The Walking Stick Phasmida order

1. The Walking StickPhasmidaorder Joy Winebrenner & Rebekah Carroll

2. Basic Facts • Herbivores (North American species prefer oak leaves) • Nocturnal • Spend much of the day hiding under leaves

3. Regions • Predominantly found in tropics/subtropics • Found anywhere there is adequate foliage for hiding

4. Appearance • Range from ½”(Timemacristinaeof N. Am.) to 13” (Phobaeticus Kirby of Borneo) in length • Generally brown or green • Some have bright colors or are striped • Stick-like bodies or leaf-life shapes • Many have wings • Females are larger than males • Hard exoskeleton

5. 3 Body Parts:Head, Thorax, and abdomen

6. FamiliesThere are four major families: • Family Timemidae -- timemawalkingsticks •Family Heteronemiidae -- common walkingsticks

7. •Family Pseudophasmatidae -- striped walkingsticks •Family Phasmatidae -- winged walkingsticks

8. Defense • Prey to spiders, other insects, birds, reptiles, bats and rodents • Obvious camouflage (some can also change color to fit in with environment) • Fake death or detach limbs to escape • Show bright colors/sounds when threatened • Emit nasty smelling fluid (Anisomorphabuprestoides of North America)

9. Reproduction • Parthenogenic – females lay eggs without needing to mate with males to produce offspring • Results in 100% female population unless male fertilizes the egg – 50/50 chance of offspring being male • Some species mate depending on abundance of males

10. Life Cycle: Egg • Female spreads 100-1200 eggs by flicking them to the ground • May bury or stick to tree bark • Some are carried to ants nests as food and protected until they hatch and exit the nest

11. Life Cycle: Nymph • After 20-30 days, nymph emerges from cap at the end of the egg • Nymph grows through molting exoskeleton • Will continue to molt for several months before reaching adulthood • Can regenerate lost limbs only while molting

12. Life Cycle: Adult • Life span varies by species: few months – 2 years • Any regenerated legs will be slightly shorter • After six moltings, adult is sexually mature

13. Pets • Many people like to keep them as pets (depending on their species) • There are over 3000 species of stick and leaf insects and the most commonly kept is the Indian (or Laboratory) stick insect (Carausiusmorosus).

14. Stick insects can be handled and can be quite tame, but they are fragile and must be handled with the utmost of care. • Required care is based on their species and original surroundings (humidity, temperature, and food sources). • There are some local laws against having them as pets.

15. Helpful or Harmful? • Non-Native Pets who are released in the wild become ecological pests. • Sticks can reproduce in the wild and damage the ecosystem where they are not normally found. • They eat and destroy plants in the wild.

16. References • http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/insectsspiders/a/stickinsects.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmatodea • http://www.ehow.com/about_5093235_walking-stick-bug.html • http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/locke.hp/walk_sticks.htm • http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/stick-insect/