The Phasmid Study Group

CHAIRMAN: Judith Marshall. Dept. of Entomology, The Natural History Museum. Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD. (Tel: 0171 938 9344 ; FAX 0171 938 8937)

TREASURER/MEMBERSHIP: Paul Brock. "Papillon", 40 Thorndlke Road, Slough, Berks. SL2 1SR. (Tel: 01753 579447)

SECRETARY: Phil Bragg. 51 Longfield Lane, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, DE7 4DX. (Tel: 0115 9305010)

DECEMBER 1997 NEWSLETTER No 73 ISSN 0268-3806

rVJlRrlY CHRISTMAS arid A HAPPY NEW YIAR TO ALL MiWiglRS Arelaon asperhmus by Daniel Hallett 73:2

DIARY DATES 1998

JANUARY 24th. THE PHASMJD STUDY GROUP A.G.M The Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London. (See below and separate sheet for more details) MARCH 22nd MIDLANDS ENTOMOLOGICAL FAIR The Kettering Leisure Village Arena MARCH 21st & 22nd. YORKSHIRE AQUARISTS FESTIVAL Doncaster Racecourse. (Please contact Phil Bragg for more information, and if you can help at this two day event) MARCH 28th. CAPTIVE CONSERVATION OF ENDANGERED INVERTEBRATES, Conference. The Meeting Room, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London. (See further in Newsletter for more details) MAY 17th BRITISH TARANTULA SOCIETY SHOW 1030 - 1700 hrs Wood Green High School, Wood Green Road, Wednesbury, West Midlands. DECEMBER 6th MIDLANDS ENTOMOLOGICAL FAIR The Kettering Leisure Village Arena

The Phasmid Study Group has been invited to exhibit at all the above Shows. If you would like to help run our stand, please contact the member named or Paul Jennings at 89 Brackensdale Avenue, Derby, DE22 4AF. (: 01332 343477. If members are willing to run a stand at shows not mentioned here, please contact the Editor with dates, or if you have missed a Newsletter, a write up of how you got on. If you require Membership Forms these are available from the Editor.

SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions are due for renewal on January 1st 1998. To ensure that you continue to receive . Newsletters, please send your renewal form (enclosed with this Newsletter), to the Membership Secretary. Paul Brock, as soon as possible. Members should note that failure to re-new on time may mean that Newsletters may arrive late.

T - Shirts. Unfortunately we have sold out of Medium T - Shirts in the design of Heteropteryx dilatata. There are still other sizes available in this design, and all sizes available in other designs. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause. 73:3

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 24th JANUARY 1998 THE PALAEONTOLOGY DEMONSTRATION ROOM, THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, SOUTH KENSINGTON, LONDON. Please see separate sheet for Agenda The Museum is easily reached by Tube train, the nearest station being South Kensington which is on the Piccadilly, Circle & District Lines. A walkway connects the tube station directly to the Museum. Members should make sure that they bring along the enclosed Agenda form in order that they can gain access to the Museum. You will be asked to sign in, and then instructed on how to reach The Palaeontology Demonstration Room. Upon reaching the room, members will be welcomed by a committee member. Members will be issued with a name badge (Sorry, you'll have to write your own names on, but there will be a pen handy). New members who have never attended a meeting before will also have a coloured sticker put on their name badge. As well as the Livestock Exchange, which is run by Ian Abercrombie, and is always very popular, "T - Shirts" and all other PSG merchandise will be on sale. A presentation will be given by Erich Tilgner on the results of his thesis research on the morphology of Timema cristinae. The afternoon will conclude with a further informal gathering. If any member wishes to be nominated or to stand on the committee, please write to the Chairman, Judith Marshall to reach her by Monday 12th of January. We look forward to seeing all Members at the AGM

FXHTRTTTONS & MEETINGS REPORT AES Exhibition October 4th 1997 - Paul Taylor. The venue was the same (Kempton Park Racecourse), but the building was different. The AES had the privilege of being one of the first Exhibitions to use the "new" building, and what a fantastic difference. There was plenty of room, it was light and airy, and warm!. All the exhibits looked so much better, and everybody I spoke to agreed on the improvement. The AES organisers certainly made a brilliant job of putting an exhibition on, especially as they had no idea of what room would be available right up to a few days before the show. Our stand seems to grow at each exhibition, the PSG, the Mantid Group and the Cockroach Group, all having stands which, being joined together, certainly made an impressive show. As is usual, we were kept busy all day. Thanks must go to all those members who came and helped out during the day, names too numerous to mention. 73:4

Terrestrial Invertebrate Taxon Advisory Group

CAPTIVE CONSERVATION of ENDANGERED INVERTEBRATES. CONFERENCE Saturday, 28th March 1998 The Meeting Room, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, NW1 4RY.

A PRELIMINARY NOTICE AND CALL FOR PAPERS

With the ever increasing list of endangered invertebrates. The Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland has set up a Working Group called The Terrestrial Invertebrate Taxon Advisory Group (TITAG) to co-ordinate its work on conservation However there is far more work than can be done by Zoos alone and it is inevitable that other groups, including amateur entomologists will become increasingly involved With this in mind TIT AG is organising a conference on Saturday. 28th March 1998 to discuss problems of invertebrate culture, conservation and specific recovery projects. Provisional arrangements include longer talks on general subjects in the morning (Habitat, conservation. Veterinary subject, etc.) and shorter talks in the afternoon on specific or groups of . Full details of the conference will be available early in the New Year and anyone interested should send a stamped addressed A4 envelope to the address below. Anyone who feels that they have an area of expertise that they would like to offer to the Conference should also contact that address.

Adrian D. Durkin, Dudley and West Midlands Zoological Society. 2 The Broadway, Dudley, West Midlands. DY1 4QB. September 1997

Ideas for future meetings Richard Winter I have been a member for a few years now, and the one thing that does disappoint me is that there are so few speakers at meetings, and few practical articles and species reports in the newsletters. I think that the main reason for problems finding speakers at the meetings is that people quite understandably don't feel confident or capable enough to speak to a fairly large audience over a set period. Also people may feel, myself included, that they do not have a wide enough knowledge of a subject to conduct a whole talk themselves. However each person's individual observations and experiences are very valuable and it seems a shame not to take better advantage of this collective knowledge. One way to do this may be to hold discussions at meetings This would give us all a chance to share our thoughts and the results of the discussion could be written up as an interesting article in the newsletter, for the benefit of those not able to attend the meeting. Topics for discussion could be about aspects of general breeding techniques, experiences looking for phasmids in the wild or focus on the care of particular types of phasmids such as leaf . Perhaps some species reports could also be compiled in this way. I think that the cage workshop was a step in this direction and proved to be a successful and informative event. 73:5

With species reports, again, I think the problem is that people feel that they don't have the knowledge or experience to write a full report themselves. Someone may simply feel that they couldn't write a report because they can't draw stick insects. By asking people to write in with anything they knew about a particular species or by having a discussion about it in a meeting we might be able to get many more reports.

Breeding - Notes on Sungaya inexpectata. Zompro 1996 Oliver Zompro

Sungaya inexpectata is a member of the : Obriminae. Culture-stock originates from the Philippine island . There this species was found near the Lake Taal in a very small area of some remaining rain forest A whole week of investigation around the lake for more specimens than the two which had been caught before was unsuccessful, and they were not found in other areas of Luzon. So this species might be called endangered. Only one specimen survived, and layed four eggs. From these eggs two specimens were reared to adult, and the second generation has already resulted in 60 specimens. Since September 1997, the third generation is hatching well, with several hundred young ones, and several cultures are already established. This species on first seeing looks similar to , but is lighter in colour and less spiny. The culture is parthenogenetic S. inexpectata needs high humidity and prefers bramble to guava. The second generation laid up to 15 eggs every two weeks. They were buried in a hole in the substrate The next generation started to lose this behaviour and laid single eggs every few days. The young ones hatch after 4 months of incubation and grow up within 3 months. Older nymphs and adults like to hide behind some pieces of wood in the daytime. A new expedition to the will try to find a male of this interesting species. This species is still not on the PSG list.

Stick Insects in Zakynthos, Greece. Richard Winter

This was the second time that I had visited a Mediterranean island during August and inspired by Paul Brock's book I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go phasmid hunting for the first time. Last year I had visited Crete, which has only one known species, Bacillus atticus, a lentisc feeder. I only found one small nymph, which died soon after returning to England. The main problem 1 had on Crete was that it was very dry and barren, and the vegetation that was there was almost exclusively in the form of olive groves. In order to find lentisc bushes I had to travel almost five miles inland which meant that I wasn't able to spend much time searching by the time I had got to the bushes. There don't appear to be many records regarding stick on Zakynthos Island (also known as Zante) but by studying the range maps 1 speculated that there could be up to three species, Bacillus atticus, Bacillus rossius and Clonopsis galfica on the island. On arriving in the resort of Tslivi (a small town near Pianos), I was delighted to find after only a short walk that it was a very green island with an abundance of bramble and lentisc within five minutes walk of my apartments. I first tried looking on the foodplants during the day, and then shaking lentisc branches onto a white sheet. Almost immediately this technique rewarded me with a healthy looking green adult Bacillus atticus, which layed around 100 ova before it died in October. However despite much shaking of bushes I found no more stick insects by this method. One day I did manage to make the mistake of not checking for bees before 73:6 shaking and a large section of honeycomb fell onto the sheet before I made a hasty retreat. This obviously could be rather dangerous so it is strongly advisable to thoroughly check what else is in a bush before disturbing it.

Towards the end of the holiday I decided to try some night searching and again I was immediately rewarded, this time with two Bacillus rossius nymphs. These have grown well and are now two adult female insects laying an abundance of ova. The next time that I tried this torch light searching, I found only a large and rather smug looking praying mantis which had probably eaten my potential specimens as I had no luck in that area at all.

If anyone living in the Mediterranean area knows of any way in which I may be able to obtain a lentisc plant or perhaps the berries so that I could grow one myself I would be most interested and obviously if you could help I would be happy to pay any charges involved in getting a plant over to England.

If anyone is thinking about visiting the Mediterranean it's well worth having a look for stick insects while you're there. Whether you find any phasmids or not, if you look closely at the vegetation you're guaranteed to see an abundance of creatures such as lizards, geckos, grasshoppers, cicadas, dragonflies and firebugs. Essential equipment to bring is a large white sheet, a torch, and perhaps most importantly something in which to house your finds. It is a lot easier to bring a simple cage than it is to make one while you're abroad. As a bare minimum bring some fabric mesh and elastic bands so you can make cages from empty containers.

Editor: Lentisc is also known as the Mastic Tree. Pistacia lentiscus. It is a small evergreen tree or shrub, growing to about 8m. It has an abundance of red berries, and during recent trips to Corfu. I brought back both berries and cuttings of this shrub, none of which took. The tree/shrub is verv common around the Mediterranean and on the islands.

Drawing by Daniel Hallett 73:7

PSG MERCHANDISE Pens & Car Window stickers are now available. Prices are as follows:- Pens 40p each + p & p Car Window Stickers 60p each + p & p. (p & p - UK mainland 25p, Overseas 40p) Please send your order to: James Waddicor, 3 Squires Copse, Peatmoor, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN5 5HB, England. (Cheques should be made payable to "The Phasmid Study Group")

Rainforest, wet? WimPotvin People often say that the rainforest is always wet, and from this one assumes that you need to spray and keep the cages soaking wet, even when the cage has little ventilation. For most species of stick insects, this is a bad thing. The rainforest is not always wet!. It may rain every day, but after half an hour everything dries up again. The droplets of rain on the leaves soon dry up, and the soil drains well, however the ambient humidity increases, and sometimes you can even see the mist hanging. From this, it is logical that we have to spray our cages every day, but we must allow the water to dry away rapidly. To do this one has to ensure that the cage has sufficient ventilation by perhaps using netting. Another way to maintain a high humidity is to have an enclosed cage, one with little ventilation. Most species of stick insects don't drink because they get enough moisture when eating, so droplets on the leaves is unnecessary. Not each species needs the same ambient humidity, and so below are some of my personal experiences. Oreophoetes peruana is already an exception to the rule. This species from Peru adores water. It lives on which grow in a very humid place, the forest floor. We are, therefore, best to spray the cage liberally with water. If the cage is well ventilated, then spray twice a day, less frequently if the cage is enclosed. Make sure that there is sufficient ventilation near the cage floor, this helps prevent mould growing. Practically all the species of the subfamily Heteropteryginae also need a very high humidity level. These are Haaniella, Heteropteryx, Dares, Epidares, Hoploclonia, Datames and to a lesser degree Aretaon asperrimus. In their natural environment, they would hide under fallen trees, cork, . . . wherever it is humid. And you will only find them near to water. In captivity we need to allow this species to drink sometimes, so it is not a bad idea to allow water to drip from the leaves of their foodplants. You can also give these insects a dish with water in, but it can get very dirty quickly. Experience has shown that these species live a lot longer if they can drink regularly. Also provide them with a nice humid place to hide in the daytime. The exception to this is Heteropteryx dilatata which remains high up in the branches during the daytime. The Eurycantha species may look like Haaniella a little, but they are best kept less humid. If kept too humid, they become weak. In their natural environment they hide during the daytime behind loose bark, some distance away from the soil, and in a dryer environment. In our cages, they are best kept on the dry side, but give them a small dish of water, and they can then decide for themselves how much they want to drink. For the African and European species, Bacillus, Clonopsis, Leptynia and Gratidia (I have no experience with Acanthoxyla), they need not be sprayed at all. The ambient humidity in the cage should be enough for them. They live in a dry climate and that is What they need in captivity. All they need is a well 73:8

ventilated cage, one with one Side of netting. If you do want to spray them, in Spain and Zaire it sometimes rains, the water will dry up quickly. The Pseudophasmatinae species like Paraphasma rufipes, Pseudophasma bispinosa, Anisomorpha buprestoides and A. montrosa need to be sprayed "a little". This means that they have a well ventilated cage which is sprayed lightly each evening. The water droplets should have disappeared after a quarter of an hour. If the water remains to long, the insects become weak and die, and sometimes the insect will have died, and started to rot away by the next morning. Also many species from the subfamily Necrosciinae are best kept not too humid, although they are more tolerant of the humid conditions. These are (amongst others) Sipyloidea sipylus, Sipyloidea sp (Thailand), Sipyloidea sp. (Australia), Sipyloidea sp. (Bali), Sipyloidea ? sp. (Andaman Islands), Lopaphusperakensis, Phaenopharos herwaardeni, But there are also exceptions, Lopaphus caesius and Centrophasma hadrillus need a higher humidity, especially when they are still nymphs. It is often said that leaf insects need a lot of spraying, especially for them to drink water. From my experience, I have found this incorrect. I never spray the leaves, but on the floor of the cage I lay some layers of kitchen or toilet paper which I spray every evening. At night the water evaporates slowly, ensuring an even humidity over a longer period of time. The cage is ventilated on two sides, which allows in fresh air. My leaf insects very rarely have a drink, except when it is very hot outside. This way I have bred Phyllium bioculatum for several generations successfully. Since October last year I have also bred P. giganteum successfully. Hygiene is very important, the paper needs replacing every two weeks. There is also the idea that you need to spray a lot when the stick insect is going to moult. I have found this again to not necessarily be correct, especially for the last moult. From Trachythorax maculicollis, Ctenomorphodes briareus and C. tessulata I have had sub adult females moulting badly after being well sprayed the evening before. They were very weak and died shortly afterwards. One lot that were not sprayed the evening before a moult, moulted perfectly, and remained alive. I have also noticed that Heteropteryx and Hacmiella seem to prefer moulting when it is a little drier. They usually have the humid conditions without the need for spraying. Maybe the insects wait until the humidity is right before moulting, this may then allow the new skin to dry up faster. How much you spray can also depend on the season. In the summer you may spray a little more often, to cool the cage and insects down, and also allow the insects to have a drink. But in the spring, you are best not to spray much at all, as the fresh leaves contain much more water. The insects then can usually get sufficient moisture from the leaves, and the fresh leaves also give off sufficient humidity. In winter the insects should be sprayed a little more often, so they get a chance to drink. The hard, old leaves are much dryer. You can choose between tap water and rain water to spray with. Tap water contains more lime, and you can get lime scale build up much sooner. Also tap water may contain additives which may be detrimental to insects. Rain water is more natural and does not contain additives or lime. I used to spray with tap water, but last year I changed to rain water. Although I cannot notice any differences to my phasmids, I believe it is better because it is natural. What is most important is HYGIENE. Water is an ideal medium for diseases and mould, so clean out your cages as often as you can. You should make the habit of every time you change the foodplant, clean the cage floor.

Hanging Stick Insects John Middleton Over that past few months I have noticed that my Indian stick insects, C. rnorosus, have been hanging from the top of the tank for a few days after I have changed the food and cleaned them out. They make no effort to go down and eat anything for some time. Does any member have any suggestions as to why they should do this? 73:9

Identity of PSG 179 Phil Bragg. I recently tried to identify this Thailand species. It appears to belong to the genus Gratidia, a genus known mainly from Africa, although there are a few species described from "East Indies", Java, and Vietnam. The only key to the genus is Brunner's key, produced in 1907. Brunner's keys obviously do not include the (many) species described since 1908, but all of these are African or Mediterranean and may therefore be discounted as possibilities so far as PSG 179 is concerned. Use of Brunner's keys reassuringly refers PSG 179 to the sections containing the Asian species. The male keys out as G. conformans Brunner, which is the only species described from Vietnam. However, Brunner's description does not fully agree with the male of PSG 179. The female keys out to a group of three: G. conformans, G. javanica, and G. indica, but there are very obvious differences between each of these and PSG 179. In conclusion, PSG 179 appears to be an undescribed species of Gratidia.

Identity of PSG 182 Phil Bragg. I have recently tried to identify this species and have arrived at the conclusion that PSG 182 is probably 0. spinosissimus Carl, 1913. This may be the same as O. honestus Redtenbacher, 1908, but Redtenbacher's specimen was much smaller (97mm) than females of PSG 182 (120-134mm). Redtenbacher did not describe the male (and Carl did not describe the female). Redtenbacher's description is so poor that without seeing the specimen I am unable to decide if it is the same species. It is worth noting that the spines on this species are quite variable: for example, the front of the pronotum may have none, one (apparently half-a-pair), or two spines, these can also show considerable variation in size. New additions to the PSG culture list Phil Bragg There are four species to add to the list at present. I have been told of several others, but I will not add them until I have seen some material so that I can check that species are not added more than once. PSG 187. Creoxylus sp. From Venezuela. Feeds on bramble. I do not know how it came into culture. Does anyone know? PSG 188. Phaenopharos sp.? From Vietnam. Brought into culture by Peter Heusi. It has small wings similar to PSG 104, Phaenopharos herwaardeni. It feeds on bramble. PSG 189. unidentified Pseudophasmatinae. Some friends of Pefer Heusi brought some adults back from Venezuela. Peter told me it is like a Pseudophasma or Paraphasma, it is a similar size to PSG 85 and has greyish-brown wings. It feeds on bramble. PSG 190. Phasma gigas (Linnaeus). There seem to have been two lots of this species imported recently from Papua New Guinea. It feeds on bramble, eucalyptus, and oak. 73:10

T - SHIRTS" T - Shirts with the design of Oreophoetes peruana, Aretaon asperrimus, Phyllium bioculatum and Heteropteiyx dilatata are now available from The Editor, Paul Taylor (address at end of Newsletter). Sizes available are Medium, Large and Extra Large, and the cost, £6.00 plus p&p. (UK mainland £1.00 p&p; Overseas £1.50 p&p) Cheques should be made payable to "The Phasmid Study Group" and don't forget to state your size, name and address and which "T - shirt" Oreophoetes peruana, Aretaon asperrimus, Phyllium bioculatum or Heteropteryx dilalata.

Drawing by Robin Godding. Robin is a very keen keeper of stick insects, and goes around pet shops "rescuing" stick insects that he thinks are being ill treated. He spends all his pocket money on his mercy missions. Keep up the good work Robin. 73:11

This cage was built from PVC sheet sold for use as frost protection on plants. It is available from DIY shops and Garden centres.

It is stuck with a glue gun and finished off with green tape.

Stick-Condo©

Copyright

1996 Jon Rainford 73:12

WANTS & EXCHANGE Wanted, nymphs or ova of Dares breitensteini.

Please contact: Yvonne Clay, 6 Glebe Street, Swadlincote, South Derbyshire, DE11 9BW.

Spare nymphs of PSG 9, Extatosoma tiaratum.

Contact: Rob Williamson, 25 Hunters Park, Unsworth, Bury, Manchester, BL9 8AP. 8 0161 796 1683

Surplus nymphs of PSG 99. Contact: Mark Roberts, 127 Inkerman Road, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey, GU21 2BQ. 8 01483 474478

NEXT NEWSLETTER Please send all contributions to the Editor:- Paul Taylor, 24 Forge Road, Shustoke, Coleshill, Birmingham, B46 2AU. England. 8: 01675 481578. to reach me by 1st February 1998 or preferably earlier Contributions can be accepted in the following forms: a. Hand-written. b. Typed c. On IBM compatible computer disk providing it is sent on a 3.5" double or high density disk. Files can be accepted as Dos Text, Microsoft Wordfor Windows, Microsoft Works or as ASCII files. E-Mail: [email protected] All contributions to the Newsletter will be deemed to be submitted to the French GEP Le Monde des Phasmes, the Belgian-Dutch Phasma and the German Arthropoda for translation.

NOTICE It is to be directly understood that all views, opinions or theories, expressed in the pages of "The Newsletter" are those of the author(s) concerned. All announcements of meetings, requests for help or information, are accepted as bona fide. Neither the Editor, nor Officers of "The Phasmid Study Group", can be held responsible for any loss, embarrassment or injury that might be sustained by reliance thereon. "The Phasmid Study Group"