Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

crowey

I was given two female leaf insects back in november, I was told they were P. celebecium, but now that they appear to be adult, I'm not so sure.....
I took these a couple of weeks ago, just after they last moulted

all the images I've found online celebecium doesn't have the brown edges like mine, but giganteum does, though I think mine are a bit small for giganteum Confused

They are about 10cm head to tip of abdomen, living happily on bramble at room temperature and quite low humidity (evaporation from damp substrate and oasis).

I've been trying to find out about breeding cycles, and I know they are parthenogenetic.
How long do they take to go from the final moult to producing eggs?
what conditions do the eggs need to incubate under? and for how long?

thanks! Smile

ChrisM · Contributing Member Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 125

I 'think' they are giganteum.

My phylliam look like this, scale of our hand makes your's look much bigger...

If you look on bugnation.co.uk, they will def be able to identify the correct species.

Boelen · Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 1:32 pm Post subject:

Looks like a giganteum to me....that's quite a big insect unless you have tiny hands! Laughing

The giganteums I've had in the past have all been around that size and it looks identical

crowey · Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 5:41 pm Post subject:

cool, thanks chaps Mr. Green

keiron · Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject:

yep definitly giganteum, i used to breed them years ago, had loads of them!

10 cm is about right for giganteum, as for how long it takes to start laying after final moult... i can't remember, but its not too long! they will lay a couple of eggs a day and i used to incubate them on damp sand (not too wet as i found the eggs are quite susceptible to mould) i would place the container of eggs at the cool end of one of my lizard vivs.

the earliest i found young was after approx 4 months incubation but 5 seems to be the average, and don't give up on the eggs! i have had 8 month old eggs hatch!

hope this helps. Cool

crowey · Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 4:34 pm Post subject:

that's great thankyou Smile

crowey · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject:

Hurrah! first egg today! heh, I was worried it'd look too much like their poo to recognise (remembering my sick insects from when I was little), how wrong I was Laughing

I've portioned off a little bit of space in my lab for the eggs, since it's all climate controlled I reckon it's a fairly safe bet. Very Happy

keiron · Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 11:53 pm Post subject:

best of luck with them! Cool

crowey · Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:23 pm Post subject:

the mould! every egg so far has developed mould within a few days.
I've cleaned out the tub and changed the sand every time I took out a mouldy egg, so I don't think there are any spores (unless the sand came with spores in....).
it's not complete decay though, more like little white tufts....I'm assuming that it'll just progress though...
any tips for keeping them mould free? I was wondering about fungicides, but I suppose they aren't too good for eggs Confused

robje29 · Key Member Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 223 Location: Devon

im no expert on these but i know with some eggs with incubation too much light will cause mould growth.
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Rob