A large, pink, matriarchal bug, first spotted in Beacon Bay and Durban in 2016, 8,000km away from its home across the Indian Ocean on the island of Java in Indonesia, is spreading slowly through Southern Africa.
The researcher tasked with tracking the spread of the shy and, at this stage, probably harmless pink-wing stick insect, chlorotica, is former Sipyloidea Rhodes zoology deputy head, Prof Martin Villet.
The insect has a self-fertilising egg layer and has no need for males.
In fact, males do not exist.
Now retired from university life after 30 years at Rhodes, the insect scientist (entomologist) Villet says he has been tasked by the agriculture department to study the new visitor, looking at its migration and impact on SA’s environment with the aim of generating a control and management plan.
Villet says it was also spotted in Durban and was photographed in several places in KwaZulu-Natal.
But there were no further sightings in the Eastern Cape until February last year when, after nine years of living in obscurity, a pinkwing was photographed on the kitchen window pane of a Kei Mouth home and positively identified.
The appearance 53km from East London sparked excitement among local biologists who have started to look out for it.
“We started to feel that the Eastern Cape visitor has not settled in our beautiful province,” Villet said.
“We have evidence that the species has established and started to spread.
“Now we are looking for more records from anywhere around East London so we can track its spread.”
Spotters are urged to post their photos and information on inaturalist.com, which Villet says has a huge and enthusiastic public following.
They are also invited to email Off Track at m.villet@ru.ac.zamikel@dispatch.co.za.
While the impact on SA is “probably not bad”, researchers are looking for sightings to help study how fast it breeds and moves in new territory.
“The insect is large but not dangerous; it can fly but rarely does,” Villet said.
“Young specimens are green and wingless. All of its life stages can be recognised by their extremely long antennae.
“It eats a variety of plants, and we are interested in getting new feeding records. Ultimately, we want to see whether it might become a problem organism that requires official attention.
“Citizen scientists can help this effort.”
Since pinkwings have never existed in SA, “when it pops up you know it is newly arrived”, Villet said.
The sudden arrival at two port cities with airports in the same year meant it “is possible it flew or caught a ship”.
It could have been brought in as a pet, even though keeping insects in captivity, specifically stick insects, is outlawed by the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act.
The pinkwing has spread to Hawaii, Japan, India, Madagascar and Mauritius.
“It only needs one to start a new population.”
Over three months, and living in “bedroom weather”, the female can produce 300 eggs at a rate of three a day.
In KZN, they now live from Port Edward up to the Mozambican border.
Their natural habitat is the understory of coastal forests, the area below the treetops and above the ground.
They have been photographed on plants or walls but this is tricky as they are nocturnal and “hide from people”.
They feed off the leaves of up to 40 SA plants, but have been seen chomping the invasive canna lily in Port Shepstone, which is a bonus.
“I enjoy the irony of a foreign animal eating a foreign plant,” Villet said, adding that globally, they posed no problem. — Daily Dispatch
