Eurycnema goliath (Gray, 1834)

Identification:

Coloring: conspicuously banded with green and purple
Female: the fore wings and the remigium of the bluish-veined hind wings are bright red beneath. Large, heavy bodied. Incapable of flight.

Males: fly readily.

Known to be parthenogenic if laboratory cultures provides no males.

The following description is from Rentz, 1996: One of the most spectacularly marked stick insects in Australia. [...] In addition to being very colourful, each coxa bears a black mark suggestive of an eyespot. The dorsal surfaces of the tegmina and adjacent portion of the hind wing (remigia) are green but ventrally they are bright red. At rest they hang obliquely from branches with only the greenish portions visible until disturbed. If annoyed, the hind legs are left to hang free and directed at right angles to the body and directed slightly backwards. This exposes the black coxal eyespots. Simultaneously, the tegmina and remigia are raised to exhibit the vivid display of red on their ventral surfaces. If further disturbed the tegmina and wings are opened more fully in an almost flapping movement with the body whipping towards the source of the disturbance. At other times, the abdomen may be concealed in front of the extended wings and tegmina, seemingly protected from the source of danger. This "species" may be a complex of species because the "variation" in certain morphological structures, such as operculum length, spinal numbers on the legs and the shape of the cerci, may not be variation at all.

The following description is from Brock, 1998:

  1. Body length.- Male 121-146 mm, Female 172-204 mm.
  2. Head. - large, longer than wide, with 3 ocelli; slightly glossy. Pale yellow, with longitudinal green bands centrally and from eyes to back of head, with brownish lines in between. Antennae much shorter (approximately 32 mm) than length of forefemur in female, with approximately 29 short segments, of which 3rd segment is much longer than 2nd; antennae much longer in male (approximately 57 mm) than forefemur, with approximately 27 longer segments.
  3. Thorax. - Green with some lighter yellowish patches, particularly in male; mesonotum in both sexes often with a bluish green median line. Pronotum smooth, marginally shorter than head, with central indentation. Mesonotum less than 3 × length of pronotum in female (slightly longer in male, which has a glossy appearance), usually either completely smooth or with several bluish green tubercles (as in lectotype) in female; if smooth, several tubercles laterally present. Ventral surface with a series of 4-5 pairs of tubercles surrounded by patches of blue. Metanotum somewhat shorter than mesonotum, with several tubercles on lateral margin.Ventral surface of metanotum with 3-4 transverse bands of blue, each armed with a pair of well spaced tubercles. Occasionally, such as in the holotype of the synonym Clemacantha regale, tubercles replaced dorsally, laterally, and ventrally by spines. Male always with bold, uneven, paired, green spines on mesonotum; typically, 2 pairs on first half-and a pair towards hind part of segment. The ventral patterning is as in female.
  4. Abdomen - Yellowish green. Final three segments much shorter than previous segments.
    FEMALE: Operculum long, tapering to slightly pointed tip. Anal segment semitruncate, with lamina superaanalis present. Cerci broad, 2-2.5 × longer than wide.
    MALE: Margins at end of anal segment slightly broadened; triangular, when viewed laterally, claspers with several black teeth within. Cerci broad, approximately 4 × as long as wide.
  5. Wings. - Forewings moderately long, ovate, green above with white longitudinal bars and patches, bars suffused with purple. Underside bright red in female, edged with green and sometimes reddish in male. Average length of forewings 44 mm in female, 15-20 mm in male. Pre-anal part of hind wings green, often with white longitudinal bars suffused with purple. Inner margin bright red. Underside completely bright red. Hind wings transparent, with veins invariably green.
  6. Legs. - Long and slender with bold denticulated ridges, mottled with green and yellow; with bold apical spines; inner margin of hind tibia usually with 7 brown, well spread spines, of which fourth and fifth spines more than twice as long and broad as others. Forefemur more serrate than mid-and hind femur; in male, spine formation usually more pronounced, with up to 3 bold larger spines subbasally on central ridges of mid- and hind femur and tibia.

Egg. - Long, 7 mm.; broad, 4.5 mm.; shape somewhat irregular, with a rim of imbricated plates projecting outward around the apical plug; apical plug rounded, wider than long, with a marked convex depression at the apex; colour brown shading to grey, the whole surface finely granulated and closely resembling the texture of bark. (See McKeown, 1936.)

The eggs of a number of the purported variants have been recently discovered to be quite distinctive as well

Habitat:

Similar Species:

Eurycnema osiris

Rearing Notes:

A high level of humidity is recommended for the nymphs to thrive.

The eggs seem to hatch in warm weather after wet weather. Is this a monsoonal trigger, consistent with th tropical origins of the species?

PSG notes indicate the following foodplants have been used successfully in captivity: Acacia. (The author has also used Eucalyptus.)

For a stick insect with body length 204mm, to keep 2 adult females, you need a cage at least 900mm high, 400mm deep and 450mm wide.

Range:

NSW, QLD

This large phasmatid occurs in eastern portions of Australia, where it can be found on a wide range of shrubs and trees. It occurs as far south as Singleton NSW and as far north as Stratford QLD.

Status:

This species is successfully reared in captivity.

References

Phasmid Study Group

This is PSG species 14.

Synonyms:

Copyright © 2000-2003 Peter Miller
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