Bruno Kneubühler

Born (1964) and grown up in a small village near Lucerne (Switzerland), named Richenthal. As the name suggests, this was a rather remote place. But there was a lot of greenery, forests and rivulets around my parents house - occupied by all sorts of different living entities. Thus I started at a very young age to bring every creature that was crawling and flying, creeping and swimming, hopping and jumping back to our appartement - to observe, breed and marvel. Guess sometimes this was not to the sheer delight of my mother  :)

Since then I couldn't get the world of crawling creatures ever again out of my mind, especiallythe six-legged ones. The first phasmids ever I discoverd in the backroom of the biology class room at the gymnasium - Carausius morosus and Extatosoma tiaratum. That is where my love for these insects started off.....

When I was studying in Zurich (food science at the ETH, graduation as PhD in food microbiology) I could make some great connections with well experienced phasmid breeders all over Europe. They gave me a lot of knowledge about breeding phasmids and I also got some new species from them. Only very few species were available for a beginner like me back then. To get a new species was a veritable sensation - which could give me almost sleepless nights

In 1990 I made a internship for a big food manufacturer in Malaysia in the context of my study.  And who is surprised to know that I have choosen Malaysia mainly out of my interest for phasmids - and not so much for motives relevant to my study. So then at the end of my internship, I could also explore the Cameroon Highlands in Malaysia for 10 days. But of course at night when the phasmids were out. The habitants up there thought that guy must be crazy, as only fools go out to the jungle at night. But luckily it has always been my point of view that it is normal to be different  :)

Till now, this has been my first and only trip to a rain forest - in search of new phasmid species. But still I can draw very precious and powerful memories from that visit. It is purely astonishing how dense the atmosphere is out in a virgin rain forest at night - pure life

Some years back I intensified my endeavours to import new phasmid species - to breed them in vivo, study aspects of their biology and make them also available for taxonomic studies. With quite an effort I was able to make some valuable contacts in  tropical countries over the years. Cultures of several new phasmid species arose from these contacts

During that time I came also in contact with Oskar Conle and could build up a very enriching and friendly collaboration with him. His enormous knowledge in phasmid taxonomy, readiness to help and enthusiasm for the subject were and still are a great support and incentive for my own endeavours working with phasmids

And I was very lucky to meet my wife Sabine. She is not not really enthusiastic about phasmids (actually she is a bit afraid of them),. But her loving support means a lot to me

Further I am working part time as a therapist (Craniosacral-Therapy, Polarity-Therapy, Somatic Experiencing) in Lucerne, and part time in a microbiological laboratory in Zurich