Mearnsiana bullosa
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Mearnsiana bullosa , male left, female right |
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Mearnsiana | ||||||||||||
| Rehn, JAG & Rehn, JWH , 1939 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Mearnsiana bullosa | ||||||||||||
| Rehn, JAG & Rehn, JWH, 1939 |
Mearnsiana bullosa ( synonyms Hennobrimus hen manni , Trachyaretaon Manobo ) is a kind from the order of the stick insects (Phasmatodea) and the only member of the genus Mearnsiana . It is also sometimes referred to as the Colorful Dornschrecke .
features
The species, wingless and thornless in both sexes, is the most colorful of the members of the Heteropterygidae family known to date . The body surface is shiny. The 4.5 to 5.1 cm long males have an olive-green basic color. The joint membranes and partly also the edges of the individual segments are colored bright yellow. The meso- and metathorax are colored orange-brown above and below and have two pairs of slightly darker humps on the upper side. The coloring of the upper side of the abdomen is noticeable . A wide, yellow vertical stripe runs along its entire length, flanked by two green stripes and two red stripes towards the edge. At over 5 cm, the antennae are good body length. At 8 to 9.8 cm, the females are significantly longer than the males. Their antennae are about 5 cm in length and are shorter than the body. This is colored bright green on the top or a little more plain green-brown. Legs, antennae and laying spines are always light brown. The color of the underside varies from orange brown to slightly purple. The abdomen can swell significantly during egg production. The abdomen ends in a long, straight laying spine that surrounds the actual ovipositor .
Occurrence and way of life
Mearnsiana bullosa has so far only been found in the Philippine province of Cotabato on the island of Mindanao , where it was found particularly frequently in the area around the Apo volcano .
The species is nocturnal like the other members of the family, but the adult animals do not hide in hiding during the day, but hang freely in the food plant. When touched, they drop to the ground and then usually start running immediately. Plants from the genus Leptospermum, which belongs to the myrtle family, and casuarinas on which the animals were found belong to the natural food spectrum . The bulbous-shaped eggs are laid in the ground as a clutch of 20 to 30 eggs at intervals of 2 to 3 weeks. They are gray in color, 5.1 mm long, about 3.7 mm wide and have a black lid (operculum). The micropylar plate has four legs and its shape resembles a horizontally flattened "X" (see also the construction of the phasmid egg ). The two upper legs can also flow together to form a single, wider leg. After about 3 to 5 months, the nymphs hatch . Their body and legs are very flat and almost black apart from a light spot between the pro- and mesonotum . At first they walk around very briskly with their abdomen rolled forward. The white edges of the abdomen on the underside are shown. This behavior does not change until the start of eating and the nymphs, which are now gradually getting lighter, nestle flat against twigs or branches of the food plants, making them barely detectable. Older stages develop a light brown and pale green camouflage pattern, which is complemented by a kind of white lichen pattern. They keep their flat shape until the last moult and have a dull and relatively blistered body surface. Males are adult after around 5 to 6 months. Females take about a month longer.
Taxonomy and systematics
In 1939, James Abram Garfield Rehn and John WH Rehn described the species using a male nymph as Mearnsiana bullosa . It was found on the Apo volcano in Mindanao and is deposited as a holotype in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC . The name of the monotypic genus Mearnsiana is dedicated to the American ornithologist and naturalist Edgar Alexander Mearns , who found the holotype at the apo. The specific epithet bullosa means "vesicular" and probably refers to the body surface covered with vesicular tubercles , especially of the nymphs.
Ireno L. Lit Jr. and Orlando L. Eusebio described a species called Trachyaretaon manobo in 2005 , which was also found at the apo. Their type material is deposited at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños . In the following year Oskar V. Conle, also from Mindanao, described a remarkably colorful species. He named it Hennobrimus hennemanni in honor of his friend, Frank H. Hennemann , who was also researching phasmids . The type material of this kind is deposited in the Zoological State Collection in Munich . A short time later, Conle assumed that this species was the rediscovered Mearnsiana bullosa . Both Trachyaretaon manobo and Hennobrimus hennemanni were synonymous with Mearnsiana bullosa in 2016 . The multiple description results from the large difference between the nymph and described by Rehn and the Rehn to 2005 unknown imagines .
Terrariums
Dave Navarro collected animals of this species at the Apo volcano in April 2008. The Swiss phasmid breeder Bruno Kneubühler hatched the first animals of this strain from the eggs sent to Europe . A second breeding line goes back to the animals also collected in 2008 by Joachim Bresseel, Mark Bushell and Ellen Caluwe. From the phasmid Study Group is Mearnsiana bullosa conducted since mid-2013 under the PSG number 338th
Mearnsiana bullosa is easy to keep and breed. A higher humidity is preferred . A suitable substrate must be offered for laying eggs (soil on the terrarium floor). In captivity, the leaves of blackberries and many other rose plants are eaten, as well as those of St. John's herbs , hazelnuts , oaks and salal .
photos
Eggs
sub adult female
Ventral side of a male
Belly side of a freshly adult female
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Alexander Esch: stick insects, ghosts, walking leaves: successful keeping of phasmids . Natur und Tier-Verlag, Münster 2012, pp. 78–80, ISBN 978-3-86659-221-6
- ↑ a b c d Holger Dräger: Specters of the family Heteropterygidae Kirby , 1896 (Phasmatodea) - an overview of previously kept species, part 3: The subfamily Obriminae Brunner von Wattenwyl , 1893, Triben Miroceramiini and Eubulidini Zompro , 2004 , ZAG Phoenix, no June 6, 2012 Volume 3 (2), pp. 2–21, ISSN 2190-3476
- ↑ a b c Ringo Sijbrants: Speciesreport 40: Mearnsiana bullosa (Rehn & Rehn, 1939) , Phasma Werkgroep, No. 81 June 2011, Volume 21, pp. 3–5, ISSN 1381-3420
- ↑ a b c Phasmatodea page by Oskar V. Conle and Frank H. Hennemann
- ↑ a b c Breeding instructions for Mearnsiana bullosa on phasmatodea.com by Bruno Kneubühler
- ↑ Frank H. Hennemann , Oskar V. Conle , Paul D. Brock & Francis Seow-Choen : Zootaxa 4159 (1): Revision of the Oriental subfamiliy Heteropteryginae Kirby, 1896, with a re-arrangement of the family Heteropterygidae and the descriptions of five new species of Haaniella Kirby, 1904. (Phasmatodea: Areolatae: Heteropterygidae) , Magnolia Press, Auckland, New Zealand 2016, ISSN 1175-5326
- ^ Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 5.0 / 5.0 (accessed September 15, 2016)
- ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List (Eng.)
