Finally Phyllium tobeloense "Galela" Adults

Finally I have a nice, big group of adult P. tobeloense "Galela."

This is the first leaf insect species I have had success with so I am truly chuffed. I have had ROTTEN luck with P. giganteum in the past so this is a great success for me.

Now comes the long wait for eggs!

Peruphasma schultei "Pink Wing" Update

So my P. schultei "pink wing" have finally started laying eggs.

I have a theory that my food plant, Olea africana, might be less nutrient-rich that European food plants because my culture is very slow-growing and they dont seem to lay a lot of eggs. I am not sure if this is typical.

I initially had ova of normal and pink wing stock mixed, but none of the normals survived to adulthood, so I  would really like to try the normals in the future.

Here are a few pics.

Dares philippinensis Update

Hi Everyone

So my D. philippinensis are doing excellently. I have gotten my first few adult males and now I am simply waiting for the females to mature.

The males are probably just 40mm so a very small species. I hope to get some more small species in the future.

Here is a male

And a female

First Adult Male Phyllium tobeloense "Galela"

So after quite a few months, I have about three or four adult male P. tobeloense "Galela" but all my females are still nymphs and sub-adult.

I just hope the males can hold on until one of the females mature.

From literature, a few of the females mature into yellow coloured adults so I really hope I have a few yellow ones!

Nice adult male

Beautiful sub-adult female

Eurycantha calcarata Adults!

So a few weeks back a frend of mine from germany came to visit and brought a few sub-adult E. calcarata with him as a gift.

Although this is a very common species in Europe, here in Africa it is still quite rare, so I was incredibly happy to receive these!

Recently I have had a bunch of the moult to adult, so now just a matter of time before we see some eggs ;)

Nice big female

Freshly moulted male

 Male's defense mechanism! Potent!

Dares philippinensis Update

Hi All

It's been a while since my last post, so a lot of updating to do, but let's start with my little Dares.

Although none of them have reached adulthood, they are growing well and becoming more beautiful with every moult. I am quite fond of the smaller, more cryptic phasmids, instead of the larger, more popular ones, so this species is one of my favourites.

Here are a few pics:

Female in foreground, male in background

Male

Female detail

Hope you enjoyed!

Phyllium tobeloense "Galela" Update

Here's a quick update on my Phyllium tobeloense "Galela."

These nymphs are all doing well and are surprisingly easy to care for. When seeing their "exotic" appearance one expects them to be difficult to keep, but they are very easy.

Here's a nice female

And this is the male. Note the difference in body shape; females are more rounded while males are spear-shaped.

Hope you enjoyed they pictures.

Haaniella dehaani First Adult Female

Hi All

I have had some male H. dehaani for quite some time. Males of most species grow faster than females so you end up with a bunch of adult males, impatiently waiting for females to mature.

A few weeks back my first female matured and the males couldnt wait to mount her ;) I thought they would wait a few weeks, but the males were almost straight onto her.

Here she is. I have a few other sub-adult females due to reach adult soon. Now it's AGAIN a matter of waiting for the eggs

Xenophasmina simile "Chiang Mai" Eggs Arrival

Hi to my few readers ;)

Since adding the ClustrMap on the right of the page I have been very interested in the amount of people checking my blog as well as the locations of all. Thank you all for the support! Although I am still waiting for a few comments.

I obtained some ova of X. simile "Chiang Mai" a few months back and have really enjoyed watching this species grow. The nymphs are probably one of the more interesting ones to observe. I have really enjoyed my time raising these.

A few days back I started gettnig my first ova and since then the females have been dropping a bunch of ova daily; a very prolific species!

Here is my favourite female; her colour and pattern is quite unique.

And here is a picture of the ova. They have a very interesting shape and I best no one, human or predator, would ever notice them on the ground.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Peruphasma schultei "Pink Wing" morph

For years I was under the impression that recessive morphs were a trait reserved for animals without exoskeletons, but some months back I managed to read about a hypoerythristic morph of Peruphasa schultei.

Okay, some info. P. schultei is a recently discovered stick insect in Peru in 2005 and it's natural range is only 5 hectares (10 rugby fields) so VERY SMALL. Regardless of it's rarity in the wild, it is currently one of the more common stick insect species in captivity.

Here is a picture of a "normal" P. schultei

(picture from http://www.stickinsects.org)

I have always loved these due the sharp contrast between the red wings and the velvety black body. While doing some research on them, I found out about the relatively rare hypoerythristic morph. The market name is simply "pink wing" morph, but it's fairly obvious that it is reduced red from the wings are the mouthparts, so I have named in hypo-E.

I have cultures of both the red winged and pink winged variety and yesterday my first male moulted to adult so it's the first time I get to see those gorgeous wings. Here are some pics. Sorry for the cr@p pics but didnt really have time. Will take better ones later.

They are really gorgeous. I think I will have a pure hypo-E culture in one cage and a mixture between hypo-E and normal one in another cage. That way if I do manage to distribute the eggs in the future, some breeders might have a pleasant surprise and hatch some unexpected pink wing morphs.

PS: the wings are only visible after the final moult, so you hardly know you have the pink wing variety until they are adult.

Mnesilochus sp "Mt. Halcon" First Ova!

So about 5 months after having the first nymphs hatch, I collected two little ova from my first adult female. Super happy with the result.

Here are the two little ova. It's amazing how much they resemble seeds.

And here's the female that laid them, plump full of eggs.

I still have about 5 other females which are due to start laying soon so I will have a bunch of ova in no time.

Feel free to give me a shout if you might be interested in exchanging ova for other cool species.

Thanx for looking

Phyllium tobeloense "Galala"

Hi All

Here are some pictures of one of y newest cultures, Phyllium tobeloense "Galela" which is one of the newer leaf insects in the hobby.

I just love these insects; the way they look, the way they move, just everything!

I am currently housing them in a faunabox with some coco peat as substrate (to ensure sufficient humidity) and I am feeding them on Guava. I tried Mango for them when they were younger, but they preferred Guava from the start.

Here is a day old nymph. They come out black with this awesome banded pattern and they look quite mean, haha. Like a hotrod or something.

Then they change colour quite rapidly tot totally green within a week or so. Mine are probably 2 months old now and here are some more recent pics.

Here us a nymph which lost a foreleg during its first instar and the leg is starting to grow back nicely now. This is a feature of all phasmids.