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One of the species I took back from the Phasmid Study Group meeting was Mnesilochus sp., originally from Mount Apo in the Philippines. I was looking for species which at privet as I no longer have access to as many food plants as I did last and was informed that Mnesilochus will eat practically anything.

Like most phasmids you can easily see sexual dimorphism: the female is much larger than the male.

Mnesilochus sp. male (left) & female (right)

The female seems especially cryptic as she has a nobbly bit on her abdomen and usually angles her thorax when resting.

Mnesilochus abdominal extrusion

They have already started laying eggs which I shall photograph when I have better light.

Entomology News: Today BBC News had a top story titled ” Liberia worms swarm ‘emergency’ “. For a moment I was really curious, thinking they were talking about annelids before realising they meant army worms, the vernacular for particularly voracious caterpillars! The swarm of caterpillars is the worst Liberia has seen in over 30 years and they are currently undertaking aerial spraying in an attempt to control the insects.

I came across a more positive story from Monash University on some research undertaken by Dr Adrian Dyer on the responses of bees to human faces. They found that the bees could ‘average’ different views of the human face (0° and 60°) to recognise a previously unseen facial angle (30°). The research team think the study may help with the construction of AI facial recognition.

Update: You can read the full research article on bee vision at the PloS ONE website.