Leaf Insect
Related Category: Zoology: Invertebrates
common name given to herbivorous insects of leaflike appearance forming a single family in the order Phasmida.
Stick and leaf insects have developed the shape and colour of the leaves and twigs of plants they live on. They can change colour to match changed surroundings. If disturbed, they may sway gently like leaves or twigs in the breeze.
Includes stick and leaf insects, cockroaches, mantids, grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (see Ortiioptera).
They are generally grouped with the order of insects called "Orthoptera," which also includes the leaf insects, praying mantis, cockroaches, grasshoppers and katydids.
Other than hissing roaches, hermit crabs, millipedes, stick and leaf insects, and some of the mantids, most invertebrate pets are best not handled.
Order: Phasmotodea (stick and leaf insects)
Order: Dermaptera (earwigs)
Order: Mantodea (mantids)
Order: Blattodea (cockroaches)
Order: Isoptera (termites)
Order: Embioptera (web-spinners) ...
There are around 3000 known species of stick and leaf insects, most of which come from the tropics. The longest insect in the world is a walking stick that is over a foot long.
This name is derived from a Greek word meaning "apparition" and is comprised of stick and leaf insects. They very much resemble dried leaves or twigs. Exatosoma is a large, slow-moving, stick insect.
The Phasmatodea are an order of insects, whose members are variously known as stick insects (in Europe), walking sticks (in the United States of America), ghost insects and leaf insects.
As its name suggests, the stick insect resembles the twigs among which it lives, providing it with one of the most efficient natural camouflages on Earth. It and the equally inconspicuous leaf insect comprise the Phasmida order, ...
 See also: Walking Stick, Stick Insect, Reptile, Nymph, Grasshoppers
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