.. .

Ja~es,~a~zil",Trewithen Terrace ,Great wo rk , Aeht on , Hel et oD,Co mwBll , TRn !lTQ,

Tel. Germoe (073 676) 3705.

Bditor : Tony

Memberehi p : Paul Brock,"Papillon",40 Thornd ike Rd . ,Slough, BerkBhire , SL2 1SR.

Tel. Slough (0753) 79447.

InlWSLBTTBR lfo.12 May 1982The Midland. Bnto'llological Fair, Lei ceeter on April 4th

proved a great success for t he P .S.G., thanks t o thoRe ~ e~bere who ca~eand Buppor t ed our di.play. Again , I would like to t hank the B.L.G . ~or

allowing u. to advert i ' e the P.S .G. on t hei r t able area, albeit thatmember s involved 1n producl~g the di sp l ay we re B.L .G. me~ber9 also. Theresult of this meeting was a considerable i ncrease in m~ber8hlp , whichtoge ther with handouts from me~berB now totals a gai~ of 27 since theFair. I suspect that ~any of t he new ~e~berB who joi~ ed at Leicesterwere swayed by the table selectio~ of s pecies whi ch were "Free to OurMembers ", but although pe rhaps this did encourage joinin~ , I must pointou t that mos t species are normally available free of charge ( o th er thanpoa tage) anyway in our Group ( See t he P.S.G .Mart l ater l) . ParticularthankB to Darren ( No. 61) for bringi ng in young nY'llphB of B, calcarataaDd E.tiaratum i n a "Pre-packed" f orm which attracted mos t ot the newme'llber B there . The live diBplay waB made up by Bob ( ~o, 22 ) and myselfin my medium sized di splay c age, as wel l ~ s individual species f orinspection in smaller containers , all of which prov ed cent r es ot groupdiscussion . The live display was Bu~ported by an excellent selection ofBet PhaemidB proVided by Paul (~o . 26) f ro 'll hie col l ect i on .

At l e ast 20 me:nber s made themselves known at our t abl e , and Claire( ~o. 1 03) wae kept bUBY taking notee and anewer i ng querieB fro~ t hepro spect i v e new ~e~bers, 14 of which j oined at t he table . I feel thatyoung Vernon 's ( ~0.1 5 ) family should ge t a men tion fo r pat i ent l ypo stponing their departur e for a f ew hours ~o that he could meet ourChairman, Judi th (~o.1 3) whe~ she arrived i n the afternoo~. I managed,in t he afterno on , t o get a f ew photographs o f ~e~bere "in act io~ "

around our table , a~j I shall be bringin~ these alon~ f or inspectionat ou r own next ~eet lng in London , i~formatlon o f whi ch f o l l ows l ater.

The member s joined since l ast newslett er are s-103. Cl ai r e Osbome 104 , Dennde J ump 105. lUck Wat erfiel d106. Mr e !l.W.Keen 107. S.Zlotowit z lOB. Rod Faulkner109. G. Peet 110. Mary Dixon 1I 1. Mre C.Gneffier11 2. St uart Litbgo 113. Tim Collina 1I 4. Tom McKinnon115. Wayne Morris 11 6, Fiona ~lorris 11 7. P.;·l. C,Simoni.lIB , Dr.G.F, Spaul . 119 . B, DammB 120 . MiBB Joy Midgl e:r121 , Andrew Reid 122. Gavin !'l eaBey 123. Ant hony Darby124 , Alan Marson 125. John MeGaw 126. Kevin Roberte127 . Kevin Dunster 12B.Rupert llulmer-ThomaB 129. Barry BBs Bell130, Mrs V.Evans

vet coe e to you all, and I hope you all en j oy being part of ou r Group.'Well, we have reports from s ome of our Officers , and Bome interest i ngob servations from member s eO on to Phaemid mattera • •• • Tony.

2.P. S.O. MEETING: J UNE 13th (Sundllfl

Rather a belated notice again I mafai d , bu t I hope we can get areasonable turnout for this meeting. The date was chosen to followon f rom the B.L.G. me et i ng which i s on the 12th of June. This willperhaps save travelling costs f or me~be rs of both the P. S.G. andE.L.G., especially those who have t o travel l ong dlBta~ce5 and wantto support both meeti ngs wit h di splays . Bo t h meetings are at theCent r e for Life Studies, Regents Park, London so di spl ays can be leftat the Cent re overnight, rather than t ry to get around a Guesthouseowner to l et you keep your insects in your room. Peter (Ko.91) worksat the Centre, so will be t he central coordinator f or t h i s meeting.Thi s newsle t ter should cont ain a di r ection sheet on hoY to reach theCent r e , but just L~ csse of ommlss1on, I wil l incl Ude here a briefdirection. The best Tube stat ion to get to t he Cen t r e is Camden Town,from Central London and the Centre is t hen only a walk (or bus ride onNo . 74l down Parl<way and along Prince Albert Rd. The Cent re is on theNorth-west perimet er of Regent's Park Zoo and i s situated next to thelarge snowdon Aviary, a tubular s t eel and wire mesh structure whichcan be seen from quite a distance i n the Lmmed Labe area. PLE~ '70TE,you do not have to go into the Main ZOo, as t he Cent r e 1s a totallyseparate establishment. For those who will be t ravelli ng by car, therei s no real parking facility at the centre

lbut there i s parking at

t he roadside along the Outer Circle (best and along Prince Aloert Rd.There is a f ootbridge acros s t he canal from t he Outer Ci rcl e right tothe Centre's entrance. Oh , yes , t he r e 1s likely t o be surplus stockavail abl e for mem bers at our meeting, so if you are looking out forcertain species, I gugges t you bring along some containers. Also, ifyou have surplus yourself, tnen bring it along as well. It is likelytnat part of the day will be an "Open Forum" que stion session, and therest of the time will be spent in the usual free di s cuss i on mod e ofworking that the P.S.O. is get t i ng well known for. Peter will have afew bench microscopes ava11aDle t o l ook at eggs mor e closely, sndperhaps we can have a few compet itions for biggest specimens of thecommoner species, so if you have eome individuals which you areparticularly pr-oud of, bring them alongl For instance, who's got thegreenest E.tiaratum in eulture at t he moment?

I ffUgges t our meeting starts at 10. 00 a .m•• but as usual there is nopar t i cular t ime limit, and we will all be glad to see you there.

CULTURE REGI STER --- Mi cheel It FrancesResults of Species Questionaire

Many thanks t o all 33 ~emberB who have so far sent i n their fo rme,and especi all y to those who obvi ously spent considerable ti~e ~pl i fy­

t ne their an swers , All replies are valuable -- whether they show 1 or25+ cultures bei~g maintained -- but we ld l ike l ot s mor e replies togive a bet t e r picture of t he Group 's s tocke. So how about it???

Eurycantha calcarata has r api dly e8tabli~hed i t sel f as the mostpopul~hasmid, with 26 out of 33 ~e~be rs report ing cul tur es , fo l l owed

closely by Ext8toeo~a tlaratu~ and Carausi us ~orosuB , but so~e of thes pecies we'd expected to be well establi shed appear t o be fairly scarce1n the Group, particularly Ct enollo rphodes briareus, WI U1 ""arty", andCarausiuB eanguineoligatus .(A ~aximum of 6 cultures reported f or each)So, i f you are rearing a~y of these, pl ease l et us kno w, if you haven'talready done BO, and 1f you pI en to gi~ up your cultu re , do pleasepas s t he eggs onto other ~e~bers fi rs t .

Four people r eport atte~pts at new species additio~al t o the 46on the current P. S. G. list . We ld like to keep the records as co~prehen­

s ive as possibl e , so please tell us of any further additions - even ifonly t entat ive and /o r u niden t i f i ed. ( and your losses also -- Tony)

~e~ber8 have shown a generous willingness t o pass o~ their spare", t. oc'ln:~_ A" ri WP. vil l n~",R' All tn iQ i n f' n ............... _ .. _ .&._ ... .. t • • -- '

3·Many members are also wl111~g to answer queries on specific sp e ciee

a.lthough ve still need people to offer advice on EurycnemR hercu1eana,Ll bethra regulariB, and the lost/tentative species we couldn 't fit ont he questlonaire. If anyone can pass on their experiences of any oft he s e ( howeve r unsuccessfUl) , please let ue know.

We also now have me~bers willing to answer gen eral queries on avide r ange of top ics relating to Phas~ldB, so if you want to knowanything. please wri t e to us ( wit h a s.a.e.) a~d we'll do our best toput you In touch with the right person , if we can't ~'1.BWer you our­selvee . - ------------ ---SOliE NOTES ON DOVNICk'i PHAS'HD (u1) - Y,iguel ( No.72)

The DOminican species feed on Guava of the fa~ily Psidium. At themoment we know that t he genus Is AplopuB, but ve donlt know the sp eciesyet. The insects Bo~et1me8 move in the day fro~ t he i r resting olacee,e Bpeclally the ~ale8 , They move if they are di s turbed , if there 1s wind,a~d 1f it raine . They are very fond of vater dropl e t s . It vater 1ssprayed in tne cage, mo at of the insecte will start mov i ng and searchingfor the droplets . I have found a few ~alee on Rose trees, but I thinkthis is because the males fly off their fo odplants searching for femalesand accidently land on a Rose tree. Here , f e!Ilales live as adults for8-9 months , and so~et1mes longer. The ~ales do not live as l ong (5-6 mthlThe nymphs take 2t months to hatch from thei r egga. and 3 months tobecome adult. Since the adult females live a 10nR time, there areusually nymphs and new females with old females . The insects do followa pattern in their distribution and are not found on every bush. \ihereI search for them there are 7 bushes, and onl y one large one seems tohsve the most i ndi v i duals. I have found about 15 on t hi s large bushwhich is about 4t f oot hi gh. I have r ar el y fo und them on the otherbushee . During the day, the l~secte rest at the base of the bush , wheret here is grase ,sticks a~d leaves . Also at the base of the bush thereare the thickest s tems , eo i t's goo d ca~ouflage fo r the females . Themal es usuall y hide in the grass Or i n the middle of the bueh . Thisspecies does no t like the adult trees of Guava , but prefers the smallbushes . -------------------------------THE U1 DOMINICAlf 1'IlAS1lID -- Miguel

This is believed t o be the f irst description.Range : Dominican Republic and possibly wider

but this isn 't known yet.

Adulte : Th~ fe~a1eB arel arger than the mal es"'l easuring 15 - 16 cm andabout 10m thick, and arebrown in col our . Both s exesare winged , the f emaleshavin~ smaller wings thanthe mal e s . The male s are~uch thinner t han the

females, and shorter, Delng~ only 11 - 12 em. The he ad,

legB and underside are green ,and the rest of the body i s

dark brown. One of the mostattractive aspect s of this epeei ee

is the beautiful red wings whichthe males have. The covers of the

wings (elytra) are light brown .

-------- - - - - -

4.~ I The ova are 4= long and 2mm in girth , and are oval shaped

and vary great ly i n co l our, r anging f rom a unifo rm s 8'ldya colour to a u'1ifonn grey . The majority of the ov a are~ s peckled , however. The micropylar plate is t he aame co lour

as the ovum. The operculum is a r ais ed cone . The ova arel aid at r andom.

Nymph! Tne nympha can be sexed as Boon BS they hatch - the femalesare slightly longer , oeing 2 .6~, whi l st t ne males are only2 . 2cm . Bo th 8exes have B~Rll green patches on their legswhen t hey hatch, but after a short tim e they becomecompletely gree~. The nymphs are gregarious and resttogetuer on the foodplant . After hatching they rest , butif disturbed , tney run. Nympns do not hatch at nignt , somealwaya hatch during the day . During tne day t hey look f orthe so f t es t l eav es and eat a little and then wai t unt ilnlgnt to start eating 1n earnest . Tne nymphs are verystrong , eve~ upon natching.

Defence : The makea when disturbed will normally walk away very t'pst ,but i f the disturbance persi s t s , they will scramble awaywnile holdi~g t nei r wings up like sails . Other t imes t heywill fly away. The onl y defence reaction I have observedwith the females ia that t hey walk away determinedly .

Foodplantsl Their natural f oodplant i a Guava, bu t they will alaoac cept Hose and possibly Bramble.

Commente : Adults and n1"'ph s have been found at night feed i ng duringthe mont hs of September/December. It1e possible t hat theymay be found in other months but investigati ons hav e notbeen carried out yet . I t is thought that the Ova are l aiddur i ng the wet season September to March, and will hatcharound April/May time . Since this i s a tropical speci es iti s considered that required mi nimum temperature sho~d beno lesa tha~ 7S'F with a high humidity . As i s usual wi t bao-se Phasmlds , v ery few males have been f ound, and roughlythe proporti on captured haa been 1 male to 3 f emales ,although t h i s may not be indicative of natural cond itiona .Thi s spec ies copulate readily, and rel at i v el y briefly -24 hours being the ~aximum t ime observed.Local people (who are not always reliable) aay that t h es ePhasmids can kill , but this fact is doubted very much, anddangerous t o prove: J However it i s believed that they bi t es o in any cas e should be handled with care .

ANOTHER DOI'!InCAN PHAS'-IID (02) - - ~iguel

I have found another speciesof stick i ns ec t: I found itwhile s earchi ng for t he others pec i es . It also feeds onGuava, and at the :no':Uen t Ihave t wo fe'Uoal ee which arelaying eggs .One problem is that the ovahatch in l e s s than a mont h.This species i s much small erthan the other one, beingabout 10cm long, bright green,end wingless . The Ova are abit smaller than Bacillusro seiuB, but they bave thesame Micropylar Plate, and the s am e colour.

5.URaEllTLY WANTED : EXTATOSor~A TIARATUM SPER'IATOPHORES - Ul.f ( No . 28)

I should be pleased to receive s permatophores ofExtatoBoma tiaratum to perform some chemi cal analysis,ro 90 could a~yone rearing this species at the mo~entplease Bend ~e your empty 8pe~atophore8, and even oldones . Since this ia a popul ar species , I hope t hatmany of our members will help so that I wil l get al arge number f or performing any t ests. I will i nf ormthe Group of results i n a future Newsl etter.

(For t hose members who are no t sure what to l ook for, I have includeda drawing of a spermatopho re above. They are arnal l , white or palebrown/purplish and are f ound in the f ress at t he bottom of t he cagewhere adult i ns ect s are mat i ng . There are not usuall y ~any per adultmale , so you will have to look careful l y f or them, but once found ,t hey are easy to r ecognise , looki ng l i ke small balloons abou t 3mmac r oss h aving a short t wist ed tail. Please send t o :-Ulf Car l be rg , At l asvagen 53. 5-1 31 34 WACKA , Sweden.

Let' s h?ve you r support - Tony )----------------------------------REnEWOF PUBLI CATI C"fSby Dave (lIo. 29) our r- . s .c , Li brarian.

Ulf (No. 28) h~s sent me a n~~ber of r eprint s f or the Library , andI have ajdea Bome Xerox copi es from my own collection . I now have acopy of the review paoer 'Biology and Bcology of the Phasmat odea ' which

appeared in Annual Revi ews of Entomology in 1978 . I will produce info~

mat i on culled from this , and other reprints for t he Wewsletters i n thefuture. My first i tem f ol l ows .Parthenoten i s l B

Ear ler work has been reviewed in ' Endeavour' in 1y62, but I havenot yet seen t hi s paper. More recentl y , a number of papers have beenpublished abou t Bacillus ro~ ~iue. In S.France and N. W. Italy thepopulations are about t otally parthenogsnet i c. Around Pisa (C.ltaly) ,bo th part henogenesis and s exual r eproduction Occurs. If eggs fro~ bo thpopul at i ons are compared , 8?,% of vi rgi n eggs hatch against 89% off ertilised eggs . Thi s difference i s s i gnifican t . The populat i on aroQ~d

Naple s 1s biseXUal, but all f emal es can r ep roduce parthenogenet i call y .However, the yi el d of viable eggs by unfertilised f emales i s l ower than1n th e Pisa populations . Fertilised eggs hatch after 60 - 80 days, a~d

un f ert i l i s ed eggs after 85 -280 days .Unfertilised eges only produce f emales. Thi s i s bec ause t he sex

chromasome mechanisn is of the XO (male) : XX ( fe~al e ) t ype .Unfertil ised eggs are ini t i ally haplo id - i .e. t hey have one sex chroma­some per cell derived f rom the f emale . SUbsequently, the ch roT.asOmenumber doubles by a method known as ' bl ocked mitosis ' , so that each cellhas two sex chromasomes, both X, whi ch gives a f emale . Very rarely, t hi sdoubling doe s not take pla ce, a~d then an XO egg r esults gi vi ng a male .In f ertili sed eggs, each cel l has one s ex chromasome f rom the male(either X or 0) and one from t he f emale (either X o r X) . and there i sno doubl i ng of t he chromas omes.

Of the other species studied , Clonopsis gallica in Italy is entire­ly pa r-thenog enet fc and no males are m own. Orxines has a hatching rat eof onl y 4. 4% f or unfertill ~ ed eggs , with a male : female r atio of 1:80,compa red with 81% and 1:1 f or f ertilised eggs . Eurycnema her~Jleanacan r eproduce by parthenog enesi s . Unfertili s ed eggs of Extatosomat1 aratum produce only females , and f emal es predominate 1n fert i lisedeggs . Other sp eciee which can b e parthenogenet i c are tlacteriagranuli col lis , Didymuri a violes cen e , Podacan t hua wilkinson!, C11tar ch9§hookeri, and Ctenomorphodes t e~aulatus . Seven of t he eight species ofAcanthoxyla are completel y parthenogenetic .

6.P. S. G. MART COORDI~ATORS REPORT 16th March to 14th "lay 1982

Well we have been busy - keep it up - ther e are s t i l l s ome sp e ciesyet to surpl u s :Paul (No . 19) called to see me and was presented with a few 8pec l~ens of13. 12. 23. 27, d 31 to help build up hi s col lect i on again.Tom No. l l wanted male s of 9, but I could not supply. Successful now?Ste hen No.l 0l r equir es n~phs of 2. ~ 10. and eggs of 23. (12 . passedon y mys el f at Leicester exhi bition)Howard ~o . 6 called in and gave me 17. & 20. In r eturn he received 31.Nicholas No . l0 re quires nymphs of 2 . ~ 12., has surplus of 4.Michse No. has surpl US eggs and nymphs of 9. ~ 23. and eggs of29A: "Fr111ies" ,36. 39. ~ 12. Requires eggs of 44. Please don't f orgetstro ng containers and return postage .E. D~B(No .119} r equested starter cultures & instructions and wasexp ert l y dealt with by Mi chael ( No. 3) who also dealt with a request byAl an ~o. f or sources of the 19 speci es he hasn't got . "Optimist::"Pe t e o. 1 can supply livestock of 1. 2,3.12.22,23. 29. &37.

He want s ,7, 8,1 0,11,14, 15,1 6, 17 ,1 8,19, 2 1, 24, 2 5 , 26, 27 , 28, 30,31, 32,33,34 ,35 ,38,39 ,40,41 .42 . 43 . 45. d 46. I hope you're lucky Peter!Ulf ( No.281 g i v es hie approval and wi she s success to t he Culture Registerand Livestock Y.art . He also sugge~ts that o~ly eggs be Mai led AS t he reare Po st Offi ce r e s t ri ct i ons in Sweden conoerning mailing of Livestockother than Bees, Silkworms , ~ Lee Ches. I believ e these restrictions areappl i ed nere as well, but 8S long as the st icks are WELL PA~D thenour P .O. does not appear t o want to know.Jul1an( No .43) presented me wi t h hie one and only 44 , a male , to nelpwitn toe bre edi ng pro gr~~e .

stau(~0 . 99) r eques t ed eggs/n~pns of 14 ,1 5,19, 20 , « 28; This was passedon to Pet er, So.91) ••• Sorry Peter!Le s No. 0 r egues t s 14. (24 . -nassed to Tonr(~0 . 1 » . (36. -passed t oMichael NO.3» , (3 1. -passed to Dave(No. 14») & 26 . Has surpl us of 2.3.4.and 22.Paul 80 .26 r eques ts eggs of 80.44.Bob No.22 r equires eggs/nymphs of 10.11 , 14. 24.38, 39.40,43. Sorry Ihave no surpl us at the moment _ due to unforse en ci rcumstances I havehad to keep my cultures to a minimum .

Now who i s the mystery per son with a cul ture of 14. ?? ?

Did you know 23. and 44. bro wse l ike cat t le on moss .Bob ( 80. 22)

WhewJ That all took so~e typi ng: Well , Bob, t he person who has thecult'lre of 14 . i8 If .O. One, one of our obscure members: The tag in thesp ecies l i s t is a missprint a~d should aotually be "Los t "; s o all youmember s who want to get t hi s species , I'm afraid it 's back to huntingin the outback of Australia. ------ Tony.

SOME "CHIPS"Stsn ( 80.99)

A Quickie:

----------------------------------wri tes : I read about Borting ova from the f ras s ( query ina previous ~ewsletter) . I hav e t ried ~utt1ng the ova andf rass into warm water , the droppi ng s disintegrate and ifyou us e a f ine ~eeh plast ic eieve to soak them f or ashort t ime you CRn gently swi sh t hem around and gi ve afinal ri ns e wit h warm wat er to leave t he ova. Leave theov a on abeo rb ant pape r t o dry them. I hav e tried thiswi th three types of small ova and th ey do not seem t obe affected by this. ( Good idea! and easy to do - Tony)I 'v e found t hat B. calcarata and E. tiaratum will feed onDock l e aves, a common weed i n Britain. They ar e la~ge

leaves and are not prickly l i ke Bramble, so are easierto collect a~d ~andle. ---- Tony.

PSG 17: WI Ul (Unidentified)

.... .-..

The Warn Sti ck

Culture History , The or1giJ, ~~ s pecimens were brought back fromJamaica by the Newmark brothers, in the ~~~i ,q1~f~.

...-; - First Dltscribll,d: As with many of our culture;r, I, ''l s p ecies, t hi s insect ha s yet to be ldentlrled.

I ' / " With this situation, historical infoI'llation is\ ' : ' '.' impossible to get together, and we can only

\

( '\l " / / await eome difficult and possibly length,-

\

II ~ /" p checking of the old records before finally

~~; i ~ H:~:~:';;;.:~~~"_'

~' I < ~;":.J- - .- ....-' , ;:.."- , .

~ - \=~\~ ,( I'- \ \ I

I ~ \I \L

i/ ' i \ 1\' "'l\ \ '\ 1.:'-"i; /\ \/- ~~-~---<:\": l\~"~'_~:z~~//'... ~-' "1' "~ -/ /" /-.....-:"

~.c--('J{ ::I, ;'-1 ' \-~ ---' \r

\",

\Adulte : Tne female i s a medium sized l~sect with a bodylength ot

about 85mm and bodywidth of 3. 5 - 4mm. She has long slenderl egs, and a 1 args lumpy swelling on the back of the 6t habdomenal segment; The bo dy and legs are a bright gre en incolour with v arying amount s o f buff-brown poss i bl e alongthe body. The lump or "wart" seems t o v ary a little withindividUals, be ing almost black in some, and very lightbuff in others. Although relatively smooth bodied, thefemales do have pairs of almost white small spines onsome s egment s on the dorsal parts, notably abdomenals egment s 2 and 3 and occasionally segment 1.The male , typically of mo at Phasmids, is much thinner andalmost a uniform mid-brown allover. The body1ength is54mm, and bodywidth about 1.5mm. The tip of the abdomenis shaped into a curious "C" form, and joins the morenormal abdomen thickne s s by ~eans of a thin "kneck". Thereare two small buff coloured stripes from the eye to ,t heprothorax. Overall bo dy1 engths are female'15Omm It male: 12Omm.

e.Q!.! I The egg 1s a small shiny n att en ed ov01d of a un1form eep1a

brown colour 3m-n high, 2mm wide and 1,5m-n thick. Thr !.arg eoperculum i s e. s mooth raised, and rounded c ap of buff colourhaving s mall holes o r indentat ions in the top. The micropylarplate 1e a darker brown, u 'I1oet black shiny strip edged inpale cream. The ova are laid wi tbout any special effort atplacing them, just being dropped to the ground whsre theywere laid.

J!ym~ : The n y:nphs hatch easily in a temperature range of 7o-75'F.but unless there 1s a reasonable humidity, many will bedef o rmed on trying t o emerge from t h e egg . They are in1tiallya pale buff 1n colour, but as t hey eov e through the i nstarethey take on more of the adult colouring. Young nymphs lookvery much like small replicas of the adult males, but with­out the abdomenal protrusion.

Detences This species doee not seem t o have any active defence, merelyrelying on co l our and shape tor protection.

Foodplant es This species f eeds readily on Bra~ble i n all instare, eo,I suspe ct, it hasn't been tried with much other than Bramble.Ot her pos s i bl e foodplante are Roee , Ras be rry , and Oak, fromexperience with other sp eci es .

Comments: This species 1s relatively easy t o keep, provided a mi nimumtemperature of 70'P snd a goo d hum1dity is achieved in thecage. I keep my culture at room t emyerat ure which doeBn'~

drop below 65'P through the winter, end I have f ou,,-d no realprobleme with adults, although younger nymphe should be keptat a bi t higher temperature to help them with their ecdyses.AlthOugh not 80 spectacular as the larger species, it 1as t i l l a worthwhile speciee to k eep, not requiring a largec ags to keep a culture going.

--------------------'--~-

--------------------Yel l , that's about it now, time is running out and I have to get this

' een t off to Peter. I hope we will be able t o see you at the P. S.G.meeting on 13th June . Anyone who i s st i l l wait ine f or a l etter from medon 't diepai r , ae I will try to get the answers off t o you in t he nearf uture . Next speci es will be ~aculum extradentatum so let's have yournotes, and articles. Now don ' t f orget t o aupport our of ficers withinfo rmetion if you find anything useful.

Cheere for now,

Tony.

P.S . Paul (No .26) has had an offer frClCll Michae l Yey in Malaysia t o suppl y

PhaSlllid ova , Reteropt eryx di11tata and Pharnac i a sp. . Shoul d PSG members

wish to join in on a bulk pur ch ase t he s e o va will be orde red in lots of

4 do z . at £5 delivered . Pl e ase send your order AND cash to Paul D. Brock ,

"PapiUon", 40 'I'hornd1k.e Road , SLOUGH. Berks . SL2. lSR . by 30th . June 1982 .