ICE 2008 International Entomology Conference Stamp issue date: 4 July 2008 The 2008 International Entomology Conference (ICE) will for the first time be held on the African continent. Entomologists from all corners of the world will convene in Durban, South Africa from 6-12 July 2008. The manthophasmantodea or heelwalker was chosen to be used on the conference logo. The South African Post Office will issue a stamp and postcard to coincide with this conference. Designed by Ellena Schmitz, the stamp features the new insect order, mantophasmotedea, that was discovered in 2002. For the first time in 87 years, researchers have discovered an insect that constitutes a new order of insects, and named it Mantophasmantodea. This discovery increases the number of insect orders to 31. The new order was initially constructed for two very old museum specimens from Africa that could not be assigned to any of the existing orders. An expedition to Namibia, the locality of one of the specimens on which the new order was based, collected the first live Heelwalkers. The results of this trip, and additional fieldwork in Namibia procured three species of Heelwalker. For a few months it was thought that the Namibian Heelwalkers were the sole relics of a group that once had a much wider distribution (as evidenced by the Heelwalker fossils in 45 million year old Baltic amber). However, after reading the 2002 article describing the new order, a South African entomologist (M. Picker) realized that he and his students had collected Heelwalkers during field trips in the arid Succulent Karoo biome of South Africa. Searching old drawers in South African Natural History museums revealed that earlier collectors had captured and preserved a few Heelwalkers, but had misidentified the wingless insects as immature praying mantids. Specimens collected as early as 1890 were scattered throughout old and forgotten insect collections. Within a few months an international team linked up with the South African entomologists, and in 2002 ventured into the Succulent Karoo landscape of South Africa to collect live specimens. Eight new species were collected and described, bringing the number of living Heelwalker species to 13. Mantophasmantodea resembles a cross between a stick insect, a mantid and a grasshopper. It differs from a stick insect because its first body segment is the largest. Unlike a mantid, it uses both its fore and mid legs to catch prey, and unlike a grasshopper, it can’t jump. Growing up to four centimeters long these insects are carnivorous and nocturnal. It lives at the base of tussock vegetation that grow in rock crevices. Eggs hatch on cue with the autumn rains, along with the millions of dormant seeds of the famous Namaqualand annual plants. Both develop in the cold wet winter. By spring, the plants have carpeted the landscape with brilliant displays, and the Heelwalkers have reached maturity. The common name (Heelwalker) for the order is derived from their habit of keeping the last leg joint and huge tarsal pad up in the air at all times. A large mantid-like head and huge eyes allow these predators to locate their spider and insect prey, which they then capture and subdue using the stout and spiny forelegs. The smaller males Heelwalkers have a very restricted global distribution, only occurring in the Western parts of Southern Africa, in the Succulent and Nama Karoo and Fynbos biomes (a single specimen was apparently collected in Tanzania). The ICE 2008 Entomology Conference tookt place from 6 - 12 July 2008 in Durban, South Africa Website: http://www.ice2008.org.za/ |