Genus Pliacanthopus Giglio-Tos, 1927

Diagnosis

Leaf-dwelling mantis. Body small-sized. Compound eyes rounded, juxtaocular bulges distinct, rounded, slightly higher than the compound eyes; cranial vertex concave; lower frons transverse, narrow. Pronotum narrow, as long as the fore coxae, metazone longer than the prozone, dorsal surface keeled along its midline. Prothoracic femora with 3 discoidal spines, 4 postero-ventral spines; prothoracic tibiae armed with unequal postero-ventral spines. Metathorax with a DK ear (see Yager and Svenson 2008), meso-and metathoracic legs slender. Fore wings narrow, hyaline except for costal field; cells large, approximately quadrilateral. Hind wings hyaline, except for apical part of costal field. Abdomen narrow; subgenital plate with styli, unequal in length in some species. Last segment of cerci elongate. Ventral phallomere of external genitalia rhomboidal, sdpl short, with acute apex.

Including species

Pliacanthopus (Pliacanthopus) mantispoides (Hebard, 1920) (type locality: Malaysia: North Borneo, Sandakan); Pliacanthopus (Malayamantis) flavus (Giglio-Tos, 1915) (type locality: Malaysia: Borneo); P. (M.) malayanus (Beier, 1931) (type locality: Malaysia: Selangor, Bukit Kutu); P. (M.) bimaculatus (Wang, 1993) (type locality: China: Yunnan, Jinghong); P. (M.) visayanus Schwarz, 2021 (type locality: Philippines: Panay Island); P. (M.) tricolor sp. nov. (type locality: China: Tibet, Medog) .