Beier’s dragon

For decades Toxodera beieri was filed under T. denticulata. In 1976 Max Beier figured a male from West Malaysia as denticulata, but it belonged to a different species, recognisable at once by the pale yellowish-green lobe of the fifth abdominal tergite, curved backwards. Roy described it in 2009 and named it after Beier (1903-1979). The holotype is a male from the Cameron Highlands, West Malaysia.

According to Roy (2009), males measure 118-132 mm and females 142-162 mm. The male in these plates measures about 120 mm and the female about 150 mm on the scale photo.

How to recognise it: eyes with a strong point; a granular pronotal keel; femoral lobes of the mid and hind legs strongly pinched in the middle, ochre with two brown bands; tegmina heavily spotted with brown; and, above all, the pale yellowish-green lobes of tergites 5 and 6, wide and curved backwards. In T. denticulata and T. maxima that lobe is dark and curved forward.

Male and female: the female is larger and stockier, with a pronotum of 55-61 mm against 40.5-48 mm. Her subgenital plate is large, boat-shaped and rounded at the tip; the male's is elongate, notched at the tip and bears a pair of short styli.

Range: Myanmar, northern Laos, West Malaysia, Sumatra and Java (Roy 2009). It lives side by side with T. denticulata and T. maxima in West Malaysia. Both specimens come from my collection: the male from the Lojing Highlands and the female from Tapah Hills, Perak.

Do you have beieri from other localities? Write to me at hola@mantodealab.com or on Instagram.

Plates

References

Photos and specimens: coll. E. Candela. Roy, R. (2009). Révision des Toxoderini sensu novo (Mantodea, Toxoderinae). Revue suisse de Zoologie 116(1): 93-183.