Diapheromera femorata

[Peter Clausen]

I'm wondering what foodplants people have started hatchlings of Diapheromera femorata on. I've had these in the past and the nymphs were pale green, spindly and disinclined to feed. I always suspected I was using the wrong foodplants. My local oaks were also unappealing to them. They wouldn't do much with bramble (blackberry) and I had very limited success with vetch and white clover (both legumes). As they get older they accept bramble readily.

 

[unicycle281]

I've always used pyracantha for them. It is in the rose family, and is an evergreen so its easy to get all the time.

 

[sporeworld]

I'm at the very low end on Phasmids, but I've read in a bunch of places that bramble is bad for young nymphs (l1-L3) of many species that eat it later in life. Potentially poisonous.

No experience with Diapheromera, but google sez mostly oak. I saw listed sassafras and black cherry, rose and apple, as well.

Good luck!

 

[C.Price]

I've had some luck with willow but find it best to let the eggs overwinter.

 

[Bug Crazy]

I've always used pyracantha for them. It is in the rose family, and is an evergreen so its easy to get all the time.

I've just started using pyracantha myself (thought I don't yet know how it will work with hatchlings), and am really pleased with it. Particularly since it really is so easy to find.

 

[chrisnoahdana]

I use a few diffrent types of bramble red and black and its perfect its not the young nymphs it does in its actually the young bramble leaves as when the leaves are young they produce a certain amount of toxins but once past and inch or so there fine , as even on fresh cuts I dont remove the top were the small leaves are and buds and all my spdo just fine i find that its excepted by most sp im in NY so its hard in winter so I use privet hedge and rose and some smaller indoor bramble any other food that you guys can help me identify or pics so I can locate would be great I used alot of honey Suckle at the very end when it got 20 at night thats all that was still in the yard this worked fine also on my Dilatata ,mcleays ,black buetys, and a few others thanks

 

[PhilinYuma]

I use a few diffrent types of bramble red and black and its perfect its not the young nymphs it does in its actually the young bramble leaves as when the leaves are young they produce a certain amount of toxins but once past and inch or so there fine , as even on fresh cuts I dont remove the top were the small leaves are and buds and all my spdo just fine i find that its excepted by most sp im in NY so its hard in winter so I use privet hedge and rose and some smaller indoor bramble any other food that you guys can help me identify or pics so I can locate would be great I used alot of honey Suckle at the very end when it got 20 at night thats all that was still in the yard this worked fine also on my Dilatata ,mcleays ,black buetys, and a few others thanks

Ah! It's interesting to hear this from a DVM with, no doubt, enough technical information to resolve the question of whether young bramble (and when you say "red", I take it that you mean Rubus strigosus?) is actually toxic, and if so, just what the toxins are. I must say that my own research on the topic has been rather half arsed. I had thought, on very litlle evidence, that it might be a mycotoxin, Botryotinia, for example; B cinerea, perhaps, or does that only attack the drupes? You seem to imply, though, that the poison is a phytotoxin. Can you tell us which one(s)? I used to have fantasies, years ago, of poisoning one of my wives with a wild plant and claim accidental ingestion; perhaps this is the answer to an old man's dreams.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Through a hundred or so species, I've never "noticed" a phasmid eating new bramble leaves or any apparently dying from eating plants. Sometimes I take my eye off the ball though, because there is so much else happening on the field at all times.

 

[jplelito]

I've kept these for a couple years and find wild multiflora rose works great for the first few instars. It's also abundant early in the season when a lot of other stuff hasn't leafed out yet. Hatchling mortality is high regardless; usually at least 25-33% of neonates never make it past a week of age. Those that do will start rejecting the rose around L3 and then most species of "red" oak is accepted and they do great on it. "White" oak species are a little less favored though that may have a lot more to do with what I have growing around the neighborhood. The average adult female lays 250-300 ova so a loss at the beginning isn't usually a big problem.

 

[DennisZ]

Currently my D.femorata hatchlings are all doing very well and eating like champs. Only one out of the 8 eggs that hatched died shortly after emerging (possibly from genetic mishaps). 

I had success feeding them raspberry leaves. To give them a "headstart" I rip small portions of a raspberry leaf so they I'll have an easier time chewing the leaves with their mandibles. The raspberry leaves are all attached to the petiole and inserted into a small test tube filled with distilled water. The top of the test tube is covered in saranwrap to prevent the insects from drowning.

 

[Salmonsaladsandwich]

Black cherry. That's what I always find them on.