Acanthoxyla

Acanthoxyla
A prickly green stick insect (Acanthoxyla prasina) seen in Fairfield, Otago in 2012
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Phasmatodea
Family: Phasmatidae
Subfamily: Phasmatinae
Genus: Acanthoxyla
Uvarov 1955

Acanthoxyla[1] is a genus of stick insects in the family Phasmatidae (tribe Acanthoxylini).[1] All the individuals of the genus 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).

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference COL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Acanthoxyla Uvarov". Landcare Research. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Salmon, John (1991). The Stick Insects of New Zealand. Singapore: Reed. ISBN 0790002116.