Annam stick insect
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Annam stick insect ( Medauroidea extradentata ) |
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| Medauroidea extradentata | ||||||||||||
| ( Brunner von Wattenwyl , 1907) |
The Annam walking stick ( Medauroidea extradentata , Syn. : Baculum extradentatum ), also known as Vietnamese stick insect , is a Stick Insect from the family of Phasmatidae .
features
The females reach a maximum length of 110 millimeters and have noticeably shorter antennae than the males. Over the eyes they have two small "horns", backward-pointing spinous processes that already develop in the nymph stage . The males reach a body length of up to 75 millimeters. They are not only significantly smaller, but also much slimmer than the females. Annam stick insects do not have wings. The basic color is gray-brown to beige, more rarely dark brown or green.
Occurrence and way of life
The German name Annam stick insect refers to the area of origin, the Annam region in Vietnam .
The animals are nocturnal and only start to eat in the dark, during the day any unnecessary movement is avoided. Movement that is not caused by disturbance takes place with a gait that sways slightly to the sides, imitating the swaying of a branch in the wind. In the event of a disturbance, the animals, especially the males, can also run relatively quickly.
Reproduction
If there are males, they are rarer than the females, the animals often mate. Otherwise, reproduction can take place parthenogenetically even without mating with the male . The barrel-shaped eggs are 2.5 × 1.5 millimeters in size, gray with brown spots and have a black capitulum on the operculum (egg cover) . The development of the animals in the eggs is temperature-dependent. It takes an average of three to four months. At 25 to 27 ° C, it takes well under two months, and below room temperature it can take up to six months. The nymphs are about 15 millimeters long when they hatch. They take around three to four months to mature. The females begin to lay eggs about two weeks after the last moult. They drop one to five eggs a day and lay up to 1000 eggs during their lifetime. In breeding they can reach an age of up to one year.
nutrition
Annam stick insects only feed on plants. Above all, this includes leaves from various rose plants such as blackberries and raspberries. They also eat leaves of the strawberry, hazel tree, oak, firethorn and beech.
Naming and systematics
Karl Brunner-von Wattenwyl described the species in 1907 in his work The Insect Family of Phasmids. II. Phasmidae Anareolatae (Clitumnini, Lonchodini, Bacunculini) as Clitumnus extradentatus . In the same work he also described Cuniculina annamensis , which was later recognized as a synonym for Annam's stick insect. The genus Baculum , in which the species was listed for a long time, was completely revised in 2000 and now only contains five species. It previously united many species that are now grouped under different genera. The habitus of the animals and the egg morphology of the Annam stick insect ( Medauroidea extradentata ) make it clear that it is a close relative of the genus Medaura . Other representatives that used to belong to the genus Baculum were grouped under Ramulus , for example . The following synonyms result for the Annam stick insect:
- Syn. = Clitumnus extradentatus Brunner von Wattenwyl , 1907
- Syn. = Cuniculina annamensis Brunner von Wattenwyl , 1907
- Syn. = Baculum extradentatum ( Brunner von Wattenwyl , 1907)
Relationship with people
Terraristics and model organism
The Annam stick insect was first introduced to Europe in 1949 and has become a popular terrarium animal as well as a model organism in biological research, including molecular biology research , primarily due to its ease of keeping . The species is listed by the Phasmid Study Group under both PSG number 5 and number 24.
It's easy to keep and can be fed the foliage of blackberries , raspberries , hawthorns , firethorns , oaks , hazelnuts , roses , strawberries or currants . Room temperature is sufficient for breeding, with the animals in the terrarium reproducing primarily parthenogenetically. The terrarium should have a size of about 40 × 40 × 60 centimeters (length × width × height). If the ground is covered with moist sand or terrarium soil, the eggs can be left there until they hatch; if light-colored sand or small stones are used, the eggs can be clearly seen there. Since the species needs drinking water and cannot get it purely from food like many stick insects, the forage plants should be sprayed well with water every evening, which also increases the humidity.
Hazard and protection
No information is available about the endangerment of the species in its natural habitat; the species is not included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
photos
nymph
Portrait of a female
female
female
.JPG)
swell
- ↑ Profile: stick insect at herz-fuer-tiere.de ; accessed on May 15, 2019
- ^ Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 2.1 / 3.5. (accessed on June 14, 2009)
- ↑ a b Stéphanie Boucher, Hirondelle Varady-Szabo: Effects of different diets on the survival, longevity and growth rate of the Annam stick insect, Medauroidea extradentata (Phasmatodea: Phasmatidae). Journal of Orthoptera Research 14 (1), 2005; Pp. 115-118. doi : 10.1665 / 1082-6467 (2005) 14 [115: EODDOT] 2.0.CO; 2
- ↑ For example: Veiko Krauss, Carina Eisenhardt, Tina Unger: The Genome of the Stick Insect Medauroidea extradentata Is Strongly Methylated within Genes and Repetitive DNA. PLoS One, September 29, 2009. ( full text )
- ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
- ↑ Phasmatodeaseite by Frank H. Hennemann & Oskar V. Conle ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Web links
- Annam stick insect also Annam stick insect (Baculum extradentatum). www.zimpernik.at, archived from the original on July 15, 2010 ; Retrieved February 22, 2013 .
- Medauroidea extradentata in DahmsTierleben