# Tisamenus cervicornis

Tisamenus cervicornis is a stick insect species (Phasmatodea), in the family of the Heteropterygidae endemic to the Philippine island Luzon.

## Description

For a long time, only the two type specimens used for the first description of this Tisamenus species were known. The female holotype is 48 millimetres (1.9 in) long. The male syntype is 35 millimetres (1.4 in) long. In Tisamenus cervicornis there are multitoothed postorbital crests on the head. Their second tooth is the largest. Behind the ridges sits a pair of conical tubercles. These features distinguish them from the similar Tisamenus armadillo and Tisamenus spadix. On the pronotum there are two strongly compressed, clearly bidentate combs that point obliquely backwards. The genus-typical triangle on the mesonotum is flatly concave as in Tisamenus spadix and Tisamenus tagalog and is only slightly longer than it is wide. It does not reach the middle of the mesonotum. The mesopleuras are toothed and have a spine above the mesocoxa. The expanded metapleurae are dentate, with the last two teeth being the larger ones. The second segment of the abdomen has an anterior and a posterior pair of tubercles on the upper side. On segments three to five there are four tubercles in the posterior area, one medial and one lateral pair. Only a pair of medial tubercles can be seen on the sixth segment.

## Description

The known distribution area covers central Luzon. In addition to the location of the type material of the species, which is given as the province of Camarines Sur, the species has been found in the region of the Pocdol Mountains. Only the islands of the Philippines are mentioned as the location of the female holotype.

## Taxonomy

Ignacio Bolívar described the species in 1890 under the current name. It depicts a female in top view and her ovipositor in detail from the side. The female holotype and a male syntype are deposited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid. Both specimens are damaged, although the male is more severely damaged. James Abram Garfield Rehn and his son John William Holman Rehn synonymized the genus Tisamenus with the genus Hoploclonia in 1939. At the same time, they divided the genus into different groups according to morphological aspects. In the so-called Deplanata group, they placed Hoploclonia cervicornis, with Hoploclonia deplanata (today Tisamenus deplanatus), Hoploclonia armadillo (today Tisamenus armadillo), Hoploclonia spadix (today Tisamenus spadix), Hoploclonia tagalog (today Tisamenus tagalog) and Hoploclonia fratercula (today Tisamenus fratercula), relatively unspined species, with a flat upper surface, which, apart from the supracoxal spines on the edges of the thorax, show no or hardly any spines, but at most teeth. The original name was officially restored in 2004 by Oliver Zompro, who transferred or retransferred all Filipino species previously listed in Hoploclonia to the genus Tisamenus.

## Terraristics

Thierry Heitzmann collected the species for the first time in October 2009 in the south of Luzon in the Pocdol Mountains, where he found it on Mount Pulog (not to be confused with Mount Pulag in the north of Luzon). He found more animals the following month on Mount Osiao. After successfully breeding the species, he distributed it to other breeders. In Europe, it was first bred in 2012 by Bruno Kneubühler and, following an initial identification, he named it Tisamenus deplanatus 'Pocdol' and distributed it. Under this name, it was given the PSG number 399 by the Phasmid Study Group. Frank H. Hennemann identified this breeding strock as Tisamenus cervicornis in 2024. The species is very uncomplicated to keep and breed. They eat leaves from bramble, or other Rosaceae, as well as from hazel, salal and Prunus laurocerasus.

## Gallery

* Tisamenus cervicornis, female from the first description by Bolívar
* Two males and two female nymphs
* Pair from dorsal
* Male from lateral
* Pair