This insect is called a Walking Stick, and it sure has an appropriate name because it looks like a stick actually walking. You can find them in bushes, and on plants. It can blend its body into the environment by looking like a part of a plant, which means it can camouflage its self from its predators such as birds.
When I saw this Walking Stick it was nibbling very slowly on leaves and stems of our plant. They usually eat at night but this one was eating during the late afternoon.
They can be the size of one inch or can you believe one foot in length! It will go through three stages of growth; egg, nymph and an adult.
I was in shock when I found out a female could lay up 150 eggs at one time. The female is larger then the male. Each egg she lays she will drop on the ground, but do not worry her eggs are also camouflaged because they look like brown seeds. The eggs will hatch in the spring as a nymph and which looks like a tiny adult. A female can reproduce by herself but the problem is she only can produce females. These insects have a lifespan of only one season.
I was amazed to find out that the Walking Stick has the ability to regenerate its lost limbs. Some species of the Walking Stick can squirt a fluid that will make its predators temporarily blind, and then the Walking Stick can walk away quickly and hide.
You can see it has six legs, and it has a Chitin Exoskeleton. (A type of exterior skeleton shell) They do have antennae and there are over 3,000 different species of the Walking Sticks that live all over the world. The next time you are outside begin looking for these insects that looks like a stick that has six legs, and you will be amazed how COOL they are!
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