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Jonathan's Jungle
News from
January
and February 2010
22nd
February 2010
I have acquired a large
number of new invertebrate animals in the last seven
days! As well as receiving the new praying
mantids described below on the 16th, at the weekend
I attended my first invertebrate trade fair of 2010.
It was in Yeovil in Somerset and I bought many
fantastic new animals from local breeders, some of
which represent species I have never kept before!!
The first of these is an adult female tarantula
commonly known as a
pink toed
tarantula for reasons which become obvious when
you look at her feet!
As you can see she is a
very hairy spider indeed, with a very fluffy overall
appearance! Pink toed tarantulas are native to
central and south America and are arboreal (or
tree-dwelling) spiders. This is the first time
I have ever kept an arboreal tarantula despite
having admired them for many years in the
collections of friends, and it is amazing how
different they feel to handle as their feet feel so
sticky. This is because they have much larger
foot pads than terrestrial (ground-dwelling)
tarantulas to allow themselves to grip securely to
the trees in which they live.
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Another fabulous couple of
animals I acquired, and another species with which I
could not be happier, are a pair of amazing
horsehead
grasshoppers from Peru. These are possibly
the most unusual and funny-looking insects I have
ever seen! Here they are:
The female is the large
brown individual in the picture above and the male
is the smaller green animal. In many ways they
look a lot like some species of stick insect, but
they are definitely grasshoppers and capable of
quite an impressive hop considering how thin their
legs are! They get their common name due to
their very unusually shaped heads as you can see
below, and I think they almost have a confused kind
of facial expression which I think is brilliant!
For lots more pictures and
information about these amazing animals please click on
their name above or simply click
here.
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I also acquired an adult
pair of large stick insects which do not have a common
name but have the scientific name
Phasma
reinwardtii. This is a species which comes
from Papua New Guinea and this is the first time I
have kept them. The female (below) is very
large, measuring more than 15cm in length and
weighing in at around 18 grammes.
The male of this species,
as in many of the stick insect species I keep, is
very much smaller than the female and also a
different colour. He weighs less than 2
grammes despite still being about 10cm long, as he
is much more slender than the female and capable of
flying. He is also a very pretty animal as you
can see below!
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I also bought some
mixed-sized nymphs (babies) of a species of stick
insect known only by their scientific name of
Phobaeticus magnus, the females of which when
fully grown can reach lengths of 30cm! This is
a species which originates in north-eastern Thailand
and Laos, but these nymphs were bred in captivity by
a friend of mine in Somerset.
It is really hard to
imagine the tiny nymph above becoming a 30cm giant
at some time in the future because at the moment it
measures little more than 3cm, not including its
enormously long front legs!
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I also bought some animals
to add to my existing collections of the same
species, including some new
Australian prickly stick
insects of various sizes from very small nymphs
(babies) up to adults. The adults are
especially attractive as you can see below, with the
female being pictured first and the male below:
As well as these I also
bought some more
leaf
insects, which have long been another of my
favourite types of insects due to their incredible
body shapes, colours and ability to camouflage
themselves! Here are some of the new ones I
bought which originate in the Philippines but which,
like all of the animals in my collection, have been
bred in captivity in the UK:
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I also bought a lovely
juvenile female giant Asian
praying mantis which has a beautiful
greenish-blue tinge to its body. This is one
of my favourite mantis species and has been since
the first time I ever kept one nearly 20 years ago!
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16th
February 2010
I have today received from
a breeder friend two fantastic praying mantids, my
first new insects of 2010! The first is an
adult female of a species I have kept before and
always really admired, and is known commonly as a
dead leaf mantis.
I'm sure you can see from
these pictures why this species is known as the dead
leaf mantis, as they resemble decaying crumpled
leaves so closely!! For more information about
her click on the blue link above.
The second mantis is a
species I've never kept before, and is one from
Mexico known only by its scientific name of
Phasmomantis sumichrasti. This is also
an adult female and she is quite a large mantis with
exceptionally sharp spines on her front legs, which
are used to catch prey. These spines are
especially visible in the second picture below:
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27th
January 2010
I haven't acquired any new
animals since my last update and there haven't been
any particularly significant events in the existing
collection either, so I thought I'd use this space
to report on a couple of animals who haven't
specifically been featured on this page for some
time! First up is
Half Pint the
Sinaloan milk snake, who has come a long way
since I first acquired him when he was just a few
inches long! He is now an exceptionally
beautiful snake and very popular with everyone who
meets him!
Another
exceptionally popular
animal with all who meet him is Stumpy, one of more
than 20 crested
geckos I currently have in my collection!
Stumpy has fathered more of the baby crested geckos
I have bred in the last three years than any other
male in my collection, his babies always being as
stunning as he is himself! Stumpy is truly a
beautiful individual and incredibly friendly, making
him popular with children (of all ages) and adults
alike - this week alone he has made hundreds of new
fans ranging in age from 4 to 64! Here are a
couple of recent pictures of him looking fabulous...
Watch this space for more
animal news in the coming weeks as well as profiles
& updates on other animals in my existing
collection...
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11th
January 201o
A belated Happy New Year to
you all! Unfortunately I have been having
technical difficulties with my web design software
for a few weeks which have prevented me from
updating the site at all, hopefully these are now
all resolved! The Christmas and new year
period has actually been a slow news period in terms
of the animals anyway, but I did acquire a beautiful
new baby female
Kenyan sand boa, born in the early Autumn of
2009!
As you can see she has a
beautiful pattern and colouration which is very
similar to, but not exactly the same as, Zuri's - my
adult male Kenyan sand boa - pictures of whom you
can also find by following the blue link above or
simply by clicking
here.
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Over the Christmas period
and even into these first few days of 2010 I have
continued to have many nymphs of the
New Guinea giant spiny
stick insect
hatch.
I have estimated that during the whole of 2009 more
than 450 nymphs of this species have hatched in my
collection! Here is a picture of just a few of
them resting together:
The individuals in this
picture are about 5-6 cm long and just a couple of
months old. The species has such a rapid
growth rate that many of the ones which hatched in
the early months of 2009 have now been mature for
several months and have been laying their own eggs,
so I will no doubt continue to have these fantastic
creatures hatching throughout 2010!!
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