Phyllium philippinicum
| Phyllium philippinicum | ||||||||||||
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Phyllium philippinicum , female |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Phyllium philippinicum | ||||||||||||
| Hennemann , Conle , Gottardo & Bresseel , 2009 |
Phyllium philippinicum is a kind of walking leaf (Phylliidae), which is sometimes called Philippine walking leaf . After its introduction into terraristics, it was initially known as Phyllium spec. (Philippines) or Phyllium siccifolium (Philippines).
features
The females reach a body length of 65 to 98 millimeters and a maximum abdomen width of 29 to 41 millimeters. As with all walking leaves, the males remain significantly smaller, 55 to 68 millimeters long and 15 to 19 millimeters wide. In the adult females, as in Phyllium giganteum and most other members of the family , only the forewings are fully developed. However, the females not only remain significantly smaller than those of Phyllium giganteum , but also have a less angular, more oval abdomen , for example like that of Phyllium westwoodii , but they have more rounded, significantly narrower outer fore legs and also remain somewhat smaller as this. The edges of the last abdominal segments and the tips of the cerci are often brown. The thighs on all pairs of legs are more strongly toothed on the front edge than on the rear, with the teeth of the front legs being the most pronounced and those of the females stronger than those of the males. The basic color can vary from light to dark green. Brown blemishes on the front wings or the ventral side of the abdomen can appear in different forms, but they can also be completely absent. The grassroots sensor members (usually the second to fifth) are orange brown in both sexes to brown colored. The females, like those of all walking leaves, have nine antennae. The adult males have 23 antennae and fully developed hind wings that make them capable of short flights. The shorter front wings cover a good third of the rear. The body of the males, similar to that of Phyllium westwoodii males, has a narrow lanceolate shape and, like the legs, is surrounded by a thin brown border. Unlike these, Phyllium philippinicum males have their antennae pointing forward. The top of your anterior mesonotum (i.e. the part of the mid-breast tergum that is tapered towards the thinnest part of the body ) becomes darker and darker with age, until it is finally brown. As with all ghost horrors, the shape of the eggs can be used very well to distinguish the species from other walking leaves. Both with these and with the animals themselves, there is a certain risk of confusion with certain other Phyllium species. The females of Phyllium philippinicum have a brown spot on the rear attachment of the middle and rear hips ( coxes ) (see picture below), which can also be found in a similar form on Phyllium mabantai . The eggs of Phyllium philippinicum have irregularly arranged round pits on the flat sides.
Occurrence and way of life
The animals are found in the Philippines , more precisely in the east of the island of Luzon , where they can be found on various bushes. They prefer temperatures of 22 to 27 ° C and a humidity between 60 and 80 percent.
The species usually sits motionless on the food plant during the day. When the animals move, they do so in the swinging pace typical of the walking leaves. A real tremor can be observed when stimulated by a draft or slight movement. Adult males are quite active at night and run or fly around in the branches of the food plants in search of a partner. If they are caught, their legs tend to be thrown off ( autotomy ), with the middle and then the hind legs being thrown off. The newly hatched nymphs run very quickly through the branches in the first few days before they begin to eat and adopt the way of life of their parents.
Reproduction
The lifespan of adult males is extremely long for Phyllium species, up to four months . They can often be carried around for days by the females during mating. Parthenogenesis does not matter. The characteristic eggs, about five millimeters long, three millimeters wide and ten milligrams heavy, hatch after about four to five months, initially black to dark brown and white-rimmed nymphs. After they have consumed food for a few days, the dark brown base color increasingly gives way to a green. It takes four to five months for both sexes to develop into adult insects, depending on the temperature, with the males becoming adult a little faster. After the second moult, they can be distinguished from the females, whose abdomen becomes wider and wider, by the diamond-shaped abdomen, which becomes increasingly narrow during the subsequent moults. Adult males are only about three months old, females usually six to nine months, in exceptional cases up to a year.
Taxonomy and systematics
The species was identified in a study published in December 2009 by Hennemann et al. described as Phyllium philippinicum . It is classified within the subgenus Phyllium in the siccifolium species group . In 2011, Detlef Großer questioned the validity of the species. Since both the genital shape and the shape and surface contour of the eggs vary greatly, he considers it likely that the animals described are already hybrids . A female has been deposited as a holotype in the Zoological State Collection in Munich . It is one of the animals that Ismael O. Lumawig and Thierry Heitzmann collected in June 2001 in Subic in the province of Zambales in eastern Luzon.
Keeping in the terrarium
Of the walking leaves currently kept in terrariums, Phyllium philippinicum is the easiest species to propagate (see also keeping walking leaves). Today's breeding lines go back like the holotype to the animals collected by Lumawig and Heitzmann in Subic in 2000 and 2001. Initially called Phyllium spec. (Philippines) or incorrectly called Phyllium siccifolium (Philippines) are listed by the Phasmid Study Group under PSG number 278.
The procurement of feed is unproblematic, as you can feed both the adults and the nymphs very well with blackberry leaves only . In addition, oak leaves or guavas ( psidium ), which are part of the natural food spectrum, can also be fed. To increase the humidity, the forage plants should be sprayed with lukewarm water every two to three days. Due to the long life expectancy of the males, parthenogenetic reproduction is eliminated, which contributes to higher hatching rates and more robust larvae. At lower temperatures (room temperature), more males hatch than females.
photos
egg
newly hatched nymph
10 days after hatching
female nymph
male nymph
Portrait of a female
Females, ventrally, with brown coxae
Males, ventral side
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 2.1 / 3.5. (accessed on February 11, 2010)
- ↑ a b c Phyllium page by Detlef Großer
- ↑ a b c d Alexander Esch: stick insects, ghost horrors, walking leaves: successful keeping of phasmids . Natur und Tier-Verlag, Münster 2012, pp. 105-106, ISBN 978-3-86659-221-6
- ↑ a b Phasmatodea page from Oskar V. Conle and Frank H. Hennemann ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2011 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.
- ↑ Frank H. Hennemann , Oskar V. Conle , Marco Gottardo & Joachim Bresseel : Zootaxa 2322: On certain species of the genus Phyllium Illiger, 1798, with proposals for an intra-generic systematization and the descriptions of five new species from the Philippines and Palawan (Phasmatodea: Phylliidae: Phylliinae: Phylliini) , Magnolia Press, Auckland, New Zealand 2009, ISSN 1175-5326
- ↑ Detlef Großer: New Insights and Critical Remarks on certain species of Walking Leaves (Insecta: Phasmatodea: Phylliidae) , Arthropoda Generalis 3, Sungaya Verlag 2011, ISSN 2191-4427
- ↑ PSG Culture List on the Phasmid Study Group website .
