Ramulus nematodes "Khao Lak"

(by Bruno Kneubuehler)

General Notes

• Haan described this species as Phasma (Bacteria) nematodes in 1842
• 2005 - first successful culture of this species by Harald Lamprecht (Switzerland)
• 2008 - distributed as Ramulus nematodes "blue" to other breeders
• thanks a lot to the following breeders for their contribution:  Harald Lamprecht

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Origin

• Khao Lak (Thailand) – beside a street towards Pucket

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Females

• typical, wingless stick insects. They can grow quite big (14 – 16,5 cm), thus they are bigger than the R. nematodes variation with red males
• on their head are two big, brown lobe-like expansions
• short feelers, only 1 – 1,5 cm long
• colour is ranges from brown to green

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Males

• typical, wingless stick insects. They are very thin, especially the legs, and grow to about 10 cm. Thus they are also bigger than the R. nematodeswith red males
• beautifully coloured when adult. The body is blue, while the legs are brown
• short feelers – about 3 cm long

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Eggs

• very flat eggs, brown in colour - about 6 x 2 mm
• incubate them at room temperatures (18°C to 25°C) on a damp substrate - e.g. sand. Incubation time is around 4 months

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Food Plants

• nymphs as well as adults will feed easily on bramble. In summer you can offer them also other Rosaceae (raspberry, rose) - and they like oak

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Breeding Notes

• an easy to breed species – still they need some basic care
• phasmid breeders should be careful enough, as not to mix up R. nematodes cultures which originate from different locations !
• keep the nymphs in smaller cages and transfer them to bigger cages – appropriate to their size – as the grow bigger
• this is a fragile species, therefore one should take care that there are not too many specimens in the same cage
• I do never spray nither nymphs nor adults, but I keep them in a fairly humid cage with wet paper towel on the bottom. That is enough to keep the humidity high enough, also for them to moult successfully