Diesbachia tamyris "Tapah Hills"

(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

General Infomations

• this species has originally been described by Westwood as Cyphocrania tamyris (1859)
• other synonyms are Sosibia tamyris (Kirby, 1904), Centrophasma infernale(Redtenbacher, 1908)
• in Europe, this species has been cultured since a long time. Several new culture stocks have been importet over the years

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Origin

• Tapah Hills (Malaysia), below the Cameroon Highlands

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Female

• medium sized, fully winged phasmids
• body length is about 10 - 11 cm
• there are many prominent spines on the thorax
• the membranous part of the hind wings is beautifully pink-black coloured. This warning colour is shown only when they feel strongly disturbed
• they can fly, but do so only very rarely
• basic colour is brown in different shades, with an almost white band along the sides of the head and the thorax

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Males

• thin, equally fully winges phasmids
• body lenghts is about 9 cm
• males have even more prominent spines on the thorax
• the membranous part of their hind wings is also pink-black coloured. But they do not display these warning colours, not even when feeling threatened
• they are good flyers and do so quite eaily
• their basic colour is also brown in different shades, with an almost white band along the sides of the head and the thorax

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Food Plants

• they feed easily on bramble (Rubus sp.)

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Eggs

• cone-shaped, dark brown
• surface is roughly structured
• about 6 mm long and 2.5 mm wide

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Breeding Notes

• very easy to culture
• incubation of the eggs on damp (not too wet) sand, with springtails to reduce mould growth
• incubation time (at room temperatures) is about 5 months
• nymphs are mainly green
• Faunaboxes are great for bringing these nymphs up
• males will mature after about 4,5 months, females after about 5 months
• just prior to the adult moult, the wing buds will turn pink
• males will stay for 2-3 days together with the same female, but leave her eventually
• females start about 2 months after their final moult to lay eggs
• they stick the eggs into a substrate, which has to be provided for them (like peat, moss, soil)