![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnHoodyOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez-400x195.jpg\" "\\"FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnHoodyOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez\\"")
<\/a>Northern Walkingstick Steps Out<\/h2>\nWhat kind of insect is it?<\/strong> So I was looking at this twig when it started to walk away<\/strong> Is it a male or a female walkingstick?<\/strong> Both sexes of Northern Walkingsticks look almost the same. The pinchy-looking clasper at the tail end is not a giveaway, unfortunately. Apparently, adult males are generally brown and females are more of a greenish-brown. Males generally are smaller (75mm, 3 inches) than females (95mm, 3.75 inches).<\/p>\n The University of Michigan also says that \u201cthe femurs of males tend to be banded, their seventh abdominal segment is longer than their ninth and they feature cerci that lack spines.\u201d<\/p>\n This is all very useful information, but not for me. Which of the 3 legs on each side is the femur? Or do they mean all of the legs? Where does the abdomen segment counting start, from the head-end or tail-end? For that matter, where does the thorax end and the abdomen start? I don\u2019t really even want to know what a cerci is.<\/p>\n Asking the Pros<\/strong> What Do They Eat?<\/strong> They tend to eat almost the entire leaf, leaving only a skeleton of veins. Some studies have shown that they eat and are active mostly at night.<\/p>\n People keeping them in captivity report they will eat blackberry leaves, rose leaves, apple, plum and currant leaves. Some owners have fed them the green part of the leaves of romaine lettuce.<\/p>\n Will I Bite Them?<\/strong> The eggs and insects are also eaten by small mammals (think voles, mice and squirrels) and other insects like praying manti. In their US range, they are also eaten by lizards.<\/p>\n How Can I Find a Walkingstick?<\/strong> One of my child\u2019s friends found this Northern Walkingstick clinging aimlessly to a boardwalk railing on a nature trail in Riverwood Park in Mississauga.<\/p>\n On this website from London Ontario<\/a>, you can see some photos of a two-tone (green and brown) model found on a car. And in The Mystery of the Two Walkingstick Insects<\/a> is another photo of a male.<\/p>\n Frankly, I think some of these ones found in odd places fell there.<\/p>\n
\nThe insect in these photos is a Northern Walkingstick or Diapheromera femorata as it calls itself when it\u2019s going to a really fancy party.<\/p>\n
\nHow good is the Northern Walkingsticks\u2019 camouflage? Pretty decent, I\u2019d say. If you look at the photos on this page, you\u2019ll see that against the grey of the tree bark and the pebbles on the ground the insect blends in well.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnTreeOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez-253x400.jpg\" "\\"FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnTreeOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez\\"")
<\/a>What I can\u2019t show in these photos is their behaviour. When the walkingstick was encouraged to walk back onto the tree trunk, it did so willingly. Then it stayed there, swaying gently from side to side for several minutes. It looked like a twig gently swaying in the breeze.<\/p>\n
\nReally ancient readers may remember a magazine model called Twiggy. She was a girl, I think. So I wondered whether the walkingstick we found was a girl or boy. Like with Twiggy, it\u2019s a little hard to tell.<\/p>\n
\nSo I decided to ask the pros at BugGuide.Net about my find. David J. Ferguson kindly replied that this was a female Northern Walkingstick. He said, \u201cThe males tend to have a stronger pattern, more often have green coloring, are more slender in shape (but legs are thicker), and the appendages near the end of the abdomen are different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWalkingsticks are herbivores. That doesn\u2019t mean they only eat parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. It means they eat plant material, not other insects or animals.
\nNorthern Walkingsticks like to eat oak leaves. They\u2019ll also eat black cherry. Further south where they are more common, hazelnut trees play host, too. They have been spotted eating sweetfern, strawberry and blueberry plants and beaked hazel.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnHandOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez-200x153.jpg\" "\\"FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnHandOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez\\"")
<\/a>Will They Bite Me?<\/strong>
\nWhile it\u2019s possible they could bite a human, I\u2019ve handled several over the years and never been bitten. Many people keep Northern Walkingsticks as temporary pets in a terrarium and also don\u2019t seem to report being bitten. When handling any wild creature, however, use caution.<\/p>\n
\nWell, technically they should be edible, but I wouldn\u2019t try one! Birds, however, do eat them, and in large numbers. When there is a walkingstick baby boom, the robins and other insect-eating birds tend to have more babies, too. So in Canada while Northern Walkingsticks are classified as a pest, they are not life-threatening to the trees.<\/p>\n
\nActually, you\u2019re more likely to find one by accident than by design. The adult walkingsticks spend most of their lives at the tops of trees.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnGravelOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez-400x235.jpg\" "\\"FemaleNorthernWalkingStickOnGravelOnNaturalCrooksDotComlowrez\\"")
<\/a>Why Don\u2019t They Fall Out of the Trees More Often?<\/strong>