''Heterocopus'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

stick insect The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

, containing ''Heterocopus leprosus'' as the only valid species.

Description

The few known specimens of the genus are medium-sized and completely wingless, hardly spined species. They are similar to the genera ''

Eubulides Eubulides of Miletus ( grc, Εὐβουλίδης; fl. 4th century BCE) was a Greek philosopher of the Megarian school, a pupil of Euclid of Megara and a contemporary of Aristotle. He is famous for his logical paradoxes. Life Eubulides was a pu ...

'' and '' Theramenes''. In contrast to these, the females of ''Heterocopus'' do not have a curved, but a straight and relatively long secondary

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...

. They reach a length of . From the mesonotum over the

metanotum The metathorax is the posterior of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the third pair of legs. Its principal sclerites ( exoskeletal plates) are the metanotum (dorsal), the metasternum (ventral), and the metapleuron (lateral) ...

to the end of the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

there is a distinct ridge running down the middle of the body. Only the spines above the rear coxae (supracoxal spines) are recognizable on the upper side of the body. On the underside, smaller spines are present on both the sternites of the

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

and the abdomen. The legs are more or less spined on the femurs and

tibiae The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

. Males are around long.

Taxonomy

Josef Redtenbacher Josef Redtenbacher (March 13, 1810 – March 5, 1870) was an Austrian chemist born in Kirchdorf an der Krems, Upper Austria. He was a brother to entomologist Ludwig Redtenbacher (1814–1876). He studied medicine and botany at the University ...

described the genus ''Heterocopus'' in 1906 for ''Heterocopus leprosus'', which he also described based on a female. At the same time he transferred the 1859 by John Obadiah Westwood as ''Acanthoderus ranarius'' described species in this genus. The latter was already in 1939 by

James Abram Garfield Rehn James Abram Garfield Rehn (October 26, 1881 – January 25, 1965) was an American entomologist who was a specialist on the New World Orthoptera. He worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, making several collection expeditions aro ...

and his son John W. H. Rehn transferred in the genus '' Ilocano''. Thus, with ''Heterocopus leprosus'', Rehn and Rehn name only one species in the genus ''Heterocopus''. ''Ilocano'' has been a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

since 2021 to '' Tisamenus'', the species described by Westwood has been included in this genus since 2004 and consequently as '' Tisamenus ranarius ''. Two females preserved in alcohol in the Natural History Museum, Vienna and another dry prepared female in the

Zoological Museum Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

deposited. All three originally come from the

Museum Godeffroy The Museum Godeffroy was a museum in Hamburg, Germany, which existed from 1861 to 1885. The collection was founded by Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, who became a wealthy shipping magnate a few years after the expansion of the trade towards Austral ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. A male of ''Heterocopus leprosus'' was first described in 1950 by Cornelis Joseph Maria Willemse. It is deposited in the

Bernice P. Bishop Museum The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the larg ...

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

. Already in 1937

Klaus Günther Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus *Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American basebal ...

described with ''Heterocopus carli'' another species of the genus, which differs from ''Heterocopus leprosus'' in the absence of spines on the femurs and tibiae. For each of these, a male and female syntype are deposited in the

State Museum of Zoology, Dresden The State Museum of Zoology (german: Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde) in Dresden is a natural history museum that houses 10,000–50,000 specimens, including skeletons and large insect collections. Many are types. The collection suffered war d ...

Oliver Zompro Oliver Zompro is a German biologist who is credited with the discovery in 2002 of a new suborder of carnivorous African insects, Mantophasmatodea or "gladiators", which was originally considered to be a new insect order but was later relegated to ...

transferred the species to the genus ''

Pachymorpha ''Pachymorpha'' is a genus of phasmids belonging to the family Diapheromeridae. The species of this genus are found in Australasia, Africa, Madagascar and tropical Asia up to southern China. Species The ''Phasmida Species File'' lists: *''Pachy ...

'' in 1998, a genus with more stick-like insects. Since it is kept there to this day, ''Heterocopus'' is still

Distribution area

The three female syntypes are from the Palau Islands in the east of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

References

Redtenbacher, J.:
Die Insektenfamilie der Phasmiden. Vol. 1. Phasmidae Areolatae
'. Verlag Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1906, pp. 42–43 Zompro, O.: ''Revision of the genera of the Areolatae, including the status of Timema and Agathemera (Insecta, Phasmatodea)''. Goecke & Evers Verlag, Keltern 2004, ISBN 3-931374-39-4, pp. 205–207. Brock, P. D.; Büscher, T. H. & Baker, E. W.
Phasmida Species File Online
about ''Heterocopus''. Version 5.0./5.0 (access date 29 August 2022) Brock, P. D.; Büscher, T. H. & Baker, E. W.
Phasmida Species File Online
about ''Pachymorpha carli'' (Günther, 1937). Version 5.0./5.0 (access date 29 August 2022) Rehn, J.A.G. & Rehn, J. W. H.
The Orthoptera of the Philippine Island, Part 1. - Phasmatidae; Obriminae
Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1939, (Vol. 90, 1938), p. 415 Bank, S.; Buckley, T. R.; Büscher, T. H.; Bresseel, J.; Constant, J.; de Haan, M.; Dittmar, D.; Dräger, H.; Kahar, R. S.; Kang, A.; Kneubühler, B.; Langton-Myers, S. & Bradler, S. (2021)
Reconstructing the nonadaptive radiation of an ancient lineage of ground-dwelling stick insects (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae)
Systematic Entomology, DOI: 10.1111/syen.12472

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q10523310 Phasmatodea Monotypic insect genera Taxa described in 1906