菲律宾发现新品种竹节虫

 

The stick insect is wingless, lives on the ground rather than in trees, and is spectacularly coloured, having a green-blue head and orange body.

 

The insect also vents² a foul-smelling spray to deter³ predators⁴.

 

The stick insect is so unique that scientists have given it its own genus and do not yet know its relationship to other stick and leaf insects.

 

"Recently a colleague, entomologist Oskar Conle, showed us some museum specimens⁶ of a strange-looking stick insect found several years ago on Mount Halcon, a remote locality in the Philippine island of Mindoro," explains Marco Gottardo, who is studying for a PhD at the University of Siena, Italy.

 

The insect was found on the third highest mountain in the archipelago, which is considered one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world.

 

"We were baffled. It looked so different from any other known stick insect in the world that we immediately realised it was something very special."

 

Mr Gottardo and colleague Philipp Heller carefully examined the specimen⁵. 

 

"We concluded that it represented an unknown genus and species of stick insect," Mr Gottardo told BBC Nature.

 

The scientists have published details of the discovery in the journal Comptes Rendus Biologies.

 

"The new stick insect is wingless, with a stout⁷ body and rather short legs," says Mr Gottardo.

 

The scientists think these features are likely to be special adaptations for living in the low-growing vegetation of a montane rainforest.

 

Most tree-dwelling stick insects that live in the forest canopy⁸ have slender and elongated⁹（细长的） bodies and legs, thought to provide good camouflage¹⁰（伪装，掩饰） among stick and leaves.

 

"Another unique characteristic is the spectacular colour pattern. [A male] has dark bluish-green head and legs, and a bright orange body with distinctive¹¹ bluish-black triangle-shaped spots on its back," he adds. 

 

It is more likely that the insect uses these striking colours to warn off（告诫离开） predators, rather than as a form of camouflage.

 

"In fact we have discovered that the new stick insect has the ability to release a potent¹² defensive¹³ spray from glands¹⁴ located behind its head.

 

"The defensive substance is sprayed when the insect feels threatened, and has a strong distasteful smell, which likely functions to repel¹⁵ potential predators in a similar way to skunks," says Mr Gottardo.

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