Guadeloupe stick insect
| Guadeloupe stick insect | ||||||||||||
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Patterned color form of the Guadeloupe stick insect |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lamponius guerini | ||||||||||||
| ( Saussure , 1868) |
The Guadeloupe-stick insect ( Lamponius guerini ), also known as Zimtstabschrecke is called, is a kind from the order of the stick insects (Phasmatodea).
features
The Guadeloupe stick insect, which is completely wingless in both sexes, appears more compact, especially in the female sex, than the term stick insect suggests. The females are between 80 and 95 millimeters long and have about 40 millimeters long antennae . Your abdominal segments five to seven are widened by lateral, semicircular lobes ( lobes ). The base of the front legs is always reddish in color. The animals themselves appear in different color forms. There are almost white as well as uniformly light brown to orange-brown or almost black colored females. Often there are females who show a light, almost white pattern on a mostly dark base color. These often have a light spot on the metathorax in the form of a backward-pointing arrowhead. A second is on the posterior edge of the metathorax. In addition to smaller spots on the anterior abdominal segments, there is another that colors large parts of the fourth and seventh and the entire dorsal area of the fifth and sixth segments white. At the base of the abdomen, as well as on the seventh and particularly noticeable on the eighth segment, there may be dark brown, sometimes almost black, areas arranged in pairs. The rear ones in particular look like eye spots and, on cursory inspection, give the impression that the tip of the abdomen is around the head. In addition, there are animals that show a white vertical line. The males, which are around 70 to 75 millimeters long and whose antennae can be 50 millimeters long, also have several color forms. Often the patterned males are not drawn quite as rich in contrast. The dark areas are mostly missing and the light spots have a slightly different shape and are not so sharply demarcated. Their basic color is mostly red-brown to olive-green. Both sexes have small pustules all over their bodies, which are significantly larger in females.
Systematics
The species was described by Henri de Saussure in 1868 under the name Pygirhynchus guerini . In 1907 it was described by Karl Brunner-von Wattenwyl as Ocnophila adulterina , in 1913 again by Carl as Antillophilus brevitarsus and in 1938 by James Abram Garfield Rehn and Morgan Hebard as Lamponius dominicae . Later these names were recognized as synonyms for Lamponius guerini .
The syntypes , which are two males, four females and a nymph , are kept in the Natural History Museum Vienna .
Occurrence, behavior and reproduction
As its common name suggests, the Guadeloupe stick insect is native to Guadeloupe . As a defense strategy, rigidity is preferred to throwing off legs ( autotomy ). The females drop around 10 to 15 eggs per week. These are a good 3 to 3.5 millimeters long, just 2.5 to 3 millimeters wide and about 16 milligrams in weight. From these eggs, which are well camouflaged due to their gray-green color and the rough, bark-like surface, the nymphs hatch after about four to five months, and after another four months they have grown into an imago . Adults reach an age of another ten to twelve months.
Terrarium keeping
As early as 1984 a French enthusiast brought a pair of this stick insect from Guadeloupe and successfully reproduced the species. Since it is one of the easy-to-care-for ghost horrors, it has since been found in the terrariums of European lovers. In addition to blackberry leaves, other rose plants such as oak , firethorn , eucalyptus and ivy are also eaten . The food plants are placed in the terrarium as leafy twigs in narrow-necked vases and sprayed with water about every two days (flower sprayer). The eggs can be left on the floor if it is kept moist and mold-free, or transferred to a simple incubator for better control .
The species is listed by the Phasmid Study Group under PSG number 101.
photos
female
male
Portrait of a female
egg
Web links
swell
- ↑ a b c Ingo Fritzsche : Poles - Carausius, Sipyloidea & Co. - Natur und Tier Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-937285-84-9
- ↑ 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, ISBN 3-933646-89-8
- ↑ a b Oliver Zompro : Basic knowledge of pasmids - biology - keeping - breeding . Sungaya Verlag, Berlin 2012, p. 63, ISBN 978-3-943592-00-9
- ^ Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 5.0 / 5.0 (accessed November 18, 2018) http://Phasmida.SpeciesFile.org
- ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)