Orestes mouhotii
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Orestes mouhotii , couple from Kiriom in Cambodia |
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Orestes mouhotii ( Syn .: Datames mouhotii , Pylaemenes mouhotii ) is a member of thegenus Orestes, which belongs to the ghosts .
features
The females are 45 to 50 millimeters longer than the maximum 40 millimeters long males. Both sexes have noticeably short legs for ghosts and have beige to brown patterns. The males wear semicircular horns (auricles) on their heads. While they are generally thinner and are characterized by a slightly thickened end of the abdomen , the more compact females have a typical thickening immediately behind the middle of the abdomen, which is particularly recognizable at increasing height. Freshly adult females are very vividly drawn in light and dark brown and often have light, almost white areas, especially on the sides and in the middle of the abdomen. A dark brown longitudinal ligament, particularly noticeable on the front abdomen and the metanotum, stretches across the middle of the body , which is somewhat lighter on the mesonotum and is flanked here by black-colored tubercles . This high-contrast drawing fades with increasing age and the animals become increasingly uniformly light brown. Because of its compact body shape, the species is sometimes referred to as "Small Cigar Stick Insect" in English-speaking countries.
Occurrence, way of life and reproduction
The relatively large distribution area extends from southern Vietnam via Cambodia , southern Thailand , the Malay Peninsula and Singapore to Sumatra . Males are not known from the entire range and some populations are considered parthenogenic . Only the populations found by Ingo Fritzsche in the Khao-Yai National Park in Thailand and the populations found in 2015 in the Kiriom National Park in Cambodia by Joachim Bresseel and Jérôme Constant are demonstrably sexual . Another sexual population , very similar to Orestes mouhotii , was discovered in May 2018 by Christoph Röhrs in the Andamans on Havelock Island . This is known as Orestes sp. 'Andaman'.
During the day, the animals put their hind legs back and the middle legs stretched forward close to the body. At the same time, the front legs and antennae are stretched forward. In this position, the phytomimesis is so perfect that the animals can hardly be distinguished from a short, broken branch. The nocturnal insects feed on the food plants in the dark. These include Curculigo species ( Hypoxidaceae family ), Dioscorea glabra (a yams species), the dragon trees Dracaena fragrans and Dracaena surculosa ( synonym : Dracaena godseffiana ) and the Efeutute .
The females begin about two months after molting into the imago to lay the eggs individually, about three millimeters long, two millimeters wide and on average 14 milligrams. The nymphs hatch from the eggs after just two months. They need about a year to develop into an imago. The life expectancy of adult females is also another year.
Systematics
The species was described in 1865 by Henry Walter Bates as Acanthoderus mouhotii . The epithet chose Bates in honor of its Southeast Asia Travel became known Frenchman Henri Mouhot . A young animal was deposited as a holotype at the University of Oxford . In 1875, Carl Stål transferred Acanthoderus mouhotii and Acanthoderus oileus to the Datames genus, which was specially established for these species . James Abram Garfield Rehn set Datames oileus as the type species in 1904 . As it turned out almost a hundred years later, Datames oileus is a member of the genus Pylaemenes , which means that the genus Datames has been synonymous with it . For Orestes mouhotii the name Pylaemenes mouhotii was partly used around the turn of the millennium (1998/2000) . Around the same time it was recognized that a species described by Josef Redtenbacher in 1906 as Orestes verruculatus is synonymous with this and that this species must be granted its own genus. The name Orestes mouhotii , which is valid as a result , is thus composed of the generic name of the synonymized Orestes verruculatus and the original specific epithet. The generic name, which is derived from Orestes , a figure in Greek mythology , means Ορέστης in ancient Greek and thus literally means “who stands on a mountain” or “mountain dweller”. The names Datames mouhotii or Pylaemenes mouhotii can often be found on the Internet and other media .
The following synonyms should also be mentioned:
- Dares fulmeki Werner , 1934
- Orestes verruculatus Redtenbacher , 1906
Terrariums
Orestes mouhotii has been kept in the terrarium since the late 1990s . When Ingo Fritzsche brought males and females collected in the Khao-Yai National Park in Thailand between the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1998, the species was sexually bred for a time. After only parthenogenic strains had been bred for many years, Joachim Bresseel and Jérôme Constant brought animals of both sexes back from the Kiriom National Park in Cambodia in 2015, which means that a sexual strain has been bred again since then. As Orestes sp. Animals called 'Andaman' are also already in breeding.
Since Orestes mouhotii needs a higher level of humidity , the use of a glass terrarium with small ventilation slots is recommended. A layer of earth is suitable as a substrate, which can be covered with moist moss . Oak and blackberry leaves are eaten .
Orestes mouhotii is listed by the Phasmid Study Group under PSG number 192.
photos
fresh adult female
older female
Portrait of an elderly female
female nymph
Eggs in front, dorsal and lateral views
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ingo Fritzsche : On the big game hunt for the rods - Insights into the joys and dangers of a collecting trip - Reptilia - Terraristik Fachmagazin (No. 24, August / September 2000) Natur und Tier, Münster 2000
- ↑ a b c d 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 Phasmid Study Group Culture List ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
- ↑ a b c d Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 5.0 / 5.0 (accessed February 21, 2018)
- ^ A b Francis Seow-Choen : Phasmids of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore , Natural History Publikations (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd., Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2005, p. 104, ISBN 983-812-109-6
- ↑ Oliver Zompro : Specters of the Heteropterygidae family in the terrarium - Reptilia - Terraristik Fachmagazin (No. 24, August / September 2000), Natur und Tier, Münster 2000
- ↑ Holger Dräger: Specters of the family Heteropterygidae Kirby , 1896 (Phasmatodea) - an overview of previously kept species, Part 2: The subfamily Dataminae Rehn & Rehn , 1839 , ZAG Phoenix, No. 5 June 2012 Volume 3 (1), p. 22-45, ISSN 2190-3476
- ↑ Joachim Bresseel & Jérôme Constant : The Oriental stick insect genus Orestes Redtenbacher, 1906: Taxonomical notes and six new species from Vietnam (Phasmida: Heteropterygidae: Dataminae). Belgian Journal of Entomology 58: 1–62, Brussels 2018, ISSN 1374-5514 , Full article (PDF).