| Conlephasma enigma | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Phasmatodea |
| Family: | Lonchodidae |
| Genus: | Conlephasma Gottardo & Heller, 2012 |
| Species: | C. enigma |
| Binomial name | |
| Conlephasma enigma Gottardo & Heller, 2012 | |
Conlephasma enigma is a wingless, ground-dwelling species of stick insect in the monotypic genus Conlephasma, and is found on Mount Halcon, on the Philippine island of Mindoro. [1]
The species is brightly coloured, with males having a dark bluish-green head and legs, and a bright orange body with bluish-black triangle-shaped spots on the back. [1] Females are less brightly coloured. [1] It sprays a foul-smelling liquid, from glands behind its head, to repel predators. [1]
The species was identified when entomologist Oskar Conle showed Marco Gottardo and Philipp Heller specimens which had been collected some years earlier. [1] They identified it as new to science and allocated it to a new genus [1] in a paper published in Comptes Rendus Biologies . [2]