Borneo giant ghost
| Borneo giant ghost | ||||||||||||
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Pair of the Borneo giant ghost insect ( Haaniella grayii ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Haaniella grayii | ||||||||||||
| ( Westwood , 1859) |
The Borneo giant ghost ( Haaniella grayii ) is a species of ghost that is native to Borneo . It is the largest representative of the genus Haaniella .
features
Haaniella grayii has the species-typical pointed spines distributed over the body and legs in both sexes. Also typical of the genus are the strongly shortened fore wings, formed as tegmina , which completely cover the short hind wings that have been transformed into stridulation organs . The slimmer, spiny and more colored males on the back remain smaller with 78 to 95 mm than the 102 to 143 mm long females. In addition, almost monochrome beige brown, more rarely brown to black-brown females are also screened to find high-contrast light and dark brown animals that light, almost white pattern on the mesonotum , the front wings and the abdomen ( abdomen ) may have. They usually get a little darker with age. In adult females, the abdomen swells significantly due to egg production. The spine-like laying apparatus is formed dorsally by the supraanal plate, which corresponds to the eleventh tergum . In the Borneo giant ghost insect, it is ultimately characterized by six more or less distinct teeth. In contrast to the other Haaniella species native to Borneo, it clearly towers above the lower part of the laying apparatus, which is called the subgenital plate and consists of the eighth sternite . The joint membranes, especially in the area of the rear and middle hips, are pale green in the females and bright green in the males. In the latter, in addition to other green areas in the ventral area of the head and the mesosternum and metasternum , they contrast with the reddish-brown colored sternum and the hips themselves. The bright green color of the spines is also typical of the males. Often the folded fore wings are dark brown in the front part and white behind with brown veins. The arrangement of the spines on the mesonotum of the males is to be regarded as species-specific. Between the formation of four spines in front of the base of the forewings and the pair of long spines in the front area of the mesontum, found in many species, is another pair of long spines in Haaniella grayii .
Distribution, behavior and reproduction
The distribution area of Haaniella grayii almost completely overlaps in the west of the island of Borneo with that of Haaniella saussurei . Both species can be found in the southwest of the Malay state of Sarawak , where H. grayii was found on Mount Serapi up to a height of 300 m. In addition, unlike H. saussurei , the species can also be found in central areas of Kalimantan .
In H. grayii , too , the defensive behavior typical of the subfamily, consisting of spreading the held up spiked hind legs and closing them when touched by an attacker, can be observed. The hairy eggs have a diagonally cross-shaped micropylar plate in the lower angle of which the micropyle is located. They are deposited in the ground by the female at night. While the eggs of the animals from Sarawak are about 9.2 mm long, 7 mm high and about 6 mm wide, those of the animals from Kalimantan are barely hairy and averaging 8.3 mm in length, 6.5 mm in height and 5.7 mm width also a little smaller. The nymphs hatch after 9 to 18 months and are then 35 mm long. They are adult after about nine months and two months later the females begin to lay eggs.
Systematics
John Obadiah Westwood described the species as Heteropteryx grayii in 1859 and illustrated it with the representation of a male. The specific epithet is dedicated to George Robert Gray . Until the description of Haaniella saussurei in 1904 , the animals referred to as H. grayii always included representatives of H. saussurei . This also applies to a total of five type specimens , which are deposited in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and in the Natural History Museum in London and are also referred to as "Westwoods types". Of the four specimens deposited in Oxford, only the female lectotype is actually a representative of H. grayii , while the female and the two male paralectotypes are H. saussurei . The male from the Natural History Museum in London, also belonging to this series, shows the bristling typical of H. grayii and otherwise corresponds to Westwood's illustration contained in the description. In 1904 Kirby established the genus Haaniella into which he transferred Haaniella grayii along with some other species . In addition, he recognized from some animals that Henri de Saussure had worked on in 1896 that these were not H. grayi , but that these animals represent representatives of an independent species. He described the same in honor of Saussure under the name Haaniella saussurei .
As early as 1896, William Forsell Kirby described animals allegedly originating from Australia as Heteropteryx australe . This was recognized by Klaus Günther in 1944 as a synonym for Haaniella grayii , although the location is also in doubt. Their male lectotyus and the female paralectotype are also deposited in the Natural History Museum in London. The synonyms for H. grayii are therefore:
Occasionally there are representatives of the subfamily Heteropteryginae whose thorns are incomplete, which means that individual spines are missing. In contrast, Philip E. Bragg found an adult male in Sarawak, which shows the spines of Haaniella echinata on the pro and mesonotum , while it has the spines of H. grayii on the abdomen . This animal could be a hybrid of both species. It is deposited in the Natural History Museum in London. Since the distribution areas of the two species do not overlap, Bragg assumes that they meet at least at their borders. Some authors see the possible hybridization as an indication that there are not two separate species.
Terrariums
For the terrarium the Borneo Giant Stick Insect was first introduced in 1990 by Philip E. Bragg and Paul Jennings. Further imports were made in 1990 by Bragg and Ian Abercrombie, and in 1996 by Frank H. Hennemann and Oskar V. Conle . The animals were each found on Mount Serapi in the northwest of Sarawak. The species is listed under PSG number 125 by the Phasmid Study Group .
To keep Haaniella grayii , medium-sized to large terrariums with suitable hiding spots are required. To lay eggs, the floor of the terrarium should be covered with an eight to ten centimeter high layer of a suitable, always slightly moist substrate. In addition, high humidity and daytime temperatures of well over 20 ° C are necessary for successful keeping. The diet is not a problem, because the leaves of blackberries , raspberries , elderberries , ivy , oak , hawthorn and firethorn , eucalyptus , Shallon peach berries and other plants are eaten .
photos
Arrangement of the thoracic spines of a male compared to the males of H. echinata and H. saussurei
male
pair
egg
newly hatched nymph
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oliver Zompro : Basic knowledge of pasmids - biology - keeping - breeding . Sungaya Verlag, Berlin 2012, p. 68, ISBN 978-3-943592-00-9 .
- ↑ a b c d Philip E. Bragg : Phasmids of Borneo , Natural History Publikations (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd., Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2001, pp. 85-89, ISBN 983-812-027-8 .
- ↑ a b Christoph Seiler, Sven Bradler, Rainer Koch: Phasmids - care and breeding of ghosts, stick insects and walking leaves in the terrarium . bede, Ruhmannsfelden 2000, pp. 76-78, ISBN 3-933646-89-8 .
- ↑ Paul D. Brock , Thies H. Büscher & Edward W. Baker: Phasmida Species File Online . Version 5.0. (accessed November 30, 2018)
- ↑ Phasmid page by Frank H. Hennemann & Oskar V. Conle ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
- ↑ Eugène Bruins: Illustrated Terrarium Encyclopedia. Dörfler Verlag, Eggolsheim 2006, p. 77, ISBN 978-3-89555-423-0 .
