About Walking Stick Insect

Walking stick bugs from the phasmida family look like sticks with legs and antennae or twigs attached to a small branch.
About walking stick insect. The phasmatodea also known as phasmida phasmatoptera or spectra are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects stick bugs walking sticks or bug sticks they are generally referred to as phasmatodeans phasmids or ghost insects phasmids in the family phylliidae are called leaf insects leaf bugs walking leaves or bug leaves. There are a total of 6 walking stick insects of north america in the insect identification database. Entries are listed below in alphabetical order a to z. Depending on the species.
They escape predation by blending into plant material. One of the most unique backyard insects one can come across is the walkingstick insect commonly called the stick bug. As their name suggests they look just like sticks and may even sway back and forth to more closely resemble a twig moving in the wind. Stick insect species often called walking sticks range in size from the tiny half inch long timema cristinae of north america to the formidable 13 inch long phobaeticus kirbyi of borneo.
Walking sticks or stick insects are a group of highly camouflaged insects. Walkingstick order phasmida or phasmatodea also called stick insect any of about 3 000 species of slow moving insects that are green or brown in colour and bear a resemblance to twigs as a protective device some species also have sharp spines an offensive odour or the ability to force their blood which contains toxic distasteful chemicals through special joints in the exoskeleton. Walking stick insects of north america.