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    Megacrania Phelaus - English (Solomons)

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    gopala
    This document provides information on Megacrania phelaus, a species of stick insect found in the Solomon Islands. It describes the insect's taxonomy, origins, food plants, appearance of males and females, breeding notes, and photos. Key details include: M. phelaus is difficult to breed and recommended for experienced keepers; it feeds naturally on Pandanus plants but alternatives like Mahonia may work; males are smaller and brighter colored than females; and breeding requires high humidity and regular spraying or wet substrate.

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    Megacrania Phelaus - English (Solomons)

    Uploaded by

    gopala
    132 views2 pages
    This document provides information on Megacrania phelaus, a species of stick insect found in the Solomon Islands. It describes the insect's taxonomy, origins, food plants, appearance of males and females, breeding notes, and photos. Key details include: M. phelaus is difficult to breed and recommended for experienced keepers; it feeds naturally on Pandanus plants but alternatives like Mahonia may work; males are smaller and brighter colored than females; and breeding requires high humidity and regular spraying or wet substrate.

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    This document provides information on Megacrania phelaus, a species of stick insect found in the Solomon Islands. It describes the insect's taxonomy, origins, food plants, appearance of males and females, breeding notes, and photos. Key details include: M. phelaus is difficult to breed and recommended for experienced keepers; it feeds naturally on Pandanus plants but alternatives like Mahonia may work; males are smaller and brighter colored than females; and breeding requires high humidity and regular spraying or wet substrate.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    132 views2 pages

    Megacrania Phelaus - English (Solomons)

    Uploaded by

    gopala
    This document provides information on Megacrania phelaus, a species of stick insect found in the Solomon Islands. It describes the insect's taxonomy, origins, food plants, appearance of males and females, breeding notes, and photos. Key details include: M. phelaus is difficult to breed and recommended for experienced keepers; it feeds naturally on Pandanus plants but alternatives like Mahonia may work; males are smaller and brighter colored than females; and breeding requires high humidity and regular spraying or wet substrate.

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    Megacrania phelaus

    order: Phasmatodea
    suborder: Anareolatae
    family: Phasmatidae
    subfamily: Platycraninae
    tribe: Platycranini
    genus: Megacrania (Kaup, 1871)
    species: Megacrania phelaus (Westwood, 1859)

    general notes:

    • a very beautiful, yet difficult species to be bred – recommended only for the experienced breeder

    origin:

    • my stock origins from the mountains in Central Kwara'ae Province, Malaita (Solomon Islands). I received eggs
    directly from Malaita in 2006
    • species ID by Oskar Conle

    food plants:

    • the natural food plant of this species is Pandanus. For the first generation I bought fresh Pandanus leaves in an
    asian grocery shop. This plant (namely Pandanus amaryllifolius ( = P. odorus)) is being used in many asian kitchen
    as a spice plant. In Thailand this plant is called "Bay toey". The problem is that Pandanus from shops can be
    poisoned with pesticides. Still I could breed the first generation on such Pandanus – but when they were adult for
    some weeks, I got poisoned Pandanus – and all M. phelaus dopped dead over night. Luckily I had some eggs
    already.
    • for the second generation I got Pandanus from the Zoo in Zurich. You may also get Pandanus from a botanical
    garden which might be near your home
    • another possibility is that you will buy your own Pandanus plants from a market-garden or a plant shop. But you have
    to be careful with plants from such places. Usually ALL plants from such shops are treated with pestizids and / or
    insectizids. It takes a few weeks or even months until these poisons are nutralized, if they will become inactive at all.
    Allow 3 months to go by before you feed them to your insects.
    Further you need to know that Pandanus is quite a slow growing plant. And these insects can eat quite a lot and
    sometimes they do not eat in a very economic way – to say the least
    • I found alternative food plants on which they are feeding – namely Mahonia aquifolium, reed and palm leaves
    (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens).
    So far there is only experience on Mahonia aquifolium as a food plant. M. aquifolium is a quite frequent garden plant
    and it is winter green. M. phelaus nymphs will start to feed on this plant readily. But it seems to be difficult to bring the
    nymphs up successfully. Mainly the nymphs will die during moulting (ecdysis), although the humidity might obviously
    be high. At the moment I know only of one skilled breeder who has been able to get adult M. phelaus by feeding
    them on M. aquifolium. She informed me that she kept the humidity in their cage very high, and also she sprayed
    them with water 1-2 times a day. So for the time being it is not yet clear whether M. aquifolium could be an alternative
    food plant at all.
    Still there is no experience with reed or palm leaves as alternative food plants for M. phelaus (or other Megacrania
    species). Nymphs will feed on these plants. But as I do not have a good supply of these plants the whole year round,
    therefore I can not make experiments with that. Someone who has these plants all the year round will have to do
    that.

    females: pic1 pic2 pic3 pic4


    • females are about 11 cm long, They do also have well developed wings. But as they become quite heavy when
    ready to lay eggs, thus they can not fly at all
    • females are from a very dark brown to light brown with greenish or greenish-blue legs, orange-brown wings and
    orange antennae and eyes

    males: pic1 pic2 pic3 pic4 pic5


    • males about 8 cm and have well developed wings too. They use their wings occasionally for a flight which is more of
    a gliding than real flying
    • males being much more brilliant in colour. They have greenish-blue legs, a shining black body and reddish wings,
    antennae and eyes
    • pics of couples: pic1 pic2 pic3 pic4 pic5

    eggs: pic1
    • large eggs – 10 mm long, 4 mm high, 3 mm wide
    • colour is a dark greyish-brown

    breeding notes:
    • nymphs hatch after about 5-6 months. The eggs were incubated on a damp (but not soaking wet !) paper tissue or
    damp sand. Springtails were used to control fungus (mould). Incubation temperatures were 18 – 25 °C
    • pics of nymphs: pic1 (freshly hatched) pic2 (second instar - L2) pic3 (older nymphs)
    • important: nymphs are prone to drown in the container for the food plant ! Therefore cover the container for the food
    plant, for example with cotton wool. Adults are no more prone to drown
    • once you have a steady source for Pandanus for them, they will grow up without further problems
    • I am breeding them in an airy cage. On the bottom of the cage there is paper tissue which is being kept constantly
    wet
    • They like to drink, so their cage is being sprayed regularely.
    • they are being bred at room temperatures (18 – 25 °C)
    • they reached adulthood after about 3,5 (males) to 4,5 months (females). As usual, males (having one moult less)
    mature earlier than the females
    • males will stay on their females back and do not leave her again - unless there are more "free" females around. He
    will even stay on her back while eating. Thus he sometimes has to bend his abdomen in a narrow angle. Bachelor
    males will try to seize a female which is already occupied by another male. The beset male will strongly defend
    himself against this attack by excitedly struggling and tapping with his fore and midlegs and his jaws wide open. I
    have even seen them trying to bite the intruder in the legs and sometimes they do wrestle with each other. Therefore
    it is also advisable not to put more males than females in the same cage. But otherwise they are peaceful creatures
    • 3 weeks after their final moult, females start to lay eggs - about 8 – 10 a week. They just drop them to the ground
    • It seems to be an easy species for breeding - if you have access to Pandanus..........

    On my blog (here) you can also find a downloadable text with more general infos about my breeding conditions, which might
    be helpful (see „infos and care sheets“)
    Please do not hesitat to contact me if you have any further questions - I will try my best to help
    And I would be happy to hear from you about your experiences

    Bruno Kneubühler (Switzerland)


    gopala@bluewin.ch
    phasmid@bluewin.ch
    http://www.phasmatodea.blogspot.com

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