Phyllium (Phyllium) hausleithneri Brock, 1999

Cumming, Royce T., Bank, Sarah, Le Tirant, Stephane & Bradler, Sven, 2020, Notes on the leaf insects of the genus Phyllium of Sumatra and Java, Indonesia, including the description of two new species with purple coxae (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae), ZooKeys 913, pp. 89-126 : 89

Phyllium (Phyllium) hausleithneri Brock, 1999 Figure 6A-E

Distribution.

Malaysia: (Peninsular) Perak and Pahang states (Figure 4 ).

Unconfirmed distributions:

Malaysia: Selangor State, Bukit Kutu. This record was noted as Phyllium siccifolium in Brock (1999) and treated as a smooth abdominal form of P. hausleithneri in Hennemann et al. (2009), however, without examining the specimen in question it is best to leave this as an unconfirmed record. This is because the morphologically similar Phyllium rubrum Cumming, Le Tirant, & Teemsma, 2018 is also found in Peninsular Malaysia and has in the past been considered a form of P. hausleithneri . Phyllium rubrum can be differentiated from Phyllium hausleithneri by the larger size (90.0 mm or larger in female P. rubrum and 74.6-82.8 mm in P. hausleithneri ) and coxae color (red/orange in P. rubrum and purple in P. hausleithneri ). Brock (1999) lists this Selangor State record as Phyllium siccifolium and notes that females from Peninsular Malaysia are ranging in size from 77.0 to 92.0 mm in length which encompasses the range of sizes of both these species. Therefore, without examining the specimen from Bukit Kutu, we must treat this identification as tentative until it can be confirmed as P. hausleithneri or P. rubrum .

Singapore: Seow-Choen (2017) listed this species, but gave no actual specimen records, and his included photos were stated as coming from Tapah Hills, Perak, Malaysia, so we are unsure of the basis for the inclusion. He could have been referencing to a specimen listed in Klante (1976) from Singapore ("Bukit Timah rd."; incorrectly identified as Phyllium woodi Rehn & Rehn, 1934), which Klante noted as being 75.0 mm in length, matching the size range of P. hausleithneri and not P. rubrum . But with so many errors in identification over the years we do not include this record in our confirmed distribution for this species yet and wait until additional material is collected and confirmed from Singapore.

Discussion.

This species has been in the phasmid breeding community for many years (Figure 6A-E ), with most of those years being sold erroneously as Phyllium siccifolium which has led to much of the confusion surrounding this species. To help clear up confusion, the morphological variations and numerous misidentifications were presented in the discussion of Phyllium hausleithneri in Hennemann et al. (2009). Phyllium hausleithneri from Peninsular Malaysia was morphologically compared extensively to P. nisus sp. nov. in Cumming et al. (2018) before it was realized that P. nisus sp. nov. was an undescribed sister species. Newly hatched nymphs of P. hausleithneri (Figure 6C ) cannot be distinguished from the two new species from within clade B described below as their coloration falls within their observed variation.

Figures

Figure 4. Distribution map for Phyllium giganteum (Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Java), Phyllium hausleithneri (Peninsular Malaysia), Phyllium nisus sp. nov. (Sumatra), and Phyllium gardabagusi sp. nov. (Java) and Phyllium jacobsoni (Java).

Figure 6. Phyllium hausleithneri live captive bred individuals, photos courtesy of Bruno Kneubuehler. A Female B male C freshly hatched nymph D female ventral view of purple coxae E male ventral view of purple coxae.