Sub Family: Phasmatinae

Foodplant in captivity:  I use only Eucalyptus gunnii.  I have also tried Hypericum but they weren't interested.

Humidity requirements:  I kept the nymphs in a tall plastic sweet jar, with netting over the top, lightly spraying the netting on a daily basis.  When they outgrew this I transferred them to a large net cage, which I spray quite thoroughly on a daily basis (the adults/ large nymphs drink a lot).

Comment:  This species is fairly new to me.  In March 2003 I bought 5 young nymphs.  Of these, 2 females died during a bad moult during the hottest week of the year.  The only male matured during this hot period, and unfortunately died before I had any mature females to pair him with (and before I took the opportunity to photograph him!).  I then had a female mature to adulthood, and it really was a beautiful sight.  Approximately 18cm long (excluding legs), she had a light green body and orange/ brown chequered hindwings.  She was a very strong insect, and also very heavy - she seemed to be unable to hold her body above the ground when walking, and thus preferred to always hang upside down from things.  The most fascinating thing about her was her ability to actually "bite".  I didn't believe that phasmids were capable of actually biting (after all, they have no teeth and the mouth is surely too small to do any damage to a predator).  But whenever I picked up this individual she would curl around in order to bite my hand.  The mouth would be wide open, and if I allowed her to attach to my finger then she would "chew" on the skin, once actually drawing a tiny bit of blood.  In mantids I have seen similar behaviour, in that they sometimes bend down to seemingly nibble on your skin.  However, this is usually seen when the mantid is thirsty, and in the case of the Phasma gigas, she was uninterested when I presented her with drops of water.  In a correspondence with Paul Brock, he confirmed that he knew of this species' ability to bite.

Unfortunately this female died after only 3-4 weeks of being an adult.  I don't know why she died, though I did see a thick orange liquid coming from her rear end (see pic below).  

All the large nymphs/ sub-adults of this species are very strong.  These sticks appear to dislike being handled; they wriggle around and kick their legs until you allow them to crawl away or drop to the ground.