North American Phasmids

[waverage]

Hi there!

I am new to these forums, I have mostly have been on British phasmid forums due to the lack of USA based ones. I see there is a good amount of USA based insect enthusiasts here

I have started to collect North American phasmids. So far I only have three/four species:

Diapheromera femorata-- Currently getting lots of ova

Manomera blatchleyi--Should be getting some ova in the mail soon

Had a bad shipping experience with the following two:

Diapheromera arizonensis (only one female- males died in shipping might not get ova)

Diapheromera tamaulipensis (one female left-- two laid eggs-- 10 eggs which might not hatch[had to cut them out of two dead females])

I am curious if anyone here has any native species? Maybe even in their back yards even?

Due to the bad shipping experience, I would much rather buy ova and not nymphs or adults. If you have some in your back yards it might be enough to just keep one in a tank for a week and if it is an adult, at this time of year, it should have already mated and produce a good amount of ova.

If anyone here is interested in joining a phasmid collection group (only a hand full of members so far), I have a good amount a material on foods and locations of most USA phasmids and would love to hear from all those interested.

Thanks,

Waverage

 

[Bug Crazy]

I was very excited to see your post! I'm also focusing on native phasmids, and particularly ones from my area here in central New Mexico. I'm very new to all of it, though, and right now have a grand total of two found insects and maybe about 10 ova. Based on internet research and reference to books like Stick Insects of the Continental U.S. and Canada, I think the two I have are:

parabacillus colorodus--large female (I believe), pink in color, found on my living room window a little over a month ago.

parabacillus hesperus--medium, brown/gray in color, found on the sunny side of a house up in the mountains near Albuquerque, just a few days ago

I will try to post pictures of the insects and ova later this week. But yes, I would love to join a collection group that focused on USA phasmids. I've joined Phasmid Forum, too, but like you I find that there is little or no treatment of US species. So count me in! Also, if you have any excess d. femorata ova you're hoping to get rid of, I'll take some off your hands, and will be glad to do some trading later when (if) I manage to collect some significant numbers of ova. According to what I've seen, d. femorata also appears here in New Mexico, and I think it feeds on mesquite here.

 

[unicycle281]

I am also very interested in finding US phasmids, I do not have anything now besides Diapheromera femorata but I was curious if you guys had any luck? any updates?

 

[Peter Clausen]

You three seem committed enough to the US Phasmid hobby that I'm very tempted to open up a section on this forum for US Phasmids (I hope I'm not stepping on toes, Waverage, with this offer as you mentioned joining/group). I'm a longtime phan of these insects, having worked with stock of over a hundred species. The exotic hobby is not what it once was here in the US. Mantidforum prohibits the posting of transactions of exotic phasmids on US soil, however I would like to foster an appreciation for our native species through the creation of a category for them on this site. I suppose a second category would need to be created for our international members that are allowed to keep non-US phasmids too. I can easily think of a few members that would enjoy reading, if not participating in these discussions.

I would be interested to see if anybody else would be interested in setting up a new section on Mantidforum to discuss US phasmid species. I help moderate Sticktalk at http://sticktalk.com It is a fun community, if a bit slow, but well connected to the Phasmid Study Group and numerous members in the worldwide phasmid hobby. It's interesting to be a part of a listserver in the old fashion (a daily digest of emails is sent to participating subscribers). This list goes back to at least 1997 that I can recall, and probably earlier.

I've kept a few US species. Aside from Anisomorpha, I have little success to report with them. These include members of Diapheromera (femorata and arizonensis), Parabacillus of a species or two, Megaphasma and briefly, Timema.

 

[Bug Crazy]

You three seem committed enough to the US Phasmid hobby that I'm very tempted to open up a section on this forum for US Phasmids (I hope I'm not stepping on toes, Waverage, with this offer as you mentioned joining/group). I'm a longtime phan of these insects, having worked with stock of over a hundred species. The exotic hobby is not what it once was here in the US. Mantidforum prohibits the posting of transactions of exotic phasmids on US soil, however I would like to foster an appreciation for our native species through the creation of a category for them on this site. I suppose a second category would need to be created for our international members that are allowed to keep non-US phasmids too. I can easily think of a few members that would enjoy reading, if not participating in these discussions.

I would be interested to see if anybody else would be interested in setting up a new section on Mantidforum to discuss US phasmid species. I help moderate Sticktalk at http://sticktalk.com It is a fun community, if a bit slow, but well connected to the Phasmid Study Group and numerous members in the worldwide phasmid hobby. It's interesting to be a part of a listserver in the old fashion (a daily digest of emails is sent to participating subscribers). This list goes back to at least 1997 that I can recall, and probably earlier.

I've kept a few US species. Aside from Anisomorpha, I have little success to report with them. These include members of Diapheromera (femorata and arizonensis), Parabacillus of a species or two, Megaphasma and briefly, Timema.

I would be very much in favor of this plan. I keep parabacillus coloradus, which I find in my front yard and still have about three survivors in my terrarium right now. Also diapheromera covillea (a creosote eater), which is a big, impressive phasmid I collect near where I live here in New Mexico.

So yes, a U.S. phasmids forum would be great. Count me in.

 

[Hypoponera]

I'd like to see the section opened up as well! I am not a "die-hard" phasmid person, but still keep some and collect natives every year. I would love to get together with other Yanks to trade for species not found in New Mexico.

 

[unicycle281]

I also, am much in favor of a new forum. I am very interested in phasmids but finding US types is impossible. A unified place that could both give experiences and care as well as classified ads to sell/trade extra stock would be very helpful to anyone interested in stick insects in the US and want to abide by the laws. Count me in!

 

[GreenOasis]

Here, here! New Phasmid section...YES!

 

[chrisnoahdana]

Peter as you know I have a large interest in them lets do it sounds really awsome people would love it anythng I can do to help I would I have enjoyed offering some of the exotic mantids not many people have had an oppertunity to own but love native mantids and this would be awsome to have asection on Phasmids

 

[DeadInTheBasement]

this would be great :lol:

 

[PeterF]

We have some in the east of our state. But I only ever seem them damaged in sweeps. Hard to find whole.

I would like to know what the legalities of keeping native species are.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Okay, there seems to be a consensus. I will open a subsection of the forum for phasmids, but there will have to be some very specific rules about discussing the movements of exotic species. In this case, exotic refers to anything that is not native to your state.

Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. Soon! Roxanne thinks we're getting her a minivan today, so I better hit the shower (she's usually right).

 

[cuervo]

Count me in.Love the idea :lol:

 

[unicycle281]

So, legality wise, a permit is required to ship any phasmid over state lines, right? Does anyone know how difficult this is to obtain if the species is US native rather than a non US species. I know those permits as a hobbiest are impossible to get for foreign species but cannot find much about native. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Hypoponera]

How hard getting said permit would be depends on your state. I was told by Ismart that NY state does not even allow the keeping of walking sticks native to the state. Other states may not have any rules against importing captive breed exotics. Just depends where your state stands. The truely hard part is getting the information you need to start with. Good luck there!