Stick Insect Facts
About 3000 stick insects are known in the world.
Stick insects are strictly vegetarians.
There are over 3000 varieties of walking sticks identified world wide. Walking
sticks are found primarily in the temperate and tropical regions. These
creatures spend their days motionless hanging from leaves and branches waiting
until dark to feed.
Stick insects can produce young without mating – some populations consist
entirely of mature females and their offspring, all exact replicas of each
other.
The walking stick has the unusual ability of partial regeneration. If a leg is
lost or damaged it will grow back after several successive molts. By molting, or
shedding its skin, the walking stick is able to grow to an astounding size in
just a few months. Once the skin is shed the walking stick eats its own molt.
Walking sticks lay eggs which are dropped to the ground and remain there until
they hatch. In the event there are no males in the area a walking stick can lay
healthy eggs which hatch and result in females only. Author: Dwight Zirschky
The Australian Walking Stick is well-camouflaged in its environment because it
can grow to resemble an 8-inch-long spiny branch with dead leaves for legs. The
giant prickly stick insect curls up its abdomen to mimic the scorpion attacking
with its tail.
Adulthood is achieved after five or six months, and adults live a further six
months or more.
Stick insects blend into their surroundings to fool predators. Their stemlike
bodies and muted colors make them almost invisible among the foliage of their
food plants. The stick insect camouflages itself from predators with its unusual
appearance.
Stick insects sway to imitate the effect of wind on vegetation. If disturbed,
the insect may drop to the ground like a dead twig.
Most stick insects reproduce non sexually, but this fact has disadvantages. The
young are identical to the female, allowing no random variations that cause a
species to evolve. Stick insects find mates easily in groups, but scattered
females attract mates by emitting a pheromone, a seductive scent. The two then
mate while clinging to a twig or leaf. The female scatters her eggs. Each egg
may stay on the forest floor for up to three years, protected by its seedlike
appearance and hard shell. Eventually the young insect emerges from its hinged
shell.
The Southeast Asian stick insect, Pharnacia serratipes, is, at 13 inches, the
longest insect in the world.
The males of some stick insect species have never been found in the wild.
If a young stick insect loses a leg, it grows another to replace it. The non
molting adult loses this ability.
Some stick insects will discourage their attackers by regurgitating their food
at them or squirting them with poison.
Some stick insects have something in common with chameleons; they can change
their colour to suit their surroundings.
Only about one in one thousand Indian Stick Insects is male.
Sometimes when disturbed stick insects will 'play dead' for a few minutes. to
trick predators.
More than 2500 species of stick insects are known to science but there are
plenty more still waiting to be described for the first time.
Stick Insects have suckers and claws on their feet, allowing them to walk up
vertical walls and even upside down.