by Diane Constable

The common, or northern walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata) can be found in most of North America, and is a champion of camouflage. It easily mimics a stick to hide itself from predators. It can move its front legs forward along the antennas and extend its back legs to complete the “stick” look.

The walkingstick is rarely seen because it prefers to be high up in trees, where it eats on the tree leaves and other foliage, with a preference for oak and hazelnut trees. It usually feeds at night between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. During daylight hours, the pigments in its eyes block the glare.

The male walkingstick is brown and about 3 inches long. The female is green-brown and about an inch longer. It is a wingless insect and gets around by walking.

The walkingstick is eaten by many songbird species. Rodents and parasitic wasps and flies will lay eggs on it.

It mates in late summer, and sometimes the male will stay on the female for days while it fends off other suiters. The adult female drops up to 150 eggs, a single egg at a time. These 1/10-inch eggs land in the leaf litter below the trees and resemble seeds as they overwinter to hatch the next spring. If it is too dry, they will hatch the following spring.

Once hatched, they climb up nearby trees where the larvae will grow and molt five or six times until reaching adulthood in about August. The nymphs are able to regenerate legs lost by accident or because of predators.

Some common names for the walkingstick are devil’s darning needle, prairie alligator and stick bug.

Fun Fact: The outside of the walkingstick egg has a part that is edible for other insects, which is similar in appearance and taste to a part on some plant seeds that need ants to distribute them. Ants take seeds and the walkingstick eggs back to the nest to eat the “good” part. Then they toss the rest into the garbage heap, which turns out to be a great place for the transported eggs to mature and hatch.

As an avid photographer, Diane Constable regularly puts her formal education in both nature and photography to good use. Diane also enjoys gardening and her dogs. She serves on the board of the Ann Arbor Dog Training Club and is editor of the club’s newsletter.