Anisomorpha buprestoides

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anisomorpha buprestoides
Anisomorpha buprestoides pair copulating

Anisomorpha buprestoides pair during copulation

Systematics
Order : Ghost horror (Phasmatodea)
Subordination : Verophasmatodea
Family : Pseudophasmatidae
Tribe : Anisomorphini
Genre : Anisomorpha
Type : Anisomorpha buprestoides
Scientific name
Anisomorpha buprestoides
( Stoll , 1813)

Anisomorpha buprestoides , also under the trivial names strip-stick insect and two Striped Waking rod known, a type of the order of Gespenstschrecken (phasmatodea).

Features and color shapes

Anisomorpha buprestoides has a very pronounced sexual dimorphism in terms of size. While adult females reach a body length of 7 to 8 cm, males remain significantly smaller at 4 to 5 cm. Both sexes are wingless, have an elongated, rod-shaped shape and are glossy brown-black or black in color. From the caput (head) to the end of the abdomen (abdomen) there are two glowing stripes, brown, orange or white, depending on the local color.

Orange color shape
The white color variant, often referred to as Anisomorpha buprestoides "Ocala" after its location

Occurrence and way of life

The species is a diurnal inhabitant of subtropical arid regions of the southern USA , especially the states of Florida and Georgia . As with many other diurnal ghosts, their defense consists less in the phytomimesis that is otherwise typical for the ghosts, i.e. the imitation of parts of plants, but much more in an active defense by means of a stinking defense secretion . So their coloring is to be understood more as a warning . The defense secretion is formed in paired glands on the prothorax . From these it can be sprayed 30 to 50 cm far and mostly backwards towards a potential attacker. The anisomorphic secretion contains a sterioisomer of dolichodial . It has a corrosive effect and particularly attacks the mucous membranes . For example, serious damage can occur if the secretion gets into the eye. Natural food plants of Anisomorpha buprestoides are oaks .

The species reproduces through sexual reproduction . Adult males copulate only a single female, from which they can carry around most of the rest of their lives. This as Mate Guarding ( Engl. : Mate = partners, guarding = guard) called behavior serves to aggravate further pairing with this females after copulation other males or impossible. For this reason, single adult animals are rarely found, but rather copulating pairs. The females dig pits with their front and middle legs, in which they lay clutches of up to 10 eggs. To do this, they bend the abdomen together with the male sitting on it over the head into the pit. After the eggs are laid, this pit is dug up again with the middle legs. The barrel-shaped eggs are about 3 mm long, 1.7 to 1.9 mm wide and about 6.3 mg in weight. They resemble the faeces of animals. The nymphs hatch after about three months. They then measure about 15 mm and already have functional defensive glands. The development period to adult animals takes about three months. The adults also live a good three months.

Local color forms

In addition to the widespread normal form, which shows two brown vertical stripes on a black background, two color forms that occur locally in Florida are known to be very limited. A shape from the Ocala National Forest has two white stripes on a dark brown to black background. It is referred to as a white form or as Anisomorpha buprestoides "Ocala". Another color form comes from the Archbold Biological Station area near Lake Placid (Florida) . With this shape there are two orange stripes on the back instead of the brown stripes. All three forms show a different behavior, adapted to the continued find conditions, in terms of their daily cycle and also the laying of eggs. In adult animals in particular, there are also differences in the composition of the immune secretion. While animals of the white and orange form mainly produce anisomorphic, the brown normal form, depending on the population, either primarily produces anisomorphic or another sterioisomer of dolichodial, namely peruphasmal.

Systematics

The species was scientifically described in 1813 by the German-Dutch entomologist Caspar Stoll, initially as Phasma buprestoides . George Robert Gray transferred this and some other species in 1835 to the genus Anisomorpha, which he had newly established . Some of the species described in the 19th century, including one described by Stoll, later turned out to be synonymous with Anisomorpha buprestoides . Synonyms of this kind are:

Terrariums

Anisomorpha buprestoides should be kept in a dry terrarium , the bottom substrate of which is occasionally sprayed with water. Can be fed with leaves of blackberries , rhododendrons , privet and oak. Socialization with other species should be avoided, as these can be damaged by the defense secretion. In addition, adult, unmated males should be separated from subadult females, as they could hinder the last moult if attempted copulation . The species belongs to those ghost horrors that have been in breeding for a very long time. The Phasmid Study Group has it under PSG number 12.

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d Eugène Bruins: Illustrated Terrarium Encyclopedia - Dörfler Verlag, Eggolsheim 2006, p. 68, ISBN 978-3-89555-423-0
  2. ↑ a b c Siegfried Löser: Exotic insects, millipedes and arachnids - instructions for keeping and breeding . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 44-45, ISBN 3-8001-7239-9
  3. ↑ a b c Christoph Seiler, Sven Bradler & Rainer Koch: Phasmids - care and breeding of ghost horrors, stick insects and walking leaves in the terrarium - bede, Ruhmannsfelden 2000, pp. 43–44, ISBN 3-933646-89-8
  4. ^ A b Roy Bäthe, Anke Bäthe & Mario Fuß: Phasmiden , Schüling Verlag, Münster 2009, pp. 131-133, ISBN 978-3-86523-073-7
  5. ↑ Aaron T. Dossey, Spencer S. Walse & Arthur S. Edison: Developmental and geographical variation in the chemical defense of the walkingstick insect Anisomorpha buprestoides ; Journal of Chemical Ecology; 2008, 34 No. 5, pp. 584-590
  6. ^ Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 2.1 / 3.5. (accessed February 14, 2010) http://Phasmida.SpeciesFile.org
  7. ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)

Web links

Commons : Anisomorpha buprestoides  - Collection of images, videos and audio files