Malay giant spooky creeper
| Malay giant spooky creeper | ||||||||||||
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Malay giant spooky insect ( Heteropteryx dilatata ), female |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Heteropteryx | ||||||||||||
| GR Gray , 1835 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Heteropteryx dilatata | ||||||||||||
| ( Parkinson , 1798) |
The Malay giant ghost insect ( Heteropteryx dilatata ) is a species from the order of the ghost insects (Phasmatodea) that is often kept by insect lovers. It is the only representative of the genus Heteropteryx .
Name and system
The sometimes used term giant ghost insect is ambiguous, as it is also used for other larger ghost insects. On the other hand, the names Giant Leaf Giant Grasshopper or Green Giant Ghost Insect, alluding to the color of the females, are more appropriate. In addition, the species, referring to the common English names "Jungle Nymph" or "Malayan Jungle Nymph", is also known as the jungle nymph.
Heteropteryx dilatata is the only representative of the genus Heteropteryx established by Gray in 1835 and was described by Parkinson in 1798 under the name Phasma dilatatum . All other species described in the genus Heteropteryx are now assigned to other genera, such as Haaniella , or have been found to be synonyms for Heteropteryx dilatata . Synonyms are:
- Heteropteryx castelnaudi Westwood , 1874
- Phasma (Eurycantha) graciosa Westwood , 1848
- Leocrates graciosa ( Westwood , 1848)
- Heteropteryx hopei Westwood , 1864
- Heteropteryx rollandi Lucas , 1882
The generic name Leocrates , introduced by Stål in 1875, is synonymous with Heteropteryx .
The holotype is a female animal which is deposited in the collection of the Macleay Museum of the University of Sydney .
features
The impressive females are 14 to 17 cm long and with 30 to 70 g are probably among the heaviest phasmids at all. In addition to the typically green colored females, there are also yellow and even more rarely red-brown females. Their pairs of wings are both shortened. At rest, the green forewings, formed as tegmina , cover the somewhat shorter, strikingly pink-colored hindwings (alae). The head, body and legs are thorny. In particular, the flattened body is provided with a series of thorns along the body edges including the abdomen . At the end of the abdomen there is a laying spike for laying the eggs in the ground. It surrounds the actual ovipositor and is formed ventrally from the eighth sternite , here called the subgenital plate or operculum , and dorsally from the eleventh tergum , which is here called the supraanal plate or epiproct .
The males, on the other hand, are slender and only about 9 to 13 cm long. They are usually brown in color and have thorns all over the body. The hind wings cover the entire abdomen. The narrow, but only slightly shorter forewings are designed as tegmina and have a light front edge, which gives the animals with closed wings the typical lateral stripes over the mesonotum and half of the abdomen. The fully developed hind wings are reddish and marked with a brown net pattern.
Occurrence and way of life
As its German name suggests, Heteropteryx dilatata comes from the Malay Archipelago , more precisely from West Malaysia and Thailand .
Both sexes are capable of defensive stridulation when there is danger . The colored rear wings are jerked open again and again. In addition, similar to the representatives of the closely related genus Haaniella , the animals threaten with raised abdomen and the hind legs stretched and spread out towards the attacker. In the event of contact, the rails of the rear legs are then quickly struck against the thighs , which ensures an effective defense by the thorns in particular of the rails.
Reproduction
The female lays the 7 to 7.5 mm long, 5 mm wide and about 70 mg heavy eggs individually in the ground with their laying spines surrounding the ovipositor . The nymphs hatch after about 7 to 12 months . These are able to change their lighter color during the day into a darker one at night (physiological color change ) and form sleeping communities up to the fourth larval stage, in which the animals clump or chain-like hanging on the food plants. About a year after hatching, the imaginal moult takes place , which is the fifth moulting in males and the sixth moulting in females. The adults then live for another 6 to 12 months. In the Malay giant ghost, like many other species of ghost, gynanders occasionally appear . These are often designed as half-sided hermaphrodites.
Terrariums
They are kept in terrariums with potting soil containing sand . Leafy branches of blackberries , ivy , oak and hawthorn are offered as food . The size of the terrarium must be adapted to the number of animals. For a couple, the terrarium should not be smaller than 40 × 40 × 40 cm. The feed branches can be placed in a narrow-necked vase or bottle so that they stay fresh longer, the leaves are also sprayed with water every day.
The data stored by the female eggs can be removed and the terrarium in a so-called Heimchendose at some moisture and from 25 to 30 ° C incubated be. The same temperatures should prevail when rearing the nymphs. The humidity should not be below 70%.
The species was brought to Europe several times by various traders from Perak in the 1980s and is listed by the Phasmid Study Group under PSG number 18. A breeding line introduced from Phuket in 1998 , in which the females have black coxes , has been lost.
photos
egg
pair
Portrait of a male
two male L3 nymphs
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Siegfried Löser: Exotic insects, millipedes and arachnids - instructions for keeping and breeding . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8001-7239-9
- ↑ a b c 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
- ^ Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 2.1 / 3.5. (accessed on June 14, 2009)
- ↑ Records on the Phasmatodea page from Oskar V. Conle and Frank H. Hennemann
- ↑ 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, pp. 15, 83-85, ISBN 3-933646-89-8
- ↑ Zompro , O .: Locusts of the family Heteropterygidae in the terrarium - Reptilia - Terraristik Fachmagazin (No. 24, August / September 2000) Natur und Tier - Münster
- ↑ PSG on the Phasmatodea page by Oskar V. Conle and Frank H. Hennemann ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2015 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.
- ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List (Eng.)
Web links
- www.anolis.de (via Heteropteryx dilatata )
- www.bird-eating-spiders.de (via Heteropteryx dilatata )
- www.dahmstierleben.de (about Heteropteryx dilatata )