Stick Insect Photo Gallery

Timema sp. stick insect, California

I’ve created a new gallery to hold my photographs of stick insects.  Check it out here:

Stick Insect Photos

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Diapheromera femorata, the Northern Walking Stick

Male (left) and female Diapheromera femorata

Myrmecos blog commentators identified Sunday’s mystery photo almost instantly as a stick insect laying an egg.  The species is the Northern Walking Stick Diapheromera femorata, a common local insect easily collected by beating tree branches. We’ve taken a few home as pets, and the females are obligingly dropping several eggs a day.

The eggs of D. femorata resemble plant seeds

Photo details (top): Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/200 sec
(bottom): Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper

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