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I find stick insects and examples of convergent evolution fascinating, so in my opinion a combination of the two makes for good reading. It so happens that such a paper was published last year and was brought to my attention by David Robinson during a recent Phasmid Study Group meeting.

Buckley et al, 2008 did a phylogenic study that involved the endangered Lord Howe Island stick insect, Dryococelus australis (Phasmatodea: Phasmatidae), a species that was previously thought extinct. Dryococelus australis is placed in the subfamily Eurycanthinae, along with the genera Eurycantha,  which has a mostly Australasian distribution around New Guinea and surrounding islands.

The study used two sections of DNA from both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA to compare the relationships between  various subfamilies and genera that were thought to be closely related to D. australis. They found that whilst the genera Eurycantha is morphologically (its body structure) similar to D. australis, they are only distantly related. One of the reasons that Dryococelus and Eurycantha were previously thought to be closely related was that both genera looked very similar and had unusually large spines on their hind legs. Now it seems that these leg spines evolved independently of each other; an example of convergent evolution.

You can read the whole article online with images of the leg spines and a phylogenetic tree.

Reference:

Buckley, T.R., Attanayake, D. and Bradler, S. (2008) Extreme convergence in stick insect evolution: phylogenetic placement of the Lord Howe Island tree lobster. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 16th December [Online] Available at: http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/g622w01455v03763/ [Accessed 25th Hanuary 2009]

I have recently received the December issue of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) journal, The Bulletin, which has a strong orthopteroid theme this month and announced a number of affiliations. This post is a brief summary of the some of the news and articles.

The AES are now formerly affiliated with the Quekett Microscopical Club and the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The AES Bug Club Magazine will now be produced in partnership with the Royal Entomological Society.

The first article, written by Ed Baker, covering orthopteroid insects was a summary of internet resources for the orders Orthoptera, Phasmida, Mantodea and Blattodea. Each of these orders have an online taxonomic database made using Species File Software and the Phasmida and Blattodea have their own active enthusiasts’ groups, the Phasmid Study Group and the Blattodea Culture Group, which use the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy‘s Scratchpad software. Links to all of the sites mentioned in the article can be found below (and some are already in the side links).

The second article, written by Dr Peter Sutton, covered the launch and details of the Orthopteroids of the British Isles Recording Scheme and Website. I have briefly written about the recording scheme before but if you want more details on the scheme then the article is worth reading.

The third article, written by Dr Peter Sutton, documented a search in Massif Central, France for the threatened bush-cricket, Gampsocleis glabra.

The last article I found particularly interesting was ‘Notes on Collecting Fleas’ by Bob George. Fleas are one of the orders that I’ve spent little time studying, so I found this a useful and inspiring read. The article covered methods of collecting and some of the legal/ethical responsibilities when collecting.

Links:

Blattodea Species File | Blattodea Culture Group

The Cockroach Forum | Phasmid Species File | Phasmid Study Group

Phasmatodea.de | Mantodea Species File | Mantis Study Group |

Mantophasmatodea.de | Orthoptera Species File

Dermaptera Species File

Reference:
Wilkins, P. (Ed.) and Hough, M. (Ed.). The Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society, vol. 67, no. 481. December 2008.