By Ally and Ganga

What are stick insects?

Stick insects are thin stick like insects which live where there is enough trees (with leaves) to eat. They can be either green or brown. Even though their not very pretty they are very interesting insect to study.

Life Cycle

Eggs

Nymphs

Adult

This is the life cycle of a stick

insect.

It includes three stages- eggs, nymphs and

adults.

Which stick insects are around us?

There are a lot of different types of stick insects in Australia. Some common ones are:

Lord Howe Island

There are 3,000 species world wide and 101 species

in Australia.Stick Insects mainly live in

the tropics. The three New Zealand species are in UK for the last 100’s of years and

nearly in the south west of England

Basic AnatomyThe body shape of stick insects is

usually cylindrical or flattened. They have 2 pairs of wings except species which are wingless. The wings consist of short, hardened forewings which protect a part of the larger, membranous, which mean transparent, hind wings.

Antennae are filiform, which means thin and tread like. They can either be short or long.

This is the wing anatomy of a Stick Insect:

Stick Insects have tiny holes along there bodies called spiracles. They use these holes are used to breathe.

How do stick insects behave?

Behaviour of a Stick Insect is very unusual for insect species.

Stick Insects make show rocking behaviour movements, and makes a rhythmic side to side move.

When a predator is around they drop off the branch they are on and pretend to be dead.

There are 3,000 species world wide and 101 species in Australia.

Stick Insects mainly live in the tropics.

The three New Zealand species are in UK for the last 100’s of years and nearly in the south west of England

Where do stick insects live?

Legend

Land

Water

Sighting

Searching For

Green

Blue

Black

Gray

This diagram represents the places in Australia that stick

insects have been and could be found.

Species of Stick Insects

These are some of the common species of stick insects:

(Anisomorpha ferruginea) Florida (Anisomorpha paromalus) Belize Stick(Aretaon asperrimus Thorny(Baculum extradentatum) Annam (Baculum species) Thailand (Brasidas samarensis) Philippines Beauty (Carausius morosus) Indian (Diapherodes gigantea) Giant Lime Green(Eurycantha calcarata) Giant Spiny (Extatosoma tiaratum)Giant Prickly (Gratidia conformans) Thailand Green Haaniella species) Wood NymphHeteropteryx dilatata Jungle Nymph (Hoploclonia cuspidate) Hedgehog (Lamponius species) Guadeloupe(Libethra regularis) Trinidad Miniature (Lonchodes hosei herberti) Bent Twig(Monandroptera acanthomera) Giant Eucalyptus Green (Neohiasea maerens) Vietnam prickly (Obrimus species) Philippines Beauty (Oreophoetes peruana) Peruvian Fern(Paramexeneus laetus) Green Beauty Stick Insect (Peruphasma schultei) Black Beauty(Phaenopharos khaoyaiensis) Bud Winged (Pharnacia biceps) Giant Green (Phyllium species) Leaf Insect (Ramulus species) Bangladesh (Sipyloidea sipylus) Pink Winged (Sipyloidea species) Australian Winged (Spiniphasma crassithorax) Spiny Green(Sungaya inexpectans) Sunny (Trachyaretaon brueckneri) Giant Thorny

Stick Insects species

These are some pictures of some of the stick insects

Anisomorpha paromalus

Haaniella species

(Neohiasea maerens)

• Sometimes the female is larger than the male, but the male’s antenna no matter what is longer than the females.

• Stick Insects are the longest insect in the world, lots of the species are measured around half a metre with their legs folded out

• Some of the Stick Insect species, also the 70 Australian ones have wings they are small and useless.

• Did you know that Stick Insects are also called Walking Sticks?• Stick Insects moult. The new skin is very soft and hardens when air touches it. Some

stick insect moult five or six times before they are adults. • Stick Insects have long bodies• Did you know that stick insects can lay over 1,000 eggs in one go.

• Phasmatodea include the longest insects in the world!• If a young stick insect gets its leg stuck it can escape by breaking it. It will go around on

five legs until a new one grows when it moults.

RecoursesThese are the sites and books we used to find the information.Web Siteshttp://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2008/october/worlds-longest-insect-revealed.html http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2008/10/17/bug-cp-5696677.jpghttp://australianmuseum.net.au/Leaf-and-Stick-Insects-Order-Phasmatodeahttp://miller.emu.id.au/pmiller/books/stick-insects/index.htmlhttp://www.friendsofthephasmid.org.au/site/1437587/page/889789http://www.idlab.ento.vt.edu/IDLad/insect_orders/phasmida.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stick_insectwww.geocites.com/brisbane_hoppers/StickInsect.htmlhttp://www.brookview.karoo.net/Stick_Insects/Natural_History/natural_history.htmlhttp://www.ento.csiro.au/education/insects/phasmatodea.htmlhttp://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_hoppers/images/wpeB4.jpghttp://farm1.static.flickr.com/104/300296014_400f2e77eb.jpghttp://www.freewebs.com/christiemay3/Ctenomophodes%20briareus%20female.jpghttp://www.centralpets.com/php/search/storiesdisplay.php?Story=283

BooksBug Books- Stick Insect- Heinemann First Library by Karen Hartley, Chris Macro and Philip Taylor