Phyllium rubrum "Tapah Hills"

(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

General Informations

• provenience: Tapah Hills, the hills inbetween Tapah and the Cameron Highlands (Peninsular Malaysia)
• described by Royce Cumming (USA) in 2018
• F1 CB culture by Detlef Grösser (2013)
• formerly this culture was named Phyllium sp. "Tapah, red coxae"
• this seems to be a new, yet undescribed species
• further taxonomical informations ➤ phasmida.speciesfile.org
• this is a pure culture and should be kept strictly seperate from cultures of a different provenience

Females

• 8 - 9 cm
• red (or sometimes orange) coaxe on mid and hing legs

Males

• 6 - 6.5 cm
• red (or sometimes orange) coxae on mid and hing legs

Food Plants

• bramble (Rubus spp.)
  well accepted by nymphs and adults
• Salal (Gaultheria shallon)
  well accepted by nymphs and adults
• common beech (Fagus sylvatica)
  well accepted by nymphs and adults
• dog rose (Rosa corymbifera)
  well accepted by nymphs and adults (info D. Grösser)
• raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
  well accepted by nymphs and adults (info D. Grösser)

Breeding, Behaviour

• active mainly during the night
• eggs just drop to the ground
• about 10 eggs per female and week
• incubation (cup-incubation method on slightly damp vermiculite) about 4 - 5 months at 20 - 23 °C
• eggs of this species are very prone to get mouldy, and it is difficult to avoid this. Yet a thin mould layer does not affect the hatching ratio negatively
• nymphs hatch after dawn, in the early morning hours
• a humidity of about 60 - 70 % seems to be good enough for this species
• the Free-Standing-Setup is much recommened
• our notes on how to successfully breed Phyllium
• one can spray them regularly with chlorine-free water, but the water should dry up again
• easy to breed and very beautiful Phyllium species