Species of stick insect
| Tisamenus cervicornis | |
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| Tisamenus cervicornis 'Pocdol', left male, right female | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Phasmatodea |
| Family: | Heteropterygidae |
| Subfamily: | Obriminae |
| Tribe: | Obrimini |
| Genus: | Tisamenus |
| Species: | T. cervicornis |
| Binomial name | |
| Tisamenus cervicornis Bolívar, 1890 | |
| Synonyms | |
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Tisamenus cervicornis is a stick insect species (Phasmatodea), in the family of the Heteropterygidae endemic to the Philippine island Luzon.
Description
For a long time, only the two type specimens used for the first description of this Tisamenus species were known. The female holotype is 48 millimetres (1.9 in) long. The male syntype is 35 millimetres (1.4 in) long. In Tisamenus cervicornis there are multitoothed postorbital crests on the head. Their second tooth is the largest. Behind the ridges sits a pair of conical tubercles. These features distinguish them from the similar Tisamenus armadillo and Tisamenus spadix. On the pronotum there are two strongly compressed, clearly bidentate combs that point obliquely backwards. The genus-typical triangle on the mesonotum is flatly concave as in Tisamenus spadix and Tisamenus tagalog and is only slightly longer than it is wide. It does not reach the middle of the mesonotum. The mesopleuras are toothed and have a spine above the mesocoxa. The expanded metapleurae are dentate, with the last two teeth being the larger ones. The second segment of the abdomen has an anterior and a posterior pair of tubercles on the upper side. On segments three to five there are four tubercles in the posterior area, one medial and one lateral pair. Only a pair of medial tubercles can be seen on the sixth segment.
Description
The known distribution area covers central Luzon. In addition to the location of the type material of the species, which is given as the province of Camarines Sur, the species has been found in the region of the Pocdol Mountains. Only the islands of the Philippines are mentioned as the location of the female holotype.
Taxonomy
Ignacio Bolívar described the species in 1890 under the current name. It depicts a female in top view and her ovipositor in detail from the side. The female holotype and a male syntype are deposited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid. Both specimens are damaged, although the male is more severely damaged. James Abram Garfield Rehn and his son John William Holman Rehn synonymized the genus Tisamenus with the genus Hoploclonia in 1939. At the same time, they divided the genus into different groups according to morphological aspects. In the so-called Deplanata group, they placed Hoploclonia cervicornis, with Hoploclonia deplanata (today Tisamenus deplanatus), Hoploclonia armadillo (today Tisamenus armadillo), Hoploclonia spadix (today Tisamenus spadix), Hoploclonia tagalog (today Tisamenus tagalog) and Hoploclonia fratercula (today Tisamenus fratercula), relatively unspined species, with a flat upper surface, which, apart from the supracoxal spines on the edges of the thorax, show no or hardly any spines, but at most teeth. The original name was officially restored in 2004 by Oliver Zompro, who transferred or retransferred all Filipino species previously listed in Hoploclonia to the genus Tisamenus.
Terraristics
Thierry Heitzmann collected the species for the first time in October 2009 in the south of Luzon in the Pocdol Mountains, where he found it on Mount Pulog (not to be confused with Mount Pulag in the north of Luzon). He found more animals the following month on Mount Osiao. After successfully breeding the species, he distributed it to other breeders. In Europe, it was first bred in 2012 by Bruno Kneubühler and, following an initial identification, he named it Tisamenus deplanatus 'Pocdol' and distributed it. Under this name, it was given the PSG number 399 by the Phasmid Study Group. Frank H. Hennemann identified this breeding strock as Tisamenus cervicornis in 2024. The species is very uncomplicated to keep and breed. They eat leaves from bramble, or other Rosaceae, as well as from hazel, salal and Prunus laurocerasus.
Gallery
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Tisamenus cervicornis, female from the first description by Bolívar
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Two males and two female nymphs
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Pair from dorsal
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Male from lateral
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Pair
References
- ^ Brock, P. D.; Büscher, T. H. & Baker, E. W. Phasmida Species File Online. Version 5.0. (accessdate 21 October 2023)
- ^ Ignacio Bolívar: Diagnosis de Ortopteros nuevos in Anales de la Sociedad Española de Historia Natural. 1890, Section 19, pp. 307–308 & plate 19, figure 5
- ^ Rehn, J. A. G. & Rehn, J. W. H. (1939). The Orthoptera of the Philippine Island, Part 1. – Phasmatidae; Obriminae, Proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences (Vol. 90, 1938), Philadelphia 1938/39, pp. 466–472
- ^ Information about Tisamenus cervicornis (here namend as Tisamenus deplanatus 'Pocdol') by Bruno Kneubühler auf Phasmatodea.com
- Zompro, O. (2004). Revision of the genera of the Areolatae, including the status of Timema and Agathemera (Insecta, Phasmatodea), Goecke & Evers, Keltern-Weiler, pp. 206–207, ISBN 978-3-931374-39-6
- Phasmid Study Group Culture List
- Dräger, H (2012) Gespenstschrecken der Familie Heteropterygidae Kirby, 1896 (Phasmatodea) – ein Überblick über bisher gehaltene Arten, Teil 3: Die Unterfamilie Obriminae Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893, Triben Miroceramiini und Eubulidini Zompro, 2004, ZAG Phoenix, Nr. 6. Juni 2012 Jahrgang 3(2), pp. 2–21, ISSN 2190-3476
External links
Data related to Tisamenus cervicornis at Wikispecies
Media related to Tisamenus cervicornis at Wikimedia Commons
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Tisamenus cervicornis |
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