Nihoa Conehead Katydid

Taxobox
name = Nihoa Conehead Katydid
status = VU | status_system = IUCN2.3


image_width = 240px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Orthoptera
familia = Tettigoniidae
genus = "Banza"
species = "B. nihoa"
binomial = "Banza nihoa"

The Nihoa Conehead Katydid ("Banza nihoa") is one of the many endemic species on the island of Nihoa in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It is one of the ten species in the "Banza" genus, all of them native to Hawaii. It gets its food mostly from plant leaves, but because of the low population, it does not do significant damage. Unlike Main Islands' species, whose males leap on the females before mating, the Nihoa variants sing to them (Rauzon, 20). It is a threatened species.

References

*N. Evenhuis and L. Eldredge, "Natural History of Nihoa and Necker Islands", Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, 2004.
*M. Rauzon, "Isles of Refuge: Wildlife and History of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands", University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2001.