Acanthoxyla

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Supercohort: Polyneoptera
Cohort: Anartioptera
Magnordo: Polyorthoptera
Superordo: Orthopterida
Ordo: Phasmatodea
Subordo: Verophasmatodea
Infraordo: Anareolatae

Familia: Phasmatidae
Subfamilia: Phasmatinae
Tribus: Acanthoxylini
Genus: Acanthoxyla
Species: A. fasciata – A. geisovii – A. huttoni – A. inermis – A. intermedia – A. prasina – A. speciosa – A. suteri
Name

Acanthoxyla Uvarov, 1944 [nomen novum pro Macracantha Kirby, 1904]
Synonymy

Macracantha Kirby, 1904 [nec Simon, 1864]. Type species: Acanthoderus prasinus Westwood, 1859, by original designation.

References

Salmon, J.T. 1955. The genus Acanthoxyla (Phasmidae). Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 82(5): 1149-1156, plates 44–47. Full text and PDF Reference page.
Uvarov, B.P. 1944: A New Zealand phasmid (Orthoptera) established in the British Isles. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B), 13: 94–96.

Acanthoxyla[1] is a genus of stick insects in the family Phasmatidae (tribe Acanthoxylini).[1] All the individuals of the species are female and reproduce asexually by parthenogenesis.[2] However, a male Acanthoxyla inermis was recently discovered in the UK, probably the result of chromosome loss.[3] The genus is the result of interspecific hybridisation[4][5] resulting in some triploid[6] lineages and some diploid[7] lineages. The genus is endemic to New Zealand,[8] but some species have been accidentally introduced elsewhere. The genus name Acanthoxyla translates from Greek as prickly stick (acantho = thorn; xyla = wood).

Species

The Catalogue of Life lists:[1]

Acanthoxyla fasciata (Hutton, 1899)
Acanthoxyla geisovii (Kaup, 1866)
Acanthoxyla huttoni Salmon, 1955
Acanthoxyla inermis Salmon, 1955
Acanthoxyla intermedia Salmon, 1955
Acanthoxyla prasina (Westwood, 1859)
Acanthoxyla speciosa Salmon, 1955
Acanthoxyla suteri (Hutton, 1899)

See also

List of stick insects of New Zealand

References

Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D. (eds) (2011). "Acanthoxyla". Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, UK. Accessed 24 September 2012.
"Acanthoxyla Uvarov". Landcare Research. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
Brock, Paul (2018). "Missing stickman found: the first male of the parthenogenetic New Zealand Phasmid genus Acanthoxyla Uvarov, 1944 discovered in the United Kingdom". Atropos (60): 16–23.
Morgan-Richards, Mary; Trewick, Steven A. (2005). "Hybrid origin of a parthenogenetic genus?". Molecular Ecology. 14 (7): 2133–2142. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02575.x. PMID 15910332. S2CID 29709325.
Morgan-Richards, Mary; Hills, Simon F. K.; Biggs, Patrick J.; Trewick, Steven A. (2016). Budak, Hikmet (ed.). "Sticky Genomes: Using NGS Evidence to Test Hybrid Speciation Hypotheses". PLOS ONE. 11 (5): e0154911. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154911. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4871368. PMID 27187689.
Buckley, Thomas R.; Attanayake, Dilini; Park, Duckchul; Ravindran, Shanthinie; Jewell, Tony R.; Normark, Benjamin B. (2008). "Investigating hybridization in the parthenogenetic New Zealand stick insect Acanthoxyla (Phasmatodea) using single-copy nuclear loci". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 48 (1): 335–349. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.02.016. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 18367411.
Myers, Shelley S.; Trewick, Steven A.; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2013). Boomsma, Jacobus; Brad, Sean (eds.). "Multiple lines of evidence suggest mosaic polyploidy in the hybrid parthenogenetic stick insect lineage Acanthoxyla". Insect Conservation and Diversity. 6 (4): 537–548. doi:10.1111/icad.12008. S2CID 59932320.
Salmon, John (1991). The Stick Insects of New Zealand. Singapore: Reed. ISBN 0790002116.