Hypocyrtus ornatissimus "Belmopan"

(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

General Informations

• identified by Hennemann and Conle as Hypocyrtus ornatissimus - for more details please read:
  HENNEMANN, F.H. & CONLE, O.V. (2012): Studies on Neotropical Phasmatodea XIV: revisions of the Central American genera Hypocyrtus Redtenbacher, 1908 and Rhynchacris Redtenbacher, 1908 (Insecta: Phasmatodea: "Anareolatae": Xerosomatinae: Hesperophasmatini). ► Journal of Orthoptera Research, 21(1): 65-89.
• originally described by Brunner v. Wattenwyl (1907) as Ocnophila ornatissima
• synonyms: Sermyle ornatissima (Zompro, 2005)
• 2006 - first successful culture of this Jan Meerman (Belize)
• 2007 - first culture in Europe by Bruno Kneubuehler
• 2007 - distributed as Hypocyrtus scythrus to other breeders, this preliminary identification later on turned out to be erroneous. If you are breeding this species, please make sure to use the correct name H. ornatissimus

_________________

Origin

• Belmopan, Belize

_________________

Females

• sturdy, slow-moving insects
• quite thick when ready to lay eggs
• small, 7-8 cm long
• wingless
• many females have a protuberance on the dorsal mesothorax, which is often just two small spines, but occassionally becomes a prominent bump-like protuberance
• colouration: different shades of brown, with some darker spots
• body is rough-textured, not shining
• antennae a bit longer than the fore legs
• often females have small lobe-like expansions and small spines on the legs
• prothorax is strongly granulated, head and mesothorax are slightly granulated
• many females have a lobe-like expansion on the side of the 7th abdominal segment which can be quite prominent
• a thin appendix of the subgenitalplate often exeeds the terminal abdominal segment

_________________

Males

• slim, slow-moving insects
• small, 6 cm long
• wingless
• all males have a light brown to almost white spot on each side of the metathorax, close to the joint of the hind legs
• prothorax (dorsally) and head rough-textured, rest of the body quite smooth
• colouration: light brown when as young adults, dark brown when older, with some lighter brown patches. Sides of the mesothorax are reddish brown
• antennae longer than the fore legs

_________________

Eggs

• barrel-shaped, strongly-granulated, dark brown eggs with hair-like structures
• 5 mm long, 2 mm broad

_________________

Breeding Notes

• incubation on damp sand, with springtails to prevent growth of mould
• incubation at room temperatures (18-22 °C) takes 4-5 months
• nymphs feed easily on bramble, cut edges of leaves for newly hatched nymphs
• keep nymphs and adults at high humidity, yet provide their cage with sufficiant air ventilation
• I do never spray the nymphs nor the adults, a damp paper towel provides enough humidity
• this is a quite slow growing species - males mature after about 5 months, while females mature after about 7-8 months
• they do not require a big cage, nor do they have moulting problems in even quite a crowded cage
• as it is a slow-moving species, they do not eat a lot
• females start laying eggs some weeks after their final moult, only about 4 eggs per week which just drop to the gound