Carausius spinosus

order: Phasmatodea
suborder: Anareolatae
family: Diapheromeridae
subfamily: Lonchodinae
tribus: Lonchodini

genus: Carausius (Stål, 1875)

species: Carausius spinosus (Brunner v. Wattenwil, Kirby, 1907)

origin:

• I received eggs from Kai Schütte (Hamburg, Germany), who collected them in the Tapah Hills (Malaysia) in March
2007 (half way up from Tapah to Tanah Rata, Cameroon Highlands).

females:
• quite large, sturdy insects, up to 15 cm long pic
• wingless
• head without horns, insted they sport a foreward pointed ridge across the fore head (where often horns are in other
species)
• forelegs are strongly broadened
• antennae as long as fore legs
• colouration: different brown shades. At night colouration becomes a reddish brown and underside of thorax is reddish
pic1 pic2
• a black spot on each side of the mesothorax at the joint of the mid legs, and two black spots ventrally on the 7 th
abdomial segment (distally)
• fine granulation all over the body
• inside of the midleg's femur reddish
• attention – they loose legs quite easily when handled roughly

males:
• slim insects, 9-10 cm long
• wingless
• head with two small, blunt, forward pointed horns
• forelegs also broadened, but not as much as in the females
• antennae almost as long as fore legs
• colouration of body and legs: many, irregularely arranged and shaped dark brown spots on lighter brown, these spots
are lesser on the dorsal part of the body pic
• inside of midleg's femur reddish
• their abdomen ends in a strongly pronounced, pincer-like ending pic
• males, especially young ones, often hang down freely from their food plants, just hold to the plant with their hind legs
pic

eggs:
• round, dark brown, surface is strongly granulated, well developed operculum pic1 pic2
 • size 3mm long, 2,5 mm broad

breeding notes:
• incubation of the eggs on damp sand – with springtails to prevent growth of mould
• incubation at room temperature (18-22 °C) takes about 4 months
• nymphs take easily to bramble, cut edges of leaves for the newly hatched nymphs
• keep the nymphs in quite humid atmosphere, yet provied them with a good air ventilation
• I do not spray the nymphs with water, there is just a damp paper tissue on the cage bottom which is being changed
every week
• male become adult after about 3 months, females after about 4 months
• females start laying eggs about 3 weeks after their final moult, they lay 20 – 25 eggs per week
• both males and females are great at feigning death, playing a dead twig during the day and also when you handle
them pic1

If you have any questions then do not hesitat to contact me - I will try my best to help
And I would be happy to hear from you about your experiences

Bruno Kneubühler (Switzerland)

gopala@bluewin.ch
phasmid@bluewin.ch
http://www.phasmatodea.blogspot.com