Wild Life Sydney Lord Howe stick insects

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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DECADES after they were thought extinct, what may be the rarest insects are coming to Sydney.

Lord Howe Island phasmids, which are stick insects that grow more than 14 centimetres long and have bodies as thick as a finger, are found naturally on only one place - Balls Pyramid, a volcanic rock that juts from the sea near Lord Howe Island.

Sydney researchers have joined a breeding campaign to help bring the flightless insects back from the edge of extinction.

A Campbelltown entomologist, Stephen Fellenberg, has raised about 30 of the insects and is giving a pair of adults to Sydney Wildlife World, at Darling Harbour, for breeding. Melbourne Zoo will supply juvenile insects and eggs.

If all goes as planned, the phasmids should be on show this year, for the first time in Sydney.

Dating to the age of the dinosaurs, phasmids thrived on Lord Howe Island until 1918, when the supply ship Mokambo arrived, bringing rats. By 1920 the insects had been wiped out. In 2001 several were discovered on Balls Pyramid, 23 kilometres away, feeding on the leaves of a tea-tree, perched on a steep cliff.

"The colony was living off one tea-tree," Fellenberg said. The scientists later found about 100 more, all feeding on the tree. "They are probably the rarest insects in the world."

He described their habitat as very fragile. "A landslide, or the drying up of the water that feeds the tree, could wipe them out."

Two pairs were collected for breeding. One was sent to Melbourne Zoo, which now has about 600; the other was given to the Campbelltown scientist.

Fellenberg, the president of Friends of the Long Lost Phasmid, a charity established to support the recovery program, said that only when thousands had been bred would it be possible to repopulate Lord Howe Island.

However, a proposed campaign to eradicate the rats on the island must be completed first. "Getting rid of the rats could be five or 10 years away."

Lisa Manson, an invertebrate keeper at Sydney Wildlife World, was "really excited" about her new charges. "We are also waiting on a group of 12 juveniles and 50 eggs from Melbourne Zoo," Manson said. "We are expecting them in two weeks."

After the phasmids had "settled in", they would be unveiled to the public. "Instead of talking about a species that has gone extinct, we can show people they have been rediscovered, " Manson said.

Fellenberg estimated at least another $50,000 a year was needed to fund the breeding and said humans were obliged to save the phasmids.

"We have basically wiped them out ourselves. It is incredible they are still surviving."

See friendsofthephasmid.org.au.
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I thought Sydney Wildlife World had been pulled from ARAZPA, and yet Melbourne Zoo is supplying a previously thought extinct species (and thus part of a breeding program) to them? Can someone please explain?
 
There was a delay in Sydney Wildlife World renewing their membership of ARAZPA at one stage, during the period of ownership change. They are still full institutional members of ARAZPA, and are participating in a number of regional programs.
 
ZooPro said:
There was a delay in Sydney Wildlife World renewing their membership of ARAZPA at one stage, during the period of ownership change. They are still full institutional members of ARAZPA, and are participating in a number of regional programs.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the update.
 
I have just finished reading a fascinating new book on the Phasmid
Return of the Phasmid, Rick Wilkinson, pub.2014 Media Dynamics.
It is an incedibaly detailed and well researched avvcount of this insect, from it's original discovery, its supposed extinction, rediscovery on Balls Pyramid, the obtaining of four live specimans for the breeding program. It has an account of just about everyone who was somehow connected with the story, goes into great detail about the hopes to return it Lord Howe and so on.
There are excellent coloured photographs on almost every page (150 pages).
I thouroughly recommend it to anyone with an interest in conservation, small island ecologies and insects.
 
Great to hear about a book devoted completly to one insect, will surtainly try to optain a copy myself !
 
Beautiful animated film about the Lord Howe stick insect ! :
[ame=http://vimeo.com/76647062]Sticky on Vimeo[/ame]
 
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