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Camouflage, cloning and elaiosomes! Sound familiar? Certain topics just have a way of popping up in our columns. But it turns out they’re all connected with walkingsticks, a big favorite of ours. We’re seeing more of these funny-looking insects now, and we want to squeeze them into a column before we finish up our year and pass the torch.
Stick and leaf insects are assigned to the insect order Phasmatoptera, a group of approximately 3000 named species worldwide. The name comes from the Greek word “phasm” meaning phantom. This is fitting since most of these odd-looking creatures look remarkably like twigs or leaves, which makes them nearly invisible in their natural habitats.
Phasmids are related to grasshoppers, crickets, mantids, and cockroaches. All but a few are tropical and only a dozen or so can be found in the United States. They are unusually large insects and include the largest present-day insect known to science, a walkingstick from Borneo measuring over 13 inches in length.
The most common phasmid in the United States is the northern walkingstick, Diapheromera femorata, I which we have here in the county.
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