Dressed as dead leaves
Its frilled legs and body look so like dry leaves that it is very hard to spot on its food plant.
Minibeasts · A little time each day
Giant prickly stick insect
Insect · from Australia
A big, brown, leafy-looking insect with flaps on its legs, spines on its body and a tail it curls over its back.
- Size
- Females up to 15cm long
- Lives for
- About 12 to 18 months
- Suits
- Beginners: the classic classroom pet
Sways after you, like a leaf in a breeze. Move your pointer and see.
Good to know
Six things about the stick insect
It rocks
It sways from side to side as it walks, like a leaf moved by the wind.
A fake scorpion
It curls its tail over its back like a scorpion. It has no sting at all.
No male needed
A female can lay eggs that hatch without her ever meeting a male. All the young are female.
Eggs that ants carry
In the wild its eggs look like seeds. Ants carry them underground, where they hatch in safety.
Babies that look like ants
The newly hatched young are black with red heads and run about like ants.
The real thing
Photos of the stick insect
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
Looking after one
Keep it in a tall, airy tank with fresh bramble, oak or eucalyptus leaves standing in water, changed weekly. Spray lightly with water each day.
Before you get one
Stick insects are gentle, cheap and easy, and children can watch a whole life cycle. The eggs take months to hatch.
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