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  • Some species of stick insect can spray defensive fluid, but it is NOT poison. The fluid is harmless, but has a strong odor and at worst can cause slight itching in the nose and/or eyes. The spray is used to stop predators eating them.
  • However, the Two-Striped Walking Stick (Anisomorpha buprestoides) is said to have a defensive spray that can cause temporary blindness if caught in the eyes.
  • Many stick insects, adults and nymphs alike, will often curl their tails up much like how a scorpion holds its tail. Some stick insects do this so well the Extatosoma tiaratum (Giant Prickly) were used in the film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" as fake scorpions.
  • Extatosoma tiaratum nymphs are also quite remarkable; The eggs are often carried by ants into their colonies, where they eat the knob-like Capitulum and leave the rest unharmed. The stick insect hatchlings, once hatched, resemble the ants (usually in the Leptomyrmex genus) with their red heads, white collar and dark body. The nymphs can also run incredibly fast and are very active, much like the ants.
  • The best known stick insects are the Indian Stick Insect (also known as the Laboratory Stick Insect). These can grow to around 10cm (4 inches). They are known to reproduce parthenogenically, a word that means an unfertilized egg is capable of hatching into a new individual.
  • The word Phasmida (the order to which Stick insects belong) is derived from a Greek word meaning "apparition" and refers to the way in which they can camouflage so well they are hardly seen.
  • Stick Insects can range from 1.16cm to 32.8cm (0.46 inches to 12.9 inches) depending on the species.
  • The eggs of Stick insects are among the largest in the insect kingdom, with some reaching over eight millimetres long.
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14y ago

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