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 lSR NEWSLETTER NO. 30 March 1987 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING REPORT About 40 members attended, and over 20 species were given away. The venue had to be altered to the Centre for Life Studies (kindly opened up by Peter Curry, No. 91) because of the sudden imposition of a heavy charge by the British Museum (Natural History). Hopefully you were all informed of this change in time. Finance - Paul Brock (No. 26) reported that the unexpectedly large number of members increased the 1986 surplus to £279, making the Group's General Fund now £866. Newsletters - Michael and Frances (No. 3) reminded members that contributions are always needed, but that longer articles may be delayed until the right amount of space becomes available. Short, or even very short, items are particularly needed. A Species Report on Phenacephorus cornucervi (PSG 73) has been provided by Chris Raper (No. 216). But of course your own notes on this species are still required and, in this case, should be sent to the Editors for insertion~ The meeting agreed to some of the Group's General Fund being spent on a computer or typewriter for the Editors' use. Library - David Robinson (No. 29) reported that his computer search for phasmid literature has been funded for another year. However, articles are classified by author only, so he is unable to select papers on a specified subject. Members may also have to wait patiently for copies of papers, especially early ones, as these can be difficult to obtain. Phil Clarke (ex Na 150) has kindly donated a photocopy of Westwood's 1859 catalogue of phasmids in the British Museum (Natural History). This is to be kept at the Centre for Life Studies for reference, together with a copy of Brunner and Redtenbacher's 1908 standard monograph. Livestock - Tim Branney (No. 239) reported that he had been inundated with requests for eggs but that surplus stock was being provided almost solely by our European members. He expressed the concern of the whole Committee at the number of species that are dying out, and felt that some members show no r espect f o r their cultures because they assume that they can always get replacements. Concern has also been expressed at the way some members grab all spare live­ stock in sight at meetings. And once again some sticks disappeared which had been put aside for a particular member. In future a system will be tried whereby members will have to feed back their surplus eggs from easier species to the Mart before they can receive more difficult species. For details see Livestock Co-ordinator's Report on page 2. Committee - The existing Committee was re-elected, with 4 additional members: Adrian Durkin (No. 78), Mel Herbert (No. 232), John Slater (No. 183) and Eric van Gorkom (No. 250). The meeting closed with an interesting talk, including slide show, by Tony James (No. 1) on his recent collecting trip to Malaysia. By the "Law of Cussed­ ness" he found sticks (5 species) only on the last days~ 30:2 ­ FORTHCOMING MEETINGS The next PSG meeting will be at the Centre for Life Studies on Saturday 18th July 1987, starting at 10.30 a.m. The Ninth Midlands Entomological Fair will be at Granby Halls in Leicester on Sunday 5th April from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Group has booked 2 tables ­ offers of help, please, to Adrian Durkin (No. 78) The Third North London Entomological Fair will be at Picketts Lock Centre, Edmonton, on Sunday 31st May from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Groups has booked 2 tables. LIVESTOCK CO-ORDINATOR' S REPORT by Tim Branney (No. 239) One continuing problem is that, whilst I send out various species as and when members ask for them, there is at present no way of knowing the fate of those species. Too often in the past species have been lost or seriously threatened as an initially large surplus has been distributed to members, none of whom has succeeded with them. So, following on from the proposals made at the AGM, all PSG species will be graded as follows: A. Least difficult to rear/ most readily available. B. More difficult to rear/ less readily available. C. Most difficult to rear/ least readily available. In order to obtain a species listed in Grade B, a member must send in surplus eggs from 3 species in Grade A, thereby demonstrating his or her ability to rear those species. Likewise, 3 species from Grade B can be exchanged for one from Grade C. In addition, eggs of anyone species can be sent in to obtain another species from the same grade. All members will be able to obtain one culture of any Grade A species, when available, and all new species will automatically join Grade C. The provisional grades are as follows: A. Species 1, 3, 4 , 5, 9, 22, 23, 24, 48, 52, 73. B. Species 2, 6, 12, 13, 15, 25, 31, 32, 35, 38, 44, 51, 61, 66, 69. C. All other species - if not lost! These grades are not fixed and will change with the fortunes of the species. LIVESTOCK SUPPLIERS PANEL 232. Mel Herbert, 30 Dores Road, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts (0793-723533) has kindly agreed to join and can supply species: 1 (EA, N), 2 (E), 4 (EA, NA), 5 (E), 9 (EA, N), 13 (E), 22 (EA, N), 23 (E, N), 31 (E, N), 32(EA, N), 38(E), 44(E, N), 52(E), 69(E), 73(E), 86(E). (E = eggs, N = nymphs, A = all year round supplies.) 152. Christopher Mann can now only supply eggs of species: 25, 32, 37, 44. WANTS AND SURPLUSES Mel Herbert (No. 232) wants eggs or nymphs of species 16, 19, 20, 29, 36, 51, 68. Paul Jennings (No. 80) of 14 Croyde Avenue, Greenford, ~1iddlesex UB6 9LS has surplus nymphs of 9, 24, 66, 73, and surplus eggs of species 13, 22, 24, 52, 66. Michael Lazenby and Frances Holloway (No. 3) have surplus eggs of species 9, 12, 44, 90. Nicholas Wadham (No. 358) wants eggs or nymphs of species 6, 7, 22, 24, 27, 35, 38, 69, and offers eggs of species 9. A STICK INSECT DIARY by Charlye Woolman (No. 2) I have extracted a few quotes from the diary I kept of my stick insect studies during my first year in Tanzania, East Africa. I have restricted them to those referring to the "Grass type" stick insect (PSG 41). In some ways it seems odd that it took me so long to find the local phasmids and get them into 30: 3 ­ culture (they were very common). On the other hand, as you will read, an apparently simple task can be a minefield of frustrations! September-December 1980 - On occasions, when I took groups of students out collecting insects, they found a type of stick insect, but these were invariably half squashed, lacking several legs and of unknown provenance. January 1981 - In the first few weeks I did some serious beating work on the local bushes. My first couple of expeditions drew a blank, which is depressing, but I know that there are stick insects in the area. I went back to the field where I had taken students insect collecting and soon beat a few (three) stick insects off some low, aromatic bushes which may be a species of Euclea (but I am very uncertain of that). This success was cheering but it was hard earned - I had to beat about thirty bushes to get those three phasmids! ...None of these stick insects accepted leaves of the bush they were found on and they all died within a few days. 14th February - I got up and out at 6 a.m. and beat a range of bushes in the area .... 15th February - Another 6 a.m. trip, this time mainly beating grasses. I caught one stick insect. 18th February - Thorough beating failed to produce a single stick insect. I then searched the grass stalks visually but could not find any. 2nd March - I went out with a torch and inspected the same grass sward visually at 9.30 p.m. Once again I could not find any stick insects. 21st March - I set out at 6.30 a.m. to beat for stick insects .... I came back completely empty-handed and very wet. It has been raining frequently during the week. Everywhere is very damp at night and there is a heavy dew. I can imagine the first-instar nymphs getting stuck in the water films. 22nd March - ... 1 went on to beat the coarse grasses again and drew a complete blank. I then found, almost by accident, that nearby fine grasses had plenty of stick insects. Before the rains I had beaten fine grasses without reward.... I have put both fine and coarse grasses in the cage to see which they prefer. 7th April - The new female has died. All I have left now is a couple of males. 9th April - My last male has died. 21st April - I know now that they do not hide away, as I had thought, during the day. The ones I observed were frequently high up in the grasses, in full sun, in the middle of the day. Late afternoon was the time of minimum activity and dusk the time of maximum activity.