It's stick insect central at my place. Woohoo! Actually, that might be a slight exaggeration...I have only seen two in the last couple of days, but rest assured they were both noteworthy. And I have the photos to prove it.
I thought the green sticky had expired, but it was only pretending to be dead. Phew. I picked it up with the intention of finding it a more fitting final resting place than the verandah, when it suddenly stuck out its leg. Impressive. I relocated it to a colour coordinated environment, a.k.a. a tree. Without further ado;
The one today really knew how to work the camera. Talk about personality plus. A model model. My kind of sticky. But of course, I like the shy ones too. Here's the extrovert in action...
The "Greetings, Earthlings," pose;
Intrepid explorer reaches the summit;
Another striking silhouette (and I thought my knees were knobbly);
Looks like I'm not the only one prone to exaggeration..."It was this big!";
The daydreamy head in the clouds look;
(PS...if you have nothing better to do, try saying, "stick insect central" ten times in a row. Really fast. Guaranteed to make your brain hurt. Make your friends say it too. Go on. Just for a laugh.)
3 comments:
Hi Holly
Really interesting Stick Insects.
Obviously two different "groups" - the green one and then the really long one.
From this vantage point I cannot help you ID them but there must be someone in NZ Museums or Universities who knows about Phasmids.
Failing that, email me privately at peonyden (at) gmail (dot) com and I will suggest a Phasmid contact who will know someone.
Cheers
Denis Wilson
Best of Luck with sorting them out.
I see you have found a few others, plus some nice Cicadas, as well as your Mr Maus.
Cute ears.
Cheers
Denis
Thanks, Denis. I found some NZ sites with pictures to help with the ID process. They might be tea-tree stick insects. I just spotted a whole other tribe on the plum tree, dark brown ones, light brown ones and green ones as well, including two canoodling couples. Good grief. More tribes on the way. Can't wait.
Ah...dear Mr Maus... I would be tempted to say that his ears are his best feature, but they are easily trumped by his five star personality...
April 26, 2012 at 7:56 PM
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