Clonaria natalis

[Westley Price]

Hi All

The past few months I have started getting interested in keeping insects, more specifically phasmids (stick and leaf insects) and a few others.

I collected a large female Clonaria natalis here a few months back and have been keeping her, feeding on Acacia sp. and spraying every second day with distilled water.

She has been doing very well and started laying eggs; she is at 27 eggs now, but lays up 5-7 every few days. The eggs are glued to the leaves and branches of the Acacia, which is quite tricky to remove, hence all the leaves in the incubation container.

I'm looking forward to getting a group established.

Here are a few pics.









And the eggs





Thanx for looking

[Zimi]

Hi Westley, I have an obsession with plasmids aswell I had a spiney leaf insect that also layed eggs but only one of mine hatched. Also have 4 walking leaf eggs that are about 14 months now, also did not hatch. If you hear of any insects that are available please let me know. If been searching everywhere for plasmids and they are just so hard to find!! P.S your insect looks awesome keep up the good work!

[Westley Price]

Hi Zimi

If you're in SA, you can contact Tim at Petbugs. He has a very cool collection of Phasmids. There is also a user here on the forum called "mrtsnakes" who has a large collection of phasmids.

Good luck.

[Westley Price]

So the little aliens started popping out of the eggs roughly a month after laying, which is pretty short for a phasmid.

Here are a few pics. Only 3 nymphs out so far, but the eggs were laid over a 2 week period, so will probably have more every day.

Considering the size of the eggs, they are actually quite large.

Enjoy

[Clay]

Amazing stuff!!!

[Westley Price]

My second set of ova have started hatching so I think I have got this species down.

Some of the eggs were glued into the folds of the net cage, so I just noticed a few nymphs in the adults' enclosure so check the incubation container and they seem to be out in force.

In my opinion, one of the best phasmids to start with.
- Easy food plants (Acacia)
- Easy to breed
- Simple incubation (spray once a week)
- Quick incubation (1-2 months opposed to other phasmids which take 6-12 months)

Close-up of the ova



Pics of the nymphs