Conlephasma

Conlephasma enigma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Phasmatodea
Family: incertae sedis
Genus: Conlephasma
Gottardo & Heller, 2012
Species: C. enigma
Binomial name
Conlephasma enigma
Gottardo & Heller, 2012

Conlephasma enigma is a wingless, ground-dwelling species of stick insect in the genus Conlephasma, and is found on Mount Halcon, on the Philippine island of Mindoro.[1]

The species is brightly coloured, with males having a dark bluish-green head and legs, and a bright orange body with bluish-black triangle-shaped spots on the back.[1] Females are less brightly coloured.[1] It sprays a foul-smelling liquid, from glands behind its head, to repel predators.[1]

The species was identified when entomologist Oskar Conle showed Marco Gottardo and Philipp Heller specimens which had been collected some years earlier.[1] They identified it as new to science and allocated it to a new genus,[1] in a paper published in Comptes Rendus Biologies.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Matt Walker (September 4, 2012). "'Mystery' stick insect discovered". BBC News. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  2. Marco Gottardo & Philipp Heller (2012). "An enigmatic new stick insect from the Philippine Islands (Insecta: Phasmatodea)". Comptes Rendus Biologies 335 (9): 594–601. doi:10.1016/j.crvi.2012.07.004.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, October 14, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.