Phaenopharos struthioneus

(by Dr. Sascha  Eilmus , Germany)

General Notes

• several stocks have been introduced in the past years

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Orgin

• Malaysia (2012)

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Females

• typical grey-brown phasmids with small wings
• the size of the F1 generation varies around 14 to 16 cm
• uniformly dull grey-brown body coloration
• forewings are very small rudiments
• hind wings only 1 cm long, but with bright red and black striped anal area. Costal area brown with brighter spots
• other culture stocks also exhibit white marbled females. In my breeding stock (F1) this has not been the case

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Males

• also typical phasmids
• about 11 cm long
• winged
• wings similar to females, but red anal area of hind wings without black stripes

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Eggs

• dark grey
• round
• about 5 mm long

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Behaviour

• males as females can behave very hysteric and stagger around when being touched
• they have a perfect camouflage
• this makes changing food plants not so easy
• during the day, nymphs and adults are usually hiding between sticks in the lower part of the cage especially when the cage is rather big
• therefore it is favorable to offer some dry branches, on which they can hide out
• one should handle them carefullym but they do not tend to drop legs
• females lay 2 - 4 eggs per day, which they just drop to the ground

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Developement

• incubate the eggs at room temperatures (18-25°C) on a humid substrate, e.g. vermiculite, peat or moss
• incubation time is about 4 – 6 months
• they will be adult after about 4 to 6 months at about 23°C

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Food Plants

• bramble (Rubus spp.)
  easily accepted by both nymphs and adults
• other plants which are easily accepted:
  hazel (Corylus avellana), oak (Quercus spp.), beech (Fagus spp.), rose (Rosa spp.), raspberry (Rubus idaeus), privet (Ligustrum spp.)  

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Breeding Notes

• an easy to breed species
• adults and nymphs can be kept in a quite airy cage
• move nymphs to a bigger cage according to their size as they grow up
• nymphs and adults have been sprayed with water 5 to 7 times a week in the evening
• for a successful development and molting the terrarium was filled with a thin layer of moist vermiculite on the cage floor. Note that the original habitat of this stock is a wet tropical forest