Unusual insect escapee
Simon Taylor 108 Rickstones Road, Witham, Essex CM8 2NB
simon.taylor@essex.gov.uk
Towards the end of August I was contacted by my friend Allan Gray who lives in Silver
End, just north of Witham. His son Daniel, who also lives in the village, had found an
extremely unusual insect (see Plate 7) by the pond in his garden and Allan thought I
would be interested.
Allan described it as looking like a black bulging-eyed mantis, but he had done some
searching on the internet (how did we cope without it?) and discovered it to be a Peruvian
Black Stick Insect, Peruphasma schultei Conle & Hennemann, 2005.
These are intriguing creatures. Certainly they look extraordinary, as previously described
but with bright red wings, tiny and useless for flight but utilised for display, covered
with black and white netted wing cases. They also have a habit of raising the rear of the
abdomen back over their body, scorpionesque. This begs the question, how can such a
remarkable and relatively large (5-6cm) insect have remained undescribed to science
until 2005? The answer is simple: the species has a minute range, just a few hectares of
forest in the north of its native Peru.
This in turn poses a further question: how docs such a rare and exotic creature find itself
in a garden in Silver End? Allan's internet enquiries had already provided the answer to
this. Despite being new to science the creature has rapidly established itself in the pet
trade, proving to be hardy and easy to keep and breed in captivity, as well as eye-catching
and harmless, although they are known to sometimes spray fluid which can be smelly
and cause itchy eyes. Quite where this particular specimen came from is a mystery,
though being flightless it cannot have come far. However, at the time of writing (end of
November) the specimen, now named Boris, is still very much alive.
Fortunately, despite this specimen obviously having escaped from somewhere and finding
itself at liberty in the British countryside (and I understand from Allan that it's made a
few more escape attempts since and is very inquisitive), the species will not become an
12 Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 58, January 2009