Can Medauroidea extradentata (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1907) and/or Haaniella echinata (Redtenbacher, 1906) (Phasmatodea: Phasmatidae) help us to fight Fallopia japonica ((Houtt.) Ronse Decr., 1988) ?
Résumé
Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) is a perennial herb species of the Polygonaceae family native to East Asia,
naturalized in Europe in a wide variety of wetlands and has become one of the main invasive species.
Medauroidea extradentata is a stick insect able to feed on a large variety of plants in captivity such as brambles and
raspberries (Rubus spp. (L. 1753)) and hazels (Corylus maxima (Mill. 1768)) for the most common (1-2). It is
originally from South Vietnam, a country with a tropical climate (hot and wet during the wet season, but the temperature is between 21 and 28 °C). On the other hand, the specie Haaniella echinata is coming from Borneo, an Island with a climate almost wet all the year, with temperature between 15 and 33 °C. Both stick insects have the same size (110 mm for the female, 75-80 for the male), but H. echinata is more plump.
As the both species cannot survive to our climate, especially in winter where the climate is too cold, maybe they can help us to fight Japanese knotweed, without risk of invasion. Our preliminary results with M. extradentata and H. echinata show clearly that the two species can live when they are fed with F. japonica. The second set of results is a beginning of quantification of the quantity of leaves of Japanese knotweed eaten by M. extradentata, compare to the value of bramble’s leaves. It seems that the last specie eat lower area of Japanese knotweed’s leaves than the area of bramble’s leaves.
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