Happy Thought for 21 February 2025

Have a Happy Thought: 

 

Stick bugs are amazing. They can absolutely look like all sorts of sticks and leaves, disappearing to the human eye... until they’re no longer in their ‘natural’ habitat in which case they are so obvious and yet still so astounding. 

 

For example, this single bug that looks like a bunch of dried leaves: 

Spiny Leaf Insect 

Juvenile Spiny Leaf Insect, Extatosoma tiaratum. Image: Ella Minton © Australian Museum  

 

Complete side note here... many phasmids (stick bugs) can reproduce asexually. One genus (three species) is only known to reproduce asexually since a male of the species has never been found! That genus is the prickly stick insects, Acanthoxyla, native to New Zealand. 

But scientists have found a male. 

In 2016. 

In the UK. (Some of these insects were transported to the UK in the 1920’s. No one is quite sure how or why a male ... exists.)

Adult Unarmed Stick-insect Acanthoxyla inermis (Photos: D. Fenwick (left) and P. Brock (right)). 

 

(If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth taking a photo of a slightly odd insect, bird, plant or whatever... yes. It is worth it. Some specialist out there – professional or amateur – may be very very excited by your find!) (Also, the article linked above ends with the great line that “No doubt this find will spur the search for Acanthoxyla males in New Zealand.” 🤣) 

 

Ok, back to stick insects in general. Or, rather, stick insect eggs. Because these beauties are also amazing. 

Orderly array of around 100 intricate organic objects. Visually, they could be ceramics, or woven baskets. Very sculptural. 

Image: about 100 different stick insect egg casings on a white background. (c) Levon Bliss 

 

 

Looking up close, some of them look like a basket one of our ancestors might have made, whereas others are truly alien. 

Detail of orderly array of around 20 intricate organic objects. Visually, they could be ceramics, or woven baskets. Very sculptural. 

Image: 6 different stick insect egg casings on a white background. (c) Levon Bliss 

Detail of orderly array of around 20 intricate organic objects. Visually, they could be ceramics, or woven baskets. Very sculptural. 

Image: another 6 different stick insect egg casings on a white background. (c) Levon Bliss 

 

 

P.S. The best way to crowdsource experts to help you identify a strange bug, or plant, or anything... is to use iNaturalist. Easy to use app on your phone, so you can upload pictures easily while you’re out and about. And in my experience, by the time you get home, at least one person will have identified what’s in the photo you took.  

 

P.P.S. You should definitely go look at more of the macrophotography by Levon Biss. He goes way beyond stick insect eggs and there are some incredible images to be seen! (Ever wondered how different the insides of golf balls could be? You do now!) 


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