''Conlephasma enigma'' is a wingless, ground-dwelling

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

stick insect The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida or Phasmatoptera) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick bugs, walkingsticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as Devil's da ...

in the

monotypic genus 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 "unispe ...

''Conlephasma'', and is found on

Mount Halcon Mount Halcon () and () is the highest mountain in Mindoro. According to the new data released by ''Oriental Mindoro peakvisor'' as of 2022, it has an elevation of above sea level, higher than the previous estimates of although no official surv ...

, on the

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

island of

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...

. The species is brightly coloured, with males having a dark bluish-green head and legs, and a bright orange body with bluish-black triangle-shaped spots on the back. Females are less brightly coloured. It sprays a foul-smelling liquid, from glands behind its head, to repel predators. The species was identified when

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

Oskar Conle showed Marco Gottardo and Philipp Heller specimens which had been collected some years earlier. They identified it as new to science and allocated it to a new genus in a paper published in '' Comptes Rendus Biologies''.

References

External links

Picture at ''democraticunderground.com''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5161233 Phasmatodea genera Endemic fauna of the Philippines Fauna of Mindoro Monotypic insect genera Insects of the Philippines