Morphological and biological observations on the stick insect Tithonophasma tithonus (Gray, 1835) (Phasmida: Pseudophasmatidae: Pseudophasmatinae)

Abstract

American Pseudophasmatinae stick insects are often colorful, winged or apterous, with or without scale-shaped tegmina, with an area apicalis on all tibiae, and either with a ventromedian carina on the meso and metafemora, or with broad profemora, as long as head, pro- and mesonotum combined (Zompro, 2004). In the egg, micropylar plate is externally located in the middle of the dorsal surface, and internally appears of the open type. Among Pseudophasmatinae, the genus Tithonophasma Zompro, 2004 has a single species, Tithonophasma tithonus (Gray, 1835). Although this species is frequent in museum collections (Zompro, 2004), accurate morphological and biological information potentially useful in phylogenetic approaches are still missing.

Description of the female, egg and first instar nymph of the stick insect Paraphasma paulense (Phasmatodea: Pseudophasmatidae) from Southeast Brazil

“…Apart from a study dealing specifically with color polymorphism in Anisomorpha buprestoides (Stoll, 1813) (Conle et al 2009), and some very brief morphological observations on the first instar nymph of Tithonophasma tithonus (Lima et al 2013), to the authors' knowledge the description of a newly hatched nymph in the family Pseudophasmatidae is herein presented for the first time. Even for Phasmatodea as a whole, morphological descriptions of first instar nymphs have been unusual or strongly brief.…”

“…Most of the information on stick insects from the country is limited to original descriptions of species, mainly in the works by Gray (1835), Burmeister (1838), Westwood (1859), Bates (1865) and Kirby (1904), in the monograph by Brunner von Wattenwyl (1907) and Redtenbacher (1906Redtenbacher ( , 1908, and in various papers by Toledo Piza (1936, 1937, 1938, 1944, among others). Recently, only a few studies have addressed Brazilian stick insects, such as: three broad taxonomic revisions that included some Brazilian taxa (Zompro 2001, 2004, Hennemann et al 2016; the redescription of Tithonophasma tithonus (Gray, 1835) (Lima et al 2013); and the descriptions of one new species in the genus Cladomorphus Gray, 1835 (Kumagai and Fonseca 2009), and another in Agrostia Redtenbacher, 1906(Heleodoro et al 2017. Furthermore, few Brazilian species have the egg described in spite of the importance of egg morphology and egg-laying mechanism in Phasmatodea taxonomy and phylogenetics (Sellick 1997, Clark Sellick 1998, Zompro 2004, Goldberg et al 2015.…”

Bionomic notes on parthenogenetic females and a record of parasitism by Forcipomyia Meigen (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in the stick insect Cladoxerus cryphaleus (Westwood) (Phasmatodea: Phasmatidae)

“…The reproductive potential of C. cryphaleus was recorded here based on parthenogenetic females. It is possible that the fecundity of the species is higher considering mated females, as observed for Tithonophasma tithonus and Cladomorphus phyllinus, which had higher egg hatching rates for mated females than for parthenogenetic ones (Lima et al, 2013;Costa and Torres, 2020). Burke et al (2015), in a study of the Australian spiny leaf insect, Extatosoma tiaratum (Macleay) (Phasmatidae), suggested that, although sexual reproduction apparently leads to earlier hatching of the eggs and higher offspring viability, the occurrence of facultative parthenogenesis in this and other species could be explained by the costs of sexual reproduction to females.…”

“…In fact, bionomy data were recorded in very few Brazilian Phasmatodea species, since most studies on the order conducted in the country focused on taxonomic aspects. Information on life cycle, longevity, and fertility was published only for Tithonophasma tithonus (Gray) (Lima et al, 2013) and Cladomorphus phyllinus Gray (Dorval et al, 2003;Sottoriva et al, 2007;Vargas et al, 2008;Alvarenga et al, 2018;Costa et al, 2019;Costa and Torres, 2020), the latter being the best known Brazilian species in biological and bionomic terms.…”

Revisão taxonômica e análise filogenética de Paraphasma Redtenbacher, 1906 (Phasmatodea: Pseudophasmatidae: Stratocleinae)

“…Também é importante mencionar os trabalhos de Toledo Piza (1936aPiza ( , 1936bPiza ( , 1937Piza ( , 1938aPiza ( , 1938bPiza ( , 1939aPiza ( , 1939bPiza ( , 1943Piza ( , 1944Piza ( , 1946Piza ( , 1977Piza ( , 1985aPiza ( , 1985b, historicamente o único pesquisador brasileiro com certo destaque no estudo de Phasmatodea, tendo descrito 46 espécies para o país. Após as suas obras, a fauna brasileira voltou a ser abordada somente em contribuições esporádicas, já no século XXI, restritas a um catálogo de material tipo depositado em coleções brasileiras (Zompro & Domenico 2005), um levantamento de espécies da Serra do Espinhaço, Minas Gerais (Araujo & Garraffoni 2012), e algumas descrições ou redescrições isoladas (Zompro & Adis 2001;Kumagai & Fonseca 2009;Lima et al 2013). Esse cenário, porém, parece estar começando a mudar, como sugerido pela recente publicação de um número razoável de contribuições ao conhecimento da fauna brasileira de Phasmatodea, incluindo descrições e redescrições de espécies (Chiquetto- Machado & Albertoni 2017;Heleodoro et al 2017a,b;Chiquetto-Machado 2018;Chiquetto-Machado et al 2018;Heleodoro & Rafael 2018, 2019) e a inclusão de alguns táxons brasileiros como parte de duas revisões taxonômicas mais abrangentes (Hennemann et al 2016;2018).…”