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Hypocyrtus scythrus
(by Bruno Kneubuehler)
 

 
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General Informations

• originally descibed by Westwood (1859) as Anophelepis scythrus
• synonyms: Phantasis scythrus (Saussure. 1870-1872), Hesperophasma scythrus (Kirby. 1904), Lamponius scythrus (??)
• 2006 - first successful culture of this Jan Meerman (Belize)
• 2007 - first culture in Europe by Bruno Kneubuehler
• 2007 - distributed as Hypocyrtus scythrus to other breeders

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Origin

• Jan Meerman (Belize) collected this species in 2006 in the area of Belmopan

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Females

• sturdy, slow-moving insects
• quite thick when ready to lay eggs
• small, 7-8 cm long
• wingless
• many females have a protuberance on the dorsal mesothorax, which is often just two small spines, but occassionally becomes a prominent bump-like protuberance
• colouration: different shades of brown, with some darker spots
• body is rough-textured, not shining
• antennae a bit longer than the fore legs
• often females have small lobe-like expansions and small spines on the legs
• prothorax is strongly granulated, head and mesothorax are slightly granulated
• many females have a lobe-like expansion on the side of the 7th abdominal segment which can be quite prominent
• a thin appendix of the subgenitalplate often exeeds the terminal abdominal segment

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Males

• slim, slow-moving insects
• small, 6 cm long
• wingless
• all males have a light brown to almost white spot on each side of the metathorax, close to the joint of the hind legs
• prothorax (dorsally) and head rough-textured, rest of the body quite smooth
• colouration: light brown when as young adults, dark brown when older, with some lighter brown patches. Sides of the mesothorax are reddish brown
• antennae longer than the fore legs

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Eggs

• barrel-shaped, strongly-granulated, dark brown eggs with hair-like structures
• 5 mm long, 2 mm broad

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Breeding Notes

• incubation on damp sand, with springtails to prevent growth of mould
• incubation at room temperatures (18-22 °C) takes 4-5 months
• nymphs feed easily on bramble, cut edges of leaves for newly hatched nymphs
• keep nymphs and adults at high humidity, yet provide their cage with sufficiant air ventilation
• I do never spray the nymphs nor the adults, a damp paper towel provides enough humidity
• this is a quite slow growing species - males mature after about 5 months, while females mature after about 7-8 months
• they do not require a big cage, nor do they have moulting problems in even quite a crowded cage
• as it is a slow-moving species, they do not eat a lot
• females start laying eggs some weeks after their final moult, only about 4 eggs per week which just drop to the gound

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References

• Phasmida Species Files  (www.phasmida.orthoptera.org)