Phasmid Study Group Newsletter, 28
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ISSN 0268-3806 Chairman: Mrs Judith Marshall Department of Entomology British Museum (Natural History) Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD Membership: Paul Brock (Phone 0753-79447) "Papillon", 40 Thorndike Road Slough, Berks SL2 1SR NEWSLETTER NO. 28 September 1986 Once again thanks to Peter Curry (No. 91) for opening up the Centre for Life Studies for the Group's summer meeting. Some 30 members attended (including three from abroad), about half of whom gave away some 20 different species - thanks also to Tim Branney (No. 239) for coping with the surplus. Paul Brock (No. 26) showed his new video, which included shots of some "British" sticks in their natural habitats in this country. Three members showed the very latest species 91, 92 and 93~ The Committee discussed a proposal from Peter Curry to build up, in conjunc tion with the British Museum (Natural History), an up-to-date reference collection of all phasmid species within the Group, showing eggs, nymphs and adults and including morphological variations. As part of this, Tony James (No. 1) offered to collect a similar file of photographs, and members are invited to send these (preferably in colour) to him for inclusion. (Peter recommends Kodachrome 64· or 25 for goo d colour rendering.) COMPUTER LIST OF MEMBERS' NAMES AND ADDRESSES - Members are asked to note that their names and addresses are held in a computer by David Robinson (No. 29) for generating address labels (for posting Newsletters, etc), in case anyone wishes to object , This list is registered under the recent Data Protection Act. and its release for other purposes without the consent of the individuals is prohibited. AGM for 1987 will provisionally be on Saturday lOth January in the Conversazione Room at the British Museum (National History) in South Kensington. AMATEUR ENTOMOLOGISTS' SOCIETY EXHIBITION - Saturday 11th October 1986 at the Hounslow Civic Centre in Lampton Road, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Your Group has two tables - you can bring your interesting sticks/photos, etc, for display. Please bring any give-aways pre-packed, with food, as suitable starting cultures, and be sure you collect any leftovers at the end of the day. Volunteers are needed to run the stand, please. LIVESTOCK SUPPLIERS PANEL - Peter Wilcox's (No. 24 0 ) phone number is now 0344 50021. WANTS AND SURPLUSES Member 132 wants eggs of species 2, 10, 11, 16, 17, 26, 29, 30, 37, 49, 57, and offers eggs of 1 3, 23, 31 , 7 3. Member 232 has surplus nymphs of species 9. Member 359 wants species 6, 7, 15, 16, 20, 26, 30 , 58, 70, 74, 78, and offers in exchange eggs or nymphs of 1, 2, 5, 48, 84, 86; eggs of 9, 22, 23, 32, 73, 75, 85; and nymphs of 4, 76 (eggs only to and from the UK please - Eds). His name and address is Mr Xavier Singy, 55 ch. des Rannaux, 1296 Coppet, Switzerland. THE NORTH LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL FAIR was much less crowded than the AES Exhibition perhaps just as well, as your Editors had only 7 species to give away (from 3 members). Haaniella echinata received their first public showing, and the Insect House at the London Zoo was recruited to membership (with 4 others) • Sadly there was more emphasis on dead butterflies at the Fair. NEW REPRINTS FOR THE LIBRARY by David Robinson (no. 29) I have recently received two parcels of reprints for the library, and so I am providing a list in case members wish to consult them: Carlberg, U., Chemical defence in Anisomorpha buprestoides, Zool. Anz., Jena 215 (1985) 177-88. Carlberg, U., Chemical defence in Extatosoma tiaratum, Zool. Anz., Jena 214 (1985) 185-92. Carlberg, U., Secondary defence in Carausius morosus, Zool. Anz., Jena 215 (1985) 373-84. Carlberg, U., Phasmida: a biological review, Zool. Anz., Jena 216 (1986) 1~18. Hofmann, T., & Bassler, U., Response characteristics of single trochanteral campariform sensilla in the stick insect Carausius morosus, Physiological Entomol. 11 (1986) 17-21. Bassler, U., Afferent control of walking movements in the stick insect Cuniculina impigra, J. Oomp. Physiol. A 158 (1986) 345-62. Bassler, U., On the definition of central pattern generator and its sensory control, BioI. Cybern. 54 (1986) 65-9. NEW ZEALAND PHASMIDS ESTABLISHED IN SOUTH~WEST ENGLAND by Paul D. Brock (No. 26) This article in the AES Bulletin (Vol. 44, August 1985, pages 133-6) includes notes on their distribution, and foodplants for A. prasina. COLOUR VARIATIONS IN THE THAILAND STICK INSECT (PSG 22) by Peter Wilcox (No. 240) When I first started keeping this stick insect two years ago all the adult females were brown in colour. The brown tended to vary from light to dark. All n~phs were green throughout all instars. I kept them at a temperature of about 0C 200C during the day and at 5-10 at night (perhaps falling to zero on very cold 0C nights) during the winter, and at 24 upwards to maybe 28 C during the summer days; during the summer nights I did not heat them at all. I sprayed them regularly with tap water once or twice a day during the summer. The second year I decided to change my method. About February/March I 0C switched off the heating so that the daytime temperatures fell to between 14 and 200C (lower in really cold spells). During the night my room is not heated at all so that the night-time temperatures remained as before. All the female nymphs which turned adult after I switched off the heating came out green; two females which were already adult remained brown (the green was approximately the same shade as bramble) • The male Thailand stick insects did not appear to change colour at all, although I did notice that the nice dark blue patches on the first thoracic segment were not there ·the second year; these patches were previously noticeable on only one or two adult males. I have noticed the insects copulating on only one occasion the second year; in the first year they were joined for days at a time and the males were always fighting over the females. All were fed mainly on bramble during the two years. UNUSUAL MATING BEHAVIOUR IN A NEW PHILIPPINES SPECIES by Eric van Gorkom (No. 250) When a pair meet they shiver and the female raises her ovipositor at right angles to her body. The male then glides down this ovipositor to reach the right spot to mate. SOME NEW SPECIES FROM PERU by Xavier Singy (No. 349) Oreophoetes peruanas (?) (PSG 84) is illustrated below. Their peculiarity is that they are coloured red, especially the males. Their eggs are like black lentils, but with white opercula. When the insects are disturbed they sometimes eject a white, odorous liqued. They eat ferns. Their life cycle is about 7 months and they are easy to rear at high humidity. x.s. Paraphasma rufipes (PSG 85) females look like Creoxylus spinosus males, but they are 2~ times as large and completely dark. Their wings are pinky red. This species is quite difficult to rear. Dyme raraspinosa (PSG 86) females look like PSG 17 ("warty") but they do not have any wart and can be green or dark brown; the male is always grey brown. Both sexes are coloured blue at the base of their front legs. They eat bramble, prefer a high humidity and are very prolific. All these three species were found by Didier Mottaz (No. 45) during a trip to Peru. (Since the Group is acquiring new species much faster than we can issue Species Reports, notes on new species (ideally with drawings) are always welcome. Please keep them short (but including any unusual features) so as not to pre-empt any eventual Report too much. Eds) PHENACEPHORUS APPENDICULATUS (= P. CORNUCERVI) FEMALE BEHAVIOUR by Alain Deschandol (No. 238) The females of this species are very good twig mimics and when they are motionless their bodies take up very curious shapes. I have recorded some of them (see below), but I think others exist~ 2'3:4 ULF CARLBERG'S PAPERS by Michael and Frances (No. 3) PART 3. E. tiaratum adults "Copulation in E. tiaratum" (Zool. Anz., Jena 210 (1983) 5/6, 340-56) reports results on 4 males and 4 females. Between the same couple, matings were separated rather than consecutive, the period between their matings varying from 2 to 36 days. The total number of matings throughout an adult's life varied from one to 12. Insects which did most mating seemed to mate more often with each other; insects which did less mating mated more often with insects which did more mating, and insects which did least mating mated with those which did most mating and not with those which only did more mating. The females started laying 33 days after becoming adult. The sexual activity was high during a relatively short period around this time and very low or absent near the end of their lives. Smaller males more often mated with larger females than did larger males with smaller females. This is shown to tie in with the geometry of the particular mating positions taken up by this species (6 basic mating positions in phasmids are described). Male defensive behaviour observed included odour production, wing display, and active attack with the spiny hind legs. Sound production by fast wing beating was also observed. All these results are related to those for other phasmids. "Defensive behaviour in adult female E. tiaratum" (Ent. mono Mag. 116 (1980) 133-8) describes 3 primary defences of body colour, nocturnal activity and wing size reduction, and 7 secondary defences of displays, immobility, active escape, sound production, defensive secretion, attacking the predator and autotomy (leg shedding).