Lovers walk in the Park

Eurycnema versirubra is a large species of Phasmid, with the female capable of body length of up to 30 cm, the males, even though much smaller in size to the females, can be as long of as 15 cm in body length.

The species is very colourful with light green as base, it has combination of darker green. turquoise, yellow, pink. red and white on their body, legs, abdomen and wings. The females also has spines on her thorax and particularly on her last pair of legs which she can use as defence, by striking at possible predators.

The species originates from West Timor, Indonesia where the locals considers them 'poisonous and dangerous' and would kill them. This is not true, they are not poisonous nor dangerous, it is more due to lack of knowledge.

The species spreads to other parts of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia through breeding in culture, where they are kept as pets or for collections of their 'droppings' to make tea. Dr Francis Seow-Choen in his publication paper of 1997 on Stick and Leaf Insects Biodiversity in the Nature Reserves of Singapore explained that in the early days, the Malay and Chinese communities used the droppings of this species to treat variety of ailments including diarrhoea and as aphrodisiac ; https://www.nparks.gov.sg/sbg/research/publications/gardens-bulletin-singapore/-/media/sbg/gardens-bulletin/4-4-49-2-07-y1997-v49p2-gbs-pg-297.pdf