Pylaemenes (insect)

''Pylaemenes'' is a genus of stick insects in the family Heteropterygidae and subfamily Dataminae. It combines small to medium-sized, often brightly colored Phasmatodea species. Their representatives are found in large parts of Southeast Asia.

Characteristics

The average size of representatives of this genus in the male sex is between and between in the females. All species are always wingless. The basic color of adult animals is usually a light beige or brown, which can be supplemented by almost white, brown or black markings depending on the species and gender. On the forehead, which becomes narrower towards the top, there are clear elevations that are differently designed depending on the type. The Antenna (biology), antennae are considerably longer than the insect leg#femur, femura of forelegs. One to three teeth can be found on the outer edge of the first antenna segment. The body surface is mostly covered with tubercles. In contrast to the genus ''Orestes (insect), Orestes'', the Mesonotum, Meso- and Metanotum are flattened or slightly roof-shaped, with a clearly raised central keel and two lateral longitudinal keels. The pronotum is significantly shorter than half the mesonotum. Large elevations arranged in pairs can often be found on the front edge of the mesonotum, which in males can also be formed as spines. The Abdomen (insect anatomy), abdomen of the males is slender and, unlike in ''Orestes'', the ninth tergite is strongly widened towards the rear. The abdomen of adult females is severely swollen, especially in the front half. In contrast to ''Orestes'', the last segment (anal segment) is strongly triangularly tapered towards the rear and notched at the end. Depending on the species, especially in males, pairs of spines can be present in certain places on the Thorax (arthropod anatomy), thorax and abdomen. As with all Dataminae, the females of the genus ''Pylaemenes'' have no ovipositor to lay their eggs.

Distribution area

The distribution area of the genus ''Pylaemenes'' includes large parts of Southeast Asia. Their representatives can be found in many areas of the Malay Archipelago and here especially on Borneo. There are also species on the Malay Peninsula, in Thailand and in China.

Way of life

The nocturnal animals only come out of their hiding places in the leafy layer of the ground or on or behind the bark when it is dark. They are very lazy during the day. When they are discovered they Apparent death, play dead by stretching their hind legs back, the frore and middle legs forward and close to the body. The eggs can be more arched on the Dorsal (anatomy), dorsal side and often have short hairs. The micropylar plate has three arms, with one arm pointing towards the lid, while the other two run more or less circularly around the egg. The eggs are usually laid on the ground, clamped in the bark near the ground or attached to plants such as mosses.

Taxonomy

In 1875 Carl Stål established the genus ''Pylaemenes'' for some species that were previously listed in the genus ''Acanthoderus''. Of the species originally rearranged by him, only ''Pylaemenes coronatus'' remained in the genus. All others have turned out to be Synonym (taxonomy), synonyms to other species or have turned out to be representatives of other genera. As namesake, Stål chose the Paphlagonian king Pylaemenes, a figure from Greek mythology. Since he had not specified a type species, William Forsell Kirby chose ''Pylaemenes coronatus'' in 1904, the oldest species listed in the genus at that time, which is still the type species.

In the same publication in which he described the genus ''Pylaemenes'', Stål established 1875 the genus ''Datames'' for ''Acanthoderus mouhotii'' (today ''Orestes mouhotii'') and ''Acanthoderus oileus'', which he named after the Old Persian military leader Datames. James Abram Garfield Rehn specified ''Datames oileus'' in 1904 as type species of ''Datames''. In the following years almost all newly described species were assigned to this genus. Frank H. Hennemann discovered in 1998 that the type species ''Datames oileus'' belongs to the genus ''Pylaemenes''. He synonymed ''Datames'' and transferred all species that had previously belonged to ''Datames'' into the genus ''Pylaemenes''.

In the revision of the genus ''Orestes'' and the description of six new species in this previously monotypic genus by Joachim Bresseel and Jérôme Constant in 2018, three species belonging to ''Pylaemenes'' were also transferred to the genus ''Orestes''. In addition, the differentiation between the genera ''Orestes'' and ''Pylaemenes'' has been specified. Following this, some of the species described in ''Pylaemenes'' in the recent past belong into the genus ''Orestes'', such as ''Pylaemenes elenamikhailorum'', ''Pylaemenes konchurangensis'' and ''Pylaemenes konkakinhensis'' . A Species described by Thanasinchayakul in 2006 as ''Pylaemenes kasetsartii'' was not recognized by the ICZN Commission and has been listed as nomen nudum since 2019. In 2023, Francis Seow-Choen revalidated one subspecies and four species synonymized by Hennemann in 1998, of which ''Pylaemenes gravidus'' had, however, been revalidated earlier in 2023 by Hennemann himself.

In their genetic analysis study published in 2021 shows Sarah Bank et al. that the ''Pylaemenes'' species examined there cannot be assigned to a uniform clade. The three examined species occurring on Borneo form a common clade. ''Pylaemenes pui'' described from China in 2013, the sample of which came from Thailand, does not belong in this clade and according to Bresseel, must be assigned to a genus of its own. ''Pylaemenes coronatus'' can also be found in another clade, the sister group of which is the genus ''Orestes''.

Valid species are:

* ''Pylaemenes abramovi'' George Ho Wai-Chun, Ho, 2018 - Vietnam
* ''Pylaemenes borneensis'' (Philip Edward Bragg, Bragg, 1998)
* ''Pylaemenes coronatus'' (Wilhem de Haan, de Haan, 1842) - type species as ''Phasma coronatum'' de Haan, 1842, locality Java and Ambon Island
* ''Pylaemenes elenamikhailorum'' Francis Seow-Choen, Seow-Choen, 2016 - Sabah
* ''Pylaemenes enganoensis'' Seow-Choen, 2020
* ''Pylaemenes gravidus'' Henry Walter Bates, Bates, 1865)
:(Synonym (taxonomy), syn. = ''Datames aequalis'' James Abram Garfield Rehn, Rehn, J.A.G., 1904)
* ''Pylaemenes gulinqingensis'' Gao & Xie, 2022
* ''Pylaemenes konchurangensis'' Ho, 2018
* ''Pylaemenes konkakinhensis'' Ho, 2018
* ''Pylaemenes longispinus'' Seow-Choen, 2018
* ''Pylaemenes mitratus'' (Josef Redtenbacher (entomologist), Redtenbacher, 1906)
:(syn. = ''Datames arietinus'' Redtenbacher, 1906)
* ''Pylaemenes moluccanus'' (Redtenbacher, 1906)
* ''Pylaemenes muluensis'' (Bragg, 1998)
* ''Pylaemenes nullispinus'' Seow-Choen, 2020
* ''Pylaemenes oileus'' (John Obadiah Westwood, Westwood, 1859)
:(syn. = ''Datames cylindripes'' Redtenbacher, 1906)
* ''Pylaemenes otys'' (Westwood, 1859)
:(syn. = ''Pylaemenes infans'' Redtenbacher, 1906)
* ''Pylaemenes pleurospinosus'' Frank H. Hennemann, Hennemann & Stéphane Le Tirant, Le Tirant, 2021
* ''Pylaemenes pui'' Ho, 2013 - Caiyanghe Nature Reserve, Pu'er city, Pu'er, Yunnan Province in China and Chiang Mai Province in Thailand
* ''Pylaemenes scrupeus'' Joachim Bresseel, Bresseel & Jiaranaisakul, 2021
* ''Pylaemenes sepilokensis'' (Bragg, 1998)
** ''Pylaemenes sepilokensis sepilokensis'' (Bragg, 1998)
** ''Pylaemenes sepilokensis kinabaluensis'' Seow-Choen, 2016
* ''Pylaemenes spiniventris'' (Bates, 1865)
** ''Pylaemenes spiniventris spiniventris'' (Bragg, 1998)
** ''Pylaemenes spiniventris occipitalis'' (Johann Jakob Kaup, Kaup, 1871)
* ''Pylaemenes waterstradti'' (Bragg, 1998)

Terraristic

Several species of the genus are present in the terrariums of enthusiasts. ''Pylaemenes mitratus'' was imported from the Malay Peninsula in 1999 by Francis Seow-Choen. The species received PSG number 212 from the Phasmid Study Group. Another stock of this species was imported in 2015 from Kota Bharu. The most widespread are two stocks which are kept as ''Pylaemenes sepilokensis''. This species was first collected by Mark Bushell in summer 2001 on Borneo, more precisely near Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and brought to Europe. It received the PSG number 245. After it was lost in the meantime, it has been in breeding again since around 2015 after further imports. In addition to the stock from Sepilok, there is another one from Tawau. According to the studies by Sarah Bank et al. these stocks belong to different species.

References

Paul D. Brock, Brock, P. D.; Thies H. Büscher, Büscher, T. H. & Edward W. Baker, Baker, E. W.
Phasmida Species File Online
(accessdate 4 August 2025)

Philip Edward Bragg, Bragg, P. E. (2001). ''Phasmids of Borneo'', Natural History Publikations (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd., Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2001, p. 184,

Joachim Bresseel, Bresseel, J. & Jérôme Constant, Constant, J. (2018).
The Oriental stick insect genus Orestes Redtenbacher, 1906: Taxonomical notes and six new species from Vietnam (Phasmida: Heteropterygidae: Dataminae).
' Belgian Journal of Entomology 58. pp. 1–62, Brussel, ,

Josef Redtenbacher (entomologist), Redtenbacher, J. (1906).
Die Insektenfamilie der Phasmiden. Vol. 1. Phasmidae Areolatae
'. Verlag Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, pp. 47–53

Dräger, H. (June 2012). ''Gespenstschrecken der Familie Heteropterygidae Kirby, 1896 (Phasmatodea) – ein Überblick über bisher gehaltene Arten, Teil 2: Die Unterfamilie Dataminae Rehn & Rehn, 1839'', ZAG Phoenix, Nr. 5 Jahrgang 3(1), pp. 22–45,

Sarah Bank, Bank, S.; Buckley, T. R.; Büscher, T. H.; Bresseel, J.; Constant, J.; de Haan, M.; Dittmar, D.; Dräger, H.; Kahar, R. S.; Kang, A.; Bruno Kneubühler (entomologist), Bruno Kneubühler; Langton-Myers, S. & Sven Bradler, 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

Frank H. Hennemann, Hennemann, F. H. (1998). ''Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Phasmidenfauna von Sulawesi''. Mitteilungen des Museums für Naturkunde, Berlin, Zoologische Reihe 74, pp. 95–128

George Ho Wai-Chun, Ho Wai-Chun, G. (2018).
Three new species of genus Pylaemenes Stål (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae :Dataminae) from Vietnam
', Zoological Systematics, 43(3), pp. 276–282, DOI: 10.11865/zs.201826

Phasmid Study Group Culture List
/ref>

''Pylaemenes'' at Phasmatodea.com
by Oskar V. Conle, Conle, O. V.; Hennemann, F. H.; Kneubühler, B. & Valero, P.

Gao, Hao-Ran & Xie, Chongxin: ''Pylaemenes gulinqingensis sp. nov., a new species of subfamily Dataminae (Phasmida, Heteropterygidae) from Yunnan Province, China'', Journal of Orthoptera Research 2022, 31(2): 125–129, DOI:10.3897/jor.31.79783

Francis Seow-Choen, Seow-Choen, F.: ''A Taxonomic Guide to the Stick Insects of Java Vol. 1'', Natural History Publikations (Borneo) Sdn. Bhd., Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2023, pp. 584–608 & p. 641,

External links

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q2119566

Phasmatodea genera
Phasmatodea of Asia