Pink winged stick insect
| Pink winged stick insect | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Female of the pink winged stick insect |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sipyloidea sipylus | ||||||||||||
| ( Westwood , 1859) |
The Pink Winged Stick insect ( Sipyloidea sipylus ) is a kind from the order of the stick insects (Phasmatodea). It is often referred to simply as the winged stick insect or winged stick insect . The spelling " pink-winged stick insect " is also often found. In English the type is called "Pink Winged Stick Insect" or "Madagascan Stick Insect".
Characteristics and behavior
The approximately eight to ten centimeters long females are usually uniformly pale straw-colored, greenish specimens rarely appear. The upper side appears darker due to the light brown grain, which makes the camouflage even more perfect, especially when the animals lay their legs along the body axis. They then appear like dried blades of grass. The antennae often reach two thirds of the body length and thus protrude above the front legs, which are often stretched forward. The fore wings, which are only four to five millimeters long and designed as tegmina , only cover the base of the hind wings. These have a more heavily sclerotized costal field which, when the wings are in place, covers the abdomen up to its sixth or seventh segment and is just as colored as the rest of the upper side. The pale pink rear area of the forewings, to which the species owes its German name, is less sclerotic and membranous and makes the animals good fliers. The upper side of the hind breast ( metanotum ) and the first abdominal segments, which are covered by the wings at rest , are also reddish to pink (see picture below). The males remain smaller at 6 to 6.5 centimeters, but are also colored.
If the animals are concerned, they secrete a defensive secretion that smells characteristic of musty hay or wet grass . The adults often also develop their wings and fly away if there are further disturbances. The nymphs tend to shed their legs ( autotomy ) to distract predators .
Systematics and occurrence
John Obadiah Westwood described the species as Necroscia sipylus in 1859 . The female selected as the hololectotype comes from the island of Java and is in the Natural History Museum in London . A species from China , also described by Westwood in 1859 as Necroscia samsoo and temporarily called Sipyloidea samsoo , turned out to be synonymous with Sipyloidea sipylus . A species description carried out by Chen and He in 2000 as Asceles longzhouensis was recognized by the authors themselves as a synonym and withdrawn.
The original home of the pink winged stick insect is believed to be Southeast Asia. Today it lives there in the primary and secondary forests of China, Malaysia , Thailand , Java and Sumatra . It was probably introduced by humans in Madagascar . Here you can find them in cotton fields .
In 1996, a marbled, dark spotted shape for terraristics was introduced to Europe from Bangladesh . At first it was not clear whether this was a different species from the genus Sipyloidea . A closer examination showed that it is only a local color variant of Sipyloidea sipylus , which cannot be distinguished from the known form either by the eggs or the scent of the immune secretion.
Reproduction
In addition to sexual reproduction , the pink winged stick insect is also capable of facultative parthenogenesis . The females stick their torpedo-shaped eggs, about 4 millimeters long and 1.5 millimeters wide, to objects in their environment. In particular, niches and crevices, such as those in the bark of trees, are preferred. The 18 millimeter long nymphs hatch after about three months. When they are about three months old, they are mostly grass green in color. After the imaginal molt , the females still have a life expectancy of more than three months.
Terrariums
The species has been in breeding for a long time and its demands are completely unproblematic. In terms of heat and moisture, almost everything that is possible in a room terrarium is tolerated. The leaves of blackberries and other rose plants are eaten in the same way as those of various deciduous trees such as hazelnuts , beeches and oaks . Since the glued-on eggs can break very easily when trying to loosen them, it is advisable to use pieces of bark or back walls made of cork. The females can lay their eggs on these, which can then remain in the terrarium.
The first parthenogenetic breeding line kept by lovers goes back to animals from Madagascar. This also explains the English name "Madagascan Stick Insect". A sexual breeding line from Sumatra (1992) and further parthenogenic strains from Thailand (1997) and northern Vietnam (1998) were added later. The species is listed by the Phasmid Study Group under PSG number 4. The local form from Bangladesh mentioned in the systematic part was introduced as a sexual breed and is listed separately under the number 201.
photos
Female with open wings (side view)
Female with open wings
Eggs
swell
- ^ A b Paul D. Brock : Phasmida Species File Online . Version 2.1 / 3.5. (accessed November 8, 2009)
- ↑ a b 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 ghost horrors, stick insects and walking leaves in the terrarium - bede, Ruhmannsfelden 2000, ISBN 3-933646-89-8
- ^ A b Phasmatodea page by Oskar V. Conle and Frank H. Hennemann
- ^ Siegfried Löser: Exotic insects, millipedes and arachnids - instructions for keeping and breeding - Ulmer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8001-7239-9
- ↑ Phasmid Study Group Culture List (English)
Web links
- www.reptilienland.com Description and keeping tips