Catalina Stick Insect ) Pseudosermyle catalinae - Pseudosermyle catalinae

I suspect,

that P. catalinae is the only species in the genus found on the island. I won't conjecture about whether it is truly a different species from P. straminea (though I have doubts), but your's appears to be correctly identified from what I can see in the picture. A clear view of the cerci would make it certain. Also, I don't think anyone has ever figured a male of P. catalinae. It would be fun to see one (including some close-ups of the tip of the abdomen).

Moved from Pseudosermyle.

… David J. Ferguson, 31 December, 2011 - 5:08am

Unfortunately,

I have moved on from my position on Catalina, so acquiring another photo of this insect has some challenges. However, Rentz and Weissmann described this species and give many morphological differences between the two species, but genetic profiling would be awesome to see how distantly P. catalinae diverged.

… Shaun Michael, 31 December, 2011 - 9:15am

I've never studied these closely, but would like to some day

One interesting thing is that some of the mainland "P. straminea" insects seem to fit the description of P. catalinae quite nicely too (at least based on appearances in photos). Definitely a group that could use some more attention.

… David J. Ferguson, 4 January, 2012 - 11:33am

close up of cerci

I located some photos of the pinned specimen and posted close-ups of the cerci.

… Shaun Michael, 11 January, 2012 - 11:09am

Moved

Moved from Walkingsticks.

… Shaun Michael, 2 November, 2010 - 4:14pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… john and jane balaban, 28 September, 2010 - 8:27pm