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Achrioptera punctipes cliquennoisi
(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

General Notes

• this species is named after the wellknown french phasmid taxonomist Nicolas Cliquennois
• identification by Nicolas Cliquennois
• 2007 - first successful culture of this species by Bruno Kneubuhler
   

Origin

• this culture stock has been collected in March 2007 by Nicolas Cliquennois (Madagascar) and Kai Schütte (Germany) in Manompana (Tamatave, Madagascar)
   

Female

• very big and beautiful creatures, about 24 - 26 cm long
• many and quite big spines on the thorax and legs
• spines often have a dark, almost black tip
• basic colour are different brown colours, with slight reddish, yellowish and blueish areas
• they are winges, but the winges are not suitable for flying
• these wings are quite often displayed when they feel threatened (like when being touched), sometimes these displays also happen without any ovious reason
• females often feed during the day, mainly in the afternoon ( 1 - 5 pm)
• they quickly stop feeding when there is a noisy environement around their cage. Therefore a living room might not be the ideal place for them
• when being picked up by hand, then they try to trap fingers between the spines on the hind legs (as a sort of defence mechanism)
   

Male

• much smaller and thinner than the females, about 13 to 14 cm long
• very colourful phasmids
• very spiny in the area of the thorax and legs
• they have fully developed wings. But I could never see them flying - just something like a fluttering nosedive
• wings are even more often displayed than the females do - often when being handled, but also often without any obivious reason in their cage
• they too try to trap a potential attacker (our hands) with their spiny hind legs
• often they also feed during the day, but it seems that they do not have such specific feeding times like the females
• after the adult moult it takes quite along time until the colour is fully developed, this can take up to 3 - 4 weeks
   

Eggs

• big eggs - which look very much like plant seeds
• about 11 x 5 mm
• brown or greenish-brown, with dark brown mottling
   

Food Plants

• the natural food plant is a Uapaca sp. (Familie: Phyllanthaceae)
• cut leave edges to induce feeding for stages L1 and L2 !
• often nymphs can be fed with bramble (Rubus sp.) from the beginning
• if nymphs will not accept bramble then try also other bramble species then try out other alternative food plants like:
• Salal (Gaultheria shallon), oak (Quercus sp.), raspberry (Rubus idaeus), Eucalyptus, beech (Fagus sp.), apple guava (Psidium guajava)
• by L3 or L4 it should be possible to transfer nymphs to bramble - try also different bramble species
• males usually feed nicely, also when adult
• adult females sometimes stop feeding without any obvious reason, even if they were feeding nicely for a long time before this moment. Then Salal might be a great food plant to keep them going
• another food plant they like very much is rose apple (Syzygium jambos) - thanks to Carlos Wan (Hong Kong) for this valuable info!
  This coulud indicate that they also love other plants of the family Myrtaceae, beside Eucalyptus and "rose apple"?
   

Breeding Notes

• not a particularly easy species to breed, but it is certainly worth a try
• I know persons who were very successful with this species, even though they did not breed any phasmids before
• on the other hand I know very experienced breeders who were not able to breed this species successfully
• do not incubate the eggs on anything wet for the first 2-3 months
• for this period I incubate them on dry kitchen paper in a small box. This box is inside a bigger box, which is lined with wet kitchen paper. In this way the eggs are exposed to humidity, without being directly in contact with a wet substrate. I had higher hatching ratios with this method
• then after 2 - 3 months keep the eggs on damp (not wet) sand, with springtails to reduce mould growth (inkubation)
• incubation time at room temperatures (20 - 23°C) is about 5 - 6 months, but it might take 8 or even more month for some nymphs to hatch
• I had different hatching rations in different generations - from 30 to 60 %
• nymphs tend to hatch during the day, mainly in the early afternoon
• keep the nymphs in a cage with good ventilation (a bigger Faunabox or similar is OK)
• by L3 I transfer the nymphs to a big cage (60 x 40 x 40 cm)
• take care that the humidity does not drop too low. A constantly wet paper towel on the bottom of the cage helps raising humidity
• I do not spray the nymphs
• it seems that they suffer and even die when there is not enough light. To put the cage in front of a window with early morning sun seems to be quite ideal. As I can not offer this, I use artificial lightening with HDI lamps ( 2 x 150 W). It seems that this is also enough light for them
• nymphs also feed often during the day
• also moulting takes often place during the day, therefore one should be careful not to disturb them during this crucial time (like when changing food plants)
• make shure that nymphs, which are about to undergo the adult moult, do not find places in the cage which would not offer them enough room beneath to moult successfully
• males take about 4 months to get adult, females about 5 months (at room temperatures)
• adults can live for 6 or even more months
• I spray the adult once a day with water
• there is not wet kitchen paper in the cage of the adults
• adults need a cage that is at least 60 x 40 x 40 cm with big ventilation areas (netting)
• a ventilator is certainly beneficial, as they often start to feed when the ventilator runs
• females start laying eggs after about 2 - 3 weeks
• eggs are just dropped to the ground