Crossword Genius

Nutcases operated in Langley? (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

crania

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'nutcases' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are plural nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.

'operated in langley?' is the wordplay.
'operated' becomes 'ran' ('run' can be a synonym of 'operate').
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'langley?' becomes 'cia' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ran' placed within 'cia' is 'CRANIA'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for crania that I've seen is " Skulls".)

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