''Clitarchus rakauwhakanekeneke'' is a stick insect that belongs the common
New Zealand genus ''
Clitarchus''.
It lives only on the
Poor Knights Islands.
Description
''Clitarchus rakauwhakanekeneke'' is a medium-sized, moderately robust and wingless stick insect with a green to mottled brown and grey body, with some
tubercles and spines more commonly on its dorsal side. It has been collected on ''
Metrosideros perforata'', põhutakawa (''
Metrosideros excelsa''), manuka (''
Leptospermum scoparium''), kanuka (''
Kunzea'' spp.), tall mingimingi (''
Leucopogon fasciculatus
''Leucopogon fasciculatus'', the tall mingimingi, is a species of shrub within the family Ericaceae. It is Endemism, endemic to New Zealand. This species is found in the North Island north of the Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. In the South Island i ...
''), ''
Coprosma'' sp., and some grasses.
This stick insect is restricted to the
Poor Knights Islands, some 22 kilometres from the eastern coast of
Northland Northland may refer to:
Corporations
* Northland Organic Foods Corporation, headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota
* Northland Resources, a mining business
* Northland Communications, an American cable television, telephone and internet service ...
. It has been found on two of the main islands,
Tawhiti Rahi and
Aorangi. The species was first noted by J. C. Watt, who referred to it in 1982 as C''litarchus'' aff. ''hookeri,'' and considered it to be either a "geographic race" or an endemic species.
It was described and formally named by Buckley, Myers, and Bradler in 2014.
Its species name, ''rakauwhakanekeneke'', is
Māori for "the stick that moves", and was chosen by the
Ngāti Wai people of Northland, guardians of the Poor Knights Islands.
The survival of the species seems to be assured by the absence of wasp and mammalian predators and the abundance of host plants on the islands.
See also
*
List of stick insects of New Zealand
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q21249109
rakauwhakanekeneke
Endemic fauna of New Zealand
Phasmatidae of New Zealand
Endemic insects of New Zealand