The flat-necked shieldback (''Arytropteris basalis'') is a species of
shield-backed katydid
The Tettigoniinae are a subfamily of Tettigoniidae, bush crickets or katydids, which contains hundreds of species in about twelve Tribe (biology), tribes.
Distribution
The greatest diversity is in the Palaearctic region and many of the familiar ...
that is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to the coastal forests and thickets of
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...
province in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
. It is threatened by cultivation, mining and tourism.
References
Tettigoniinae
Vulnerable animals
Endemic insects of South Africa
Insects described in 1869
{{tettigoniidae-stub