{"id":1357,"date":"2020-10-01T22:22:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keepingbugs.com\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2021-08-14T22:29:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T22:29:12","slug":"leaf-insect-a-practical-care-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keepingbugs.com\/leaf-insect-a-practical-care-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaf Insect (Phyllium philippinicum): A Practical Care Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Phyllium philippinicum<\/em>, also called the ‘leaf insect’, is one of many walking leaf insects in the order of phasmids. This species particularly is famous for its camouflage of a leaf and is one of the most popular and most commonly phasmid kept as pets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaf insects are beautiful to see and quite easy to keep and breed. For most people this species makes the perfect pet: they don’t smell, they don’t make noise, don’t eat that much (and is not expensive), don’t take up much space and are not time-consuming. These fascinating animals also make good pets for kids (but I recommend them for kids of around seven years or older). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we discuss all there is about keeping and caring walking leaf insect at home. We discuss topics as housing, environmental conditions, feeding, cleaning, and breeding. But before we dive into how to keep leaf insects, first talk more about these exciting species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

About the Philippine leaf insect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/span>
Leaf Insect \/
Walking Leaf Insect \/
Phillippine Leaf Insect \/
True Leaf Insect<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>
Phyllium philippinicum<\/em> (PSG 278)<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>
Up to 1 year<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>
Females: 7cm (2\u00be”) \/ Males: 6cm (2\u00bc”)<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Appearance and camouflage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As the name suggests, Phyllium philippinicum<\/em> leaf insects are species native to the Philippines that looks like a leaf. But it is more than the shape alone. Its body is flat apart from the central abdomen. It has a light green to a brownish pattern all over its body that exactly look like veins of a leaf. The sides of the abdomen are brown coloured, and there are some brown spots here and there. The rest of this species of leaf insect is beautiful green coloured. There are some colour variations which are more brownish, yellowish or pinkish, and different shades of green. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are perfect in camouflage, and when sitting still between some leaves, you almost not recognize that it is an animal. Also, the lobes on their legs have forms and patterns of leaves. Their mimic of leaves is so refined that many predators don’t see them, and they escape from being eaten. Even if the animals are in plain sight. Pretending being a leaf is actually not called mimicry, officially, but cryptism or crypsis. Mimicry is when one species mimics another species. Cryptism is the phenomenon where an animal mimics the substrate or environment where it lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can grow quite large, where females reach a size of around 7cm (2\u00be”) and males around 6cm (2\u00bc”). Although compared to the giant leaf insect, which can reach a size of 11cm (4.3″), they are not that large. <\/p>\n\n\n\n