Parabacillus hesperus

[MantidLord]

Hello, I recently caught a western short horned walking stick here in Nevada. I've looked on the internet and before I try the phasmid forum, I thought I'd check here to see if anyone knew how to care and breed them. I only have one, however I don't know if they reproduce through parthenogenesis or if they require a mate and I sure as heck don't know how to sex them. Another thing is how to tell if they are adults (do all phasmids get wings when they are adults?). Finally, feeding. Since it was caught here and is native, I don't imagine feeding will be a problem, but I was wondering if the same staple phasmid foods should be given to them: bramble and roses? Thank you!

After looking on the North American species spreadsheet, I figured out Rep means reproduction and "P" means parthenogenesis. But I think I still need to figure out how to identify the sex considering there's a 3:2(am I correct) ratio of female to male.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Are you a subscriber to Sticktalk, MantidLord? If not, write here: [email protected] and ask to become the 610th member! Subscription is free, if I remember rightly, and the folks there are all experienced enthusiasts (except me, alas!) and will probably have an answer for you.

 

[unicycle281]

According to the book Stick Insects of the Continental United States and Canada by Chad Arment, males have the last abdominal segment that is as wide as it is long. It also suggests that the northern population might be partheogenic as well. The suggest food plants are "range grasses, burroweed, globemallow (Shpaeralcea), and buckwheat (Eriogonum)

From the Phasmid Study Group Species File, which is where I got most of the information for the spreadsheet, the Female gets to be 3in and the male 2in. It says though that they are partheogenetic and feed on acadia, robinia, and bramble.

The easiest would probably be bramble since you can normally pick anything in the rose family - including blackberry, raspberry, rose, pyracantha, etc. Hope it goes well, and keep us updated!

Mark

 

[MantidLord]

Thanks for the info guys. I caught another one on Friday morning. It was a beautiful speckled black and gray. Unfortunately that one and the first one I caught just up and died. I put roses (rinsed off) with them but they never ate. Just died. I wonder what the problem was. Hopefully I'll find some more and find a formula that works. Thanks for the email Phil, I'll be sending them a message.