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Sticker of Parktown prawn
Bug card No. 3260 of 4,939

Parktown prawn

Libanasidus vittatus
Eats: A bit of everythingGrasshoppers and cricketsGardens and meadows6 legs

The Parktown prawn is not a prawn at all but a big orange king cricket from southern Africa. It has dark stripes on its back and feelers as long as its body. It is named after Parktown, a part of the city of Johannesburg where it is very common.

Lives in
Southern Africa, especially South Africa, Namibia and Angola, often in leafy city gardens
Length
6 to 7 cm (2.4 to 2.8 in)
Top speed
about 5.6 km/h (3.5 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless, but it can jump suddenly and squirt a smelly black liquid when scared. It is best to let it be.
What does it eat?
It eats slugs, snails and caterpillars, plus plants, fallen fruit and even pet food. Gardens with many Parktown prawns have almost no snails.
For real!Photo of Parktown prawn
Picture by Paul venter. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Parktown prawn about 7 cm long (2.8 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 0.6 secondsmoves 22 times its own body length every second

How big is Parktown prawn compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A big one can jump more than a metre high.

2

Males have tusk-like spikes on their jaws.

3

It became common in Johannesburg only after 1960, when watered gardens made the dry city green.

4

Gardeners like it because it eats snails and slugs.

5

The aliens in the film District 9 were made to look like Parktown prawns.

you asked

Most asked questions about Parktown prawn

?Is the Parktown prawn dangerous?

No. It can jump and squirt a smelly black liquid when scared, but it is not dangerous.

?Is the Parktown prawn a real prawn?

No. It is an insect, a kind of king cricket, related to the wฤ“tฤ of New Zealand.

?How big is a Parktown prawn?

A big one can be 6 to 7 centimetres long, with feelers just as long.

Myth buster

Myth: The Parktown prawn was made in a genetic experiment by university students in the 1960s.

Truth: No. That story began as an April Fools' joke in a newspaper. The first one was found back in 1899, and it is a completely natural insect.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Libanasidus vittatus
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Anostostomatidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Anostostomatidae
Lives on
Africa
Also known as
African king cricket, Tusked king cricket

Where the facts come from

  1. Parktown prawn (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Paul venter. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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