Pylaemenes Stål, 1875

Hennemann, Frank H. & Tirant, Stéphane Le, 2023, Stick and Leaf Insects of Morotai Island, Indonesia (Phasmatodea), Faunitaxys 11 (24), pp. 1-28 : 4

Genus Pylaemenes Stål, 1875

Type species. – Phasma (Pachymorpha) coronatum Haan, 1842: 137 , pl. 14: 4-5, by subgsequent designation of Kirby, 1904: 400.

Comments. – Hennemann (1998: 125) synonymised Datames Stål, 1875 with Pylaemenes Stål, 1875 because the type species of both genera are conspecific. Bresseel & Constant (2018: 7) presented additional diagnostic features for Pylaemenes , differentiated it from the closely related Orestes Redtenbacher, 1906 and transferred several species from Pylaemenes to Orestes . Hennemann (2021: 25) added a new species from the island of Peleng and stated several of the current synonymies were wrong and that the Wallacean taxa of the genus in particular are in need of revision.Two false synonymies established by Günther (1934: 76) are corrected herein. One species, P. gravidus ( Bates,1865) rev. stat., is resurrected as a valid species. Datames aequalis Rehn, 1904 is synonymised with the aforementioned species and removed from synonym with the type-species P.coronatus (Haan, 1842) .

Distribution. – Wallacea, Java, Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. The three species recorded from Continental Asia (i.e. Vietnam and South China) deserve evaluation and may not belong in Pylaemenes .