Farbformen von Sungaya aeta und Weibchen von Sungaya inexpectata

''Sungaya'' is a genus of

stick insects 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 ...

which is endemic to the Philippine island of Luzon.

Occurrence

The first and probably only females of '' Sungaya inexpectata'' were found near

Mount Sungay Mount Sungay, also known as Mount Gonzales, is a mountain in the province of Cavite in the Philippines. Located in eastern Tagaytay, the inactive stratovolcano is the highest point in the province of Cavite, at .Batangas-associated township Talisayon on the Philippine island of Luzon. The first males were found near Mount Cayapo in the

Mariveles Mountains Mount Mariveles is a dormant stratovolcano and the highest point in the province of Bataan in the Philippines. Mariveles and the adjacent Mount Natib comprise 80.9 percent of the total land area of the province.Redpen (2008-01-24)"Bataan Mountain ...

in Baranggay Alangan of the province of Bataan in the associated township Limay. The first males were found near Mount Cayapo in the

in the Limay municipality of Bataan Province. Whether these belong to '' Sungaya aeta'', which is also native to Bataan Province, has not yet been investigated. '' Sungaya ibaloi'' comes from

Benguet Benguet (), officially the Province of Benguet ('';'' ; pag, Luyag/Probinsia na Benguet; ilo, Probinsia ti Benguet; ), is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the southern tip of the Cordillera Administrative Region in the islan ...

province. The only known specimen of '' Sungaya dumagat'' to date is a female from the province of Nueva Vizcaya.

Features

The females of the known species reach lengths of millimeters and a weight of around five grams. At the end of their abdomen is the beak-shaped 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 ...

that is typical of all species of the Obriminae, which surrounds the actual ovipositor. The slimmer males remain significantly smaller and are long. In

habitus Habitus may refer to: * Habitus (biology), a term commonly used in biology as being less ambiguous than "habit" * Habitus (sociology), embodied dispositions or tendencies that organize how people perceive and respond to the world around them * ' ...

, ''Sungaya'' species closely resemble to those of the

sister genus In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

Trachyaretaon ''Trachyaretaon'' is a genus of Phasmatodea, stick insects native to the Philippines. Description The representatives of this genus correspond in the Habitus (biology), habitus typical representatives of the Obrimini and are very similar in ...

''. Oliver Zompro leave out the genus he described in an identification key for the Obriminae published in 2004 in his work on the former partial

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Areolatae The Euphasmatodea, also known by its junior synonym Verophasmatodea is a suborder of the Phasmatodea, which contains the vast majority of the extant species of stick and leaf insects, excluding the Timematodea. The oldest record of Euphasmato ...

. Only in the identification key of the eggs are these differentiated from those of the other genera. In later works, the two genera are differentiated from one another based on the dimensions of the thorax. In the stockier ''Trachyaretaon'' in both sexes the mesonotum is more than twice as wide in the rear part as its front edge. In the generally slimmer ''Sungaya'', the mesonotum is only moderately widened towards the back and at its widest point is no more than twice the width of the front edge. In ''Trachyaretaon'' males, the mesothorax is a maximum of 2.5 times longer than the prothorax. In those from ''Sungaya'' the mesothorax is more than 2.5 times longer than the prothorax. In ''Sungaya inexpectata'', ''Sungaya ibaloi'' and ''Sungaya dumagat'' only specimens with light beige to dark brown patterns are known. ''Sungaya aeta'' or the sexual strains introduced since 2008 as ''Sungaya'' sp. “Lowland” are much more contrasting and significantly more variable in color. Dark brown to black tones usually dominate, which are complemented by light brown areas and black or white bands on the legs or body. Females are particularly noticeable with either a very narrow white or a rather broader beige longitudinal stripe across their entire body. Females in which green tones dominate the basic color are possible but rare. In addition, nymphs can be found with a chestnut to red-brown basic color. This coloring loses its intensity at the latest during molting to the imago. Males can be similarly patterned and colored. Contrast and intensity of the coloring are lower. The stock known as ''Sungaya'' sp. “Lowland” (presumably ''Sungaya aeta'') was hybridized with a stock was then known as ''Trachyaretaon'' sp. ' Negros' referred to as '' Trachyaretaon negrosanon''. The two accidentally created females grew into

adult An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...

animals, but turned out to be

infertile Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal state ...

and did not produce any eggs.

Taxonomy

Zompro described the genus and its type species ''Sungaya inexpectata'' in 1996 based on two specimens found in 1995. An adult female collected on October 7, 1995 was declared as the holotype of the species, a female nymph collected on September 8, 1995 and two offspring süpecimens of the holotype were declared as paratypes. All four are deposited in Zompro's collection. In a later publication in 2008, of which Zompro is the editor, it is announced that the holotype will be given to the Museum of Natural History of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, where also the first two males collected by Eusebio, Yap and Larona are deposited. It has not been investigated which species these males belong to. The generic name “Sungaya” refers to the location where the holotype was found in Barangay Sungay in the municipality of Talisay, which belongs to the province of Batangas. After it was controversial for a long time whether the animals collected in the meantime all belonged to the type species of the genus, Sarah Bank

et al References Notes References Further reading

* * {{Latin phrases Lists of Latin phrases, E ...

show in their genetic analysis based studies to clarify the phylogeny of the Heteropterygidae, that in addition to this one, there are two to three other previously undescribed species. Frank H. Hennemann described in 2023 two of these species, as well as one by Bank et al. not examined. The species known as Sungaya sp. 2 (Limay “Lowland”) were not described because it could be a breeding strain hybridized with ''Sungaya inexpectata'' and there were no wild-caught specimens. Holotypes and, where available, paratypes of the three newly described species are deposited in the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels. The species described so far are: * '' Sungaya aeta'' Hennemann, 2023 * '' Sungaya dumagat'' Hennemann, 2023 * '' Sungaya ibaloi'' Hennemann, 2023 * '' Sungaya inexpectata'' Zompro, 1996

Terraristic

From 1996 to 2009, all breeding animals of the genus were traced back to the adult female ''Sungaya inexpectata'' found by Zompro. It laid four eggs from which three nymphs hatched. Two of them raised to adult females. They werde the basis for a breeding line called ''Sungaya inexpectata'' "Highland". The

Phasmid Study Group The Phasmid Study Group is a group for professional and amateur entomologists who are interested in the order Phasmatodea, i.e. stick and leaf insects, known as "phasmids", as well as other interested persons. Over 40 species In biology, a s ...

lists the species or this strain under the PSG number 195. ''Sungaya inexpectata'' "Highland" is now only kept very rarely. The sexual strain from Bataan, which has been known since 2008, has been imported several times and is usually referred to as ''Sungaya inexpectata'' "Lowland", more rarely as Limay "Lowland". The introduced strains were crossed both with each other and with ''Sungaya inexpectata'' “Highland” before attention was paid to pure strains. These mixed strains make up the majority of the animals now kept and are among the most commonly kept stick insects. In order to have a pure breeding strain from the region, a new strain from Morong, Bataan was brought into breeding in 2017, which was initially named ''Sungaya inexpectata'' 'Ilanin Forest' or ''Sungaya'' sp. 'Ilanin Forest'. Hennemann described this stock, which had already been recognized as a separate species in 2021, as ''Sungaya aeta'', so that it must be completely referred to as ''Sungaya aeta'' 'Ilanin Forest'. In 2013, the Frenchman Thierry Heitzmann, who lives in the Philippines, found animals later known as ''Sungaya inexpectata'', 'Benguet' or ''Sungaya'' sp. 'Benguet' were introduced. They were drawn up and distributed for the first time by Bruno Kneubühler, a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

phasmid breeder. The strain is kept and bred according to its origin and was described by Hennemann in 2023 as ''Sungaya ibaloi'' after its species status was confirmed in 2021. The genus is one of the most commonly kept stick insects, with ''Sungaya aeta'' mostly being kept, although rarely as pure breeding strains of the same species or location. All species are easy to keep and to breed. Almost all common food plants for stick insects are accepted.

References

Zompro, O. (1996) ''Bemerkungen über philippinische Obrimiden, mit einer Neubeschreibung (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae: Obriminae).'' Entomologische Zeitschrift 106 (11): 450-456. Zompro, O. (August 2008) ''Zur Entdeckung von Sungaya inexpectata Zompro, 1996'', Arthropoda 16 (2), Sungaya-Verlag Kiel. Lit Jr., I. L. & Eusebio, O. L. (August 2008) ''First description of the male of Sungaya inexpectata Zompro, 1996 (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae: Obrimini)'', Arthropoda 16 (2), pp. 38–40, Sungaya-Verlag Kiel. Seiler, C.; Bradler, S. & Koch, R. (2000) ''Phasmiden - Pflege und Zucht von Gespenstschrecken, Stabschrecken und Wandelnden Blättern im Terrarium'' - bede, Ruhmannsfelden, Dräger, H (2013) ''Gespenstschrecken der Familie Heteropterygidae Kirby, 1896 (Phasmatodea) – ein Überblick über bisher gehaltene Arten, Teil 4: Die Unterfamilie Obriminae Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893, Tribus Obrimini Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893'', Arthropoda Popularis, 3(1), pp. 1–12, Zompro, O. (2012) ''Grundwissen Pasmiden – Biologie - Haltung - Zucht''. Sungaya Verlag, Berlin, p. 71, Dräger, H. (2013) ''Aus zwei mach eins: Hybridisierung zweier Phasmidenarten'', Bugs - Das Wirbellosenmagazin, Nr. 3, September/Oktober/November 2013, Natur und Tier - Verlag, Münster, pp. 58–61 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 Zompro, O. (2004). ''Revision of the genera of the Areolatae, including the status of Timema and Agathemera (Insecta, Phasmatodea)'', Goecke & Evers, Keltern-Weiler, pp. 20 & 217, Brock, P. D.; Büscher, T. H. & Baker, E. W.
Phasmida Species File Online
'. Version 5.0. (accessdate 22 June 2021) ''Sungaya'' at Phasmatodea.com
by Hennemann, F. H.; Conle, O. V.; Bruno Kneubühler und Valero, P. Phasmid Study Group Culture List
Hennemann, F. H. (2023
A taxonomic review, including new species and new records of Philippine Obrimini stick insects (Insecta: Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae: Obriminae)
Faunitaxys, 2023, 11 (71), pp. 81–95 & 126–131. {{Taxonbar, from1=Q2366463, from2= Phasmatodea Insects of the Philippines Insects described in 1995 Phasmatodea genera