Phyllium elegans "Nanga Nanga"

(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

• first culture by Bruno Kneubühler (CH) in 2016
• please also read our notes on successfully breeding Phyllium
• provenience: Nanga Nanga village, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea
• in the wild they feed on Mango leaves
• in the local language they are called Pakpaku Dawai. Pakpaku means "grab tighly on to" and Dawai means "tree"
• females ≈ 9 - 9.5 cm
• males ≈ 6 cm
• incubation is about 4 - 5 months at 20 - 25°C
• most females are green, a few are bright orange in color
• a few males of this species are orange too, while most males are green
• the peculiar eggs are round, about 4 mm in diameter
• this an easy-to-breed Phyllium species, which is not very prone to "cannibalism"