Insect Picture of the Day

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Everyone give an extra special InsectPOD welcome to Kristie Belding, who sent in this picture of stick bugs that are… ahem… racing. You knew that, right? They’re racing. If you leaned in real close to the small male on top, he’d say “Oh yeah, you wouldn’t believe what this baby will do in the quarter mile.”

Walkingsticks are a bit like earwigs in that they’re not related to anything besides each other. You go up from Order Phasmatodea, the walkingsticks, and bam! You’re at Class Insecta.

This pair are Anisomorpha buprestoides, or two-striped walkingsticks. I arrive confidently at this identification because there are only two species of walkingstick in North America, and Anisomorpha buprestoides is the one that has stripes. Oh, and it’s also the one that occurs in Texas, and I happen to know Kristie lives in Houston.

Thanks, Kristie!