This afternoon the hummingbird feeders needed to be refilled, so I took a break to wash them out and put new syrup in them. Much to my surprise, I spotted the smallest walkingstick I’ve ever seen, on one of the ant guards. This is a Northern Walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata). Two pictures for you, one for scale with the postage stamp, the other enlarged a bit so you might be able to get a better look.

Here an adult Northern Walkingstick in the same stance as the nymph, folding their front legs up against their antennae, basically saying, “You are not seeing me. You are seeing a stick.”

A Northern Walkingstick hatches from its egg, as a nymph, and indeed they are very small. As they grow, they shed their outer skin, allowing more growth. This happens several times as they grow into an adult. As an adult, a male reaches about 3 inches in length, and a female will grow to about 3.75 inches. They become adults at 3 months to a year, with a lifespan of about 2 years.

In North America, 30 species of walkingsticks have been identified. All of these 30 species are clever masters of camouflage. Indeed, they do look like the stick that is included in the Northern Walkingstick’s name.

_______________________________________________________________________

If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!