Phobaeticus serratipes "Tapah Hills"

(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

General Informations

• Gray describe this species in 1835 as Cladoxerus serratipes
• this species is being cultured since quite some time, several new culture stocks have been introduced over the years

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Origin

• Tapah Hills of Malaysia

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Females, Males

• these are very long phasmids, females can become up to 30 cm just in body lenght. With streched-out forelegs they can become 55 cm

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Food Plants

• bramble (Rubus sp.) is easily being accepted. During summer they like even more oak, raspberry

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Breeding Note

• keep the eggs on a damp (not soaking wet) substrate like sand at 20 -25 °C
• use springtails to reduce mould growth, as eggs of this species tend to get mouldy very easily (especially on the lid)
• incubation time takes about 4-5 months
• nymphs are already big, with long legs and quite active. So use quite a big cage also for the nymphs
• transfer the nymphs to a bigger cage appropriate to their size, as they grow up
• keep the nymphs in an airy yet humid cage at 20 - 25 °C
• for the subadult females, the cage should be at least 1 m high to make shure that their final moult will be sucessfull
• keep the adult males seperate from the females. As they are smaller they do not need such a big cage
• only put males and females together for 2-3 days, every 2-3 weeks. Males tend to stress the females as they constantly try to mate with them
• females just let the eggs drop to the ground