, with a broad face and reddish complexion, and eyes, methinks, narrower and more turned up at the outer corners than ours, answering to the description of his race. Besides his underclothing, he wore a red flannel shirt, woolen pants, and a black Kossuth hat, the ordinary dress of the lumberman, and, to a considerable extent, of the Penobscot Indian.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)