Borneo thorn shrimp
| Borneo thorn shrimp | ||||||||||||
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Borneo thorn insect ( Epidares nolimetangere ), ♂ |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Epidares | ||||||||||||
| Redtenbacher , 1906 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Epidares nolimetangere | ||||||||||||
| ( de Haan , 1842) |
The Borneo thorn cricket ( Epidares nolimetangere ) is an insect art from the order of the stick insects (Phasmatodea) and the only member of the genus Epidares . The specific epithet nolimetangere (originally: noli-me-tangere ) comes from Latin and means “don't touch me”. It refers to the prickly appearance of the animals. It can also be found in the common English name , which reads "Touch Me Not Stick Insect". In the German-speaking world, too, the species is now occasionally referred to as the don't-touch-me-stick insect . In addition, the name "Borneo stick insect" or "Borneo stick insect" can also be found.
features
The Borneo thorn insect is one of the smaller representatives of the ghost horror. The males are only about 35 to 43 millimeters long, the females reach a length of about 45 to 48 millimeters and have shorter spines than the males. The animals, wingless in both sexes, have a pair of spines on the head and on the front edge of the mesonotum and a ring of four spines on the rear edge of the meso- and metathorax . There is only a pair of spines on the entire abdomen of the males, which can be found on the second abdominal segment. In addition to this, the females also have a pair of spines on the third abdominal segment, which is supplemented by smaller, mostly lateral spines. Two color forms are known of the Borneo thorn insect. In both the females are unicoloured dark brown except for a light central stripe. The abdomen of egg-laying females is thickened in the middle. The males of both color forms show dark areas on the back from the rear area of the mesothorax to the end of the abdomen. There are other spots on the pronotum and between the side and back spines of the meso- and metathorax, the spines themselves being brightly colored. On the abdomen, the dark areas flow together to form two parallel longitudinal stripes. While the spots remain very small in the red color variant, which is to be regarded as the normal form, they are significantly larger in the green form and can flow together. In the red form, their color is brown to dark green; in the green form, these areas are clearly metallic green. The basic color of the normal red form varies from a light brown on the legs to a bright red, especially on the head, thorax and the top of the abdomen. In the green form, the areas between the green spots are rather simply colored light brown. Ian Abercrombie found another color form, clearly distinguishable from these forms, the males of which he describes as golden.
Occurrence
As its common name suggests, the Borneo thorn insect comes from the island of Borneo . There it can be found very frequently, especially in the northwest, more precisely in the Malay state of Sarawak , and it is here that it reaches the highest observed population density of the ghost insects living on Borneo. The green form has so far only been found on Mount Serapi. The animals live on low shrub vegetation in the tropical rainforests .
Way of life and reproduction
The females lay one to three eggs about 3.5 to 3.9 millimeters long, 2.9 to 3.1 millimeters wide and an average of 6.8 milligrams each week for a period of up to twenty months. These are covered with barbed hair and are usually placed in a hollow dug with the hind legs, which is covered again after the eggs have been laid. After four to six months, the seven millimeter long nymphs hatch from the eggs .
Systematics
Wilhem de Haan originally described the Borneo sea insect as Phasma (Acanthoderus) nolimetangere . Josef Redtenbacher established the subgenus Epidares within the genus Dares for this species in 1906 . Due to the clear differences between the only species Dares (Epidares) nolimetangere and the remaining members of the genus Dares , this sub-genus was raised to the status of a genus that has been monotypical up to now . A female lectotype and a male paralectotype are deposited in the National Natural History Museum in Leiden .
Terrarium keeping
The species needs a relative humidity of at least 80 percent, as can be achieved in a glass terrarium with small ventilation slots . In contrast to insufficient humidity, waterlogging is well tolerated. In addition to the leaves of oak and hazelnut , the various rose plants such as blackberries , raspberries , strawberries and firethorn are particularly eaten . When feeding crops, there is a risk that the animals will poison themselves with insecticides . A layer of earth is suitable as a substrate, which is covered with moss that is always kept moist . The eggs can be left on or in the ground.
The green shape was first introduced in 1988 from Mount Serapi by Philip E. Bragg , the red in 1989 from Mount Matang by Patrick van der Stigchel. The color variants are only slightly influenced by the keeping conditions and can be kept in their pure form. However, due to the mixing of the two color forms, many strains are in breeding, in which the males are only colored brown in brown and the red and green colors can hardly be recognized. The species is listed by the Phasmid Study Group under PSG number 99.
photos
pair
Male of the green form
egg
subadult male
swell
- ^ A b c Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 2.1 / 3.5. (accessed on June 14, 2009)
- ↑ a b Oliver Zompro : Specters of the Heteropterygidae family in the terrarium - Reptilia - Terraristik Fachmagazin (No. 24, August / September 2000) Natur und Tier, Münster 2000
- ↑ Oliver Zompro: Basic knowledge of pasmids - biology - keeping - breeding . Sungaya Verlag, Berlin 2012, p. 72, ISBN 978-3-943592-00-9
- ↑ Epidares nolimetangere on zimpernik.at ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 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, ISBN 3-933646-89-8
- ^ A b c Philip E. Bragg : Phasmids of Borneo , Natural History Publikations (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd., Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2001, pp. 174-179, ISBN 983-812-027-8
- ↑ a b c Eugène Bruins: Illustrated Terrarium Encyclopedia - Dörfler Verlag, Eggolsheim 2006, ISBN 978-3-89555-423-0
- ↑ 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)
