Phasmids…

I have never seen a Phasmid, I didn’t even know that was what I was looking at the first time I encountered one of these little critters crossing my path the other day.

StickInsect

A walking blade of grass

Since the photos I capture digitally are Live I made it move so Hubs didn’t think I was showing him a photo of a blade of grass.

“That’s a Daddy-Long Legs,” he said.

“No it’s not, it’s a walking blade of grass…look at it!” I pressed the photo to make it move.

“So it is,” he said.

Daughts and I saw a few more over the next couple of days while we walked and jogged,

“How does it not get run over on this road?” I mused out loud.

“It runs really fast,” said Daughts with a drum roll!

Then we saw one that appeared to be changing color,

StickInsect2

A running twig

“He’s an old one,” Daughts suggested facetiously.

I wonder?  So I looked it up.

Well, of course I did, once a homeschooler, always a homeschooler!

They change color depending on their surroundings and have one of the most efficient natural camouflages on earth.

“Their average life expectancy in the wild is three years,” I told Daughts incredulously.

“How does something that looks like a running twig last that long?” Asked Daughts.

Well, they play dead to evade predators, they can shed a limb to get away, some have wings and fly off, while others emit a putrid smelling fluid that ruins their enemies’ appetite.

Oh, and they are nocturnal spending most of the day snoozing under a leaf out of harm’s way.

We must be walking just as they are getting up.

Isn’t nature amazing?

 

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