Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Com­mon walk­ing­sticks have a broad ge­o­graphic range in North Amer­ica. They can be found all along the At­lantic coast and into north­ern Florida. This species can be found as far west as New Mex­ico in the United States (US) and as far north as Al­berta, Canada. They are found in 38 US states the north­ern most being Maine in the east, and North Dakota in the west. They are the only stick in­sects to occur in Canada, where they are found in Man­i­toba, On­tario, and Que­bec. (Giese and Knauer, 1977; Milne, 1980)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Com­mon walk­ing­sticks are found in de­cid­u­ous woods and forests where their pre­ferred food sources (oak and hazel­nut) are abun­dant. They may also be found in agri­cul­tural fields, urban gar­dens and res­i­den­tial yards. (Milne, 1980)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• mountains

• Other Habitat Features
• urban
• suburban
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Com­mon walk­ing­sticks have very elon­gated bod­ies that are al­most cylin­dri­cal. The ab­domen and tho­rax are long and the ab­domen bears a pair of sin­gle seg­mented cerci that re­sem­ble palps and serve as a clasper. The head is small but bears an­ten­nae that are about 2/3 the length of the body. Legs are slen­der and the tarsi are five seg­mented.

Adult males av­er­age 75 mm in length, while fe­males are slightly larger at about 95 mm. Nymphs of the first five in­stars reach av­er­age lengths of about 11, 18, 25, 34, and 46 mm, re­spec­tively.

A dis­tin­guish­ing fea­ture is the supra-anal plate, which is a small and mem­bra­nous lobe above the anus. Their max­il­lae each con­tain a lacina with a tri­den­tate struc­ture. The species is apter­ous. Mem­bers of Di­a­pheromera femorata ex­hibit square-shaped heads. Males are brown, whereas fe­males have a hint of green to their brown color. There are other dis­tin­guish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics that sep­a­rate the two sexes; the fe­murs of males tend to be banded, their sev­enth ab­dom­i­nal seg­ment is longer than their ninth, and they fea­ture cerci that lack spines. (Ar­ment, 2006; Giese and Knauer, 1977; Milne, 1980; Tilgner, et al., 1999; Walker, 1922)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger
• sexes colored or patterned differently

• Average length

  Males 75mm, Females 95mm mm

  in

De­vel­op­ment

Im­ma­ture forms of the species are called nymphs. When nymphs hatch they are green, only to gain brown­ish color when they reach ma­tu­rity. The species typ­i­cally un­der­goes five molts, how­ever some male mem­bers of the species have been viewed to un­dergo four molts, whereas some fe­males have un­der­gone six molts. They are a hemimetabolous species, mean­ing that they have three life stages (egg, nymph, and adult) and do not have a pupal stage. Their life cycle is heav­ily de­pen­dent upon the syn­chro­niz­ing with host plant sea­sonal cy­cles.

Mem­bers of the species found in the north­ern United States and in South­ern Canada tend to be bian­nual with a new gen­er­a­tion every two years, whereas south­ern mem­bers tend to have a new gen­er­a­tion every year. Some pop­u­la­tions lay eggs in the fall, which then over­win­ter in the leaf lit­ter and hatch the fol­low­ing spring. Sea­sonal con­di­tions af­fect the lifes­pan of the nymph, cooler sea­sonal tem­per­a­tures lead the nymphs to reach the adult stage faster than in warmer sea­son tem­per­a­tures. Ac­cord­ing to one study, it took 74.7 days for nymphs to reach the adult stage, whereas the next sea­son it took 84.9 days for this to occur. In one study, hatch­ing oc­curred 11 to 17 days after the eggs were ov­posited. To reach the sec­ond in­star stage, 9 to 12 days were needed from the first molt, and to reach the third in­star, it re­quired 13 to 16 days. To reach the last nypmh stage 14 to 15 ad­di­tional days were re­quired, and from that to molt into an adult it re­quired 14 days. The vari­a­tions be­tween time lengths were due to cli­matic vari­a­tion through­out the sea­son. The first sea­son stud­ied was cooler than the sec­ond and due to the colder weather, the nymphs de­vel­op­ing in the first sea­son had one fewer in­star stage. The sec­ond sea­son re­quired roughly 17 days to reach the fifth in­star and an­other 19 days to be­come adults. The de­vel­op­ment and lifes­pan of nymphs is heav­ily de­pen­dent upon de­gree-days, they tend to re­quire an av­er­age of 1835 de­gree-days, to be­come adults. (Giese and Knauer, 1977; Milne, 1980)

• Development - Life Cycle
• diapause

Re­pro­duc­tion

Courtship rit­u­als seem to be ab­sent for Di­a­pheromera femorata. Exact mat­ing sys­tems are un­known for this species. In other species of Phas­mida, males will at­tach them­selves to a fe­male and ride on her back for sev­eral weeks until she is ready to mate. Mat­ing tends to be rather con­sis­tent amongst mem­bers of the order Phas­mida, in which the male climbs on the back of the fe­male, passes his ab­domen to hers, from ei­ther side to en­gage gen­i­talia. Males of most species of Phas­mida ex­tend their ab­domen down and around on the right side of the fe­male, how­ever, Di­a­pheromera femorata males pass theirs down from the left side of the fe­male. The male gen­i­talia form an asym­met­ri­cal struc­ture, which is slightly di­vided on the left side by an oblique groove, which is where the ejac­u­la­tory duct opens. The duct is po­si­tioned slightly to the right and opens at the ven­tral side of the in­sect. A chiti­nous plate pro­tects the dor­sal sur­face of the gen­i­talia, and gives rise to a blunt horn-like process on the left side of the gen­i­talia. Next to the me­dian groove, on the pos­te­rior-ven­tral side, arises two plates, which form a clasper. The two plates form an in­ward fac­ing apoph­ysis for mus­cle at­tach­ment, al­low­ing for the clasper to grab onto the fe­male dur­ing mat­ing. (Huber, et al., 2007; Walker, 1922; Huber, et al., 2007; Walker, 1922)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Ovipo­si­tion be­gins in late Au­gust, peaks dur­ing mid-Sep­tem­ber, and tails off at the end of Sep­tem­ber, where it con­tin­ues until late Oc­to­ber until most of the green fo­liage is no longer pre­sent. The process of ovipo­si­tion tends to ini­ti­ate be­tween noon and 3:00 P.M., with peak ac­tiv­ity rang­ing from the times of 3:00 and 9:00 P.M., thus mak­ing the process de­pen­dent upon sun­light. The fe­males of the species drop eggs one at a time. The eggs drop­ping from the trees sound like of droplets of rain. The eggs over­win­ter on the ground amongst the leaf lit­ter until spring when the nymphs hatch. They push through ends of the egg and then crawl up the near­est tree dur­ing the night to find food. Hatch­ing in oak forests oc­curs in mid June, typ­i­cally after full ex­pan­sion of the black oaks (Quer­cus ve­lutina) oc­curs and typ­i­cally lasts through­out July, how­ever, Di­a­pheromera femorata hatch­ing has oc­curred in Sep­tem­ber. Hatch­ing fol­lows a daily pe­ri­odic pat­tern, in which it oc­curs from the range of 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. with peak hatch­ing ac­tiv­ity oc­cur­ring within the time frame of 10:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. It has also been noted that hu­mid­ity plays a strong role in Di­a­pheromera femorata egg hatch­ing. Hatch­ing tends to occur when the hu­mid­ity is 80 per­cent or higher be­cause the mois­ture in the air serves as a lu­bri­cant, al­low­ing for the nymphs to get out of their eggs eas­ily. (Giese and Knauer, 1977; Milne, 1980)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Common walkingsticks breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Breeding occurs between late August and late October.

• Range eggs per season

  145.85 in a meters squared area to 787.06 in a meters squared area

• Average eggs per season

  407.12 in a meters squared area

• Average gestation period

  11-17 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  80 days

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  80 days

This species does not ex­hibit parental care. Eggs are dropped, usu­ally from great heights, down to the leaf lit­ter where they are left to over­win­ter. When the nymphs hatch they fend for them­selves. (Giese and Knauer, 1977)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Cur­rently, lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is known re­gard­ing the lifes­pan of com­mon walk­ing­sticks. (Coul­son and Wit­ter, 1984; Giese and Knauer, 1977)

Be­hav­ior

Com­mon walk­ing­sticks use cam­ou­flage as their main means of de­fend­ing them­selves from birds and other preda­tors. This species' phys­i­cal ap­pear­ance has a strong re­sem­blance to a twig, which al­lows them to blend in with their sur­round­ings. Newly hatched nymphs tend to walk up the first ver­ti­cal ob­ject they en­counter, see if it is a host tree for feed­ing, and if not they leave the ob­ject and move in a dif­fer­ent di­rec­tion. Com­mon walk­ing­sticks are ac­tive at dif­fer­ent times of the day for dif­fer­ent ac­tiv­i­ties. Feed­ing and nymph hatch­ing take place typ­i­cally at night, where mat­ing usu­ally takes place dur­ing the day. Aside from mat­ing, they are soli­tary crea­tures. (Giese and Knauer, 1977; Milne, 1980)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• diurnal
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

Ter­ri­tory size is cur­rently un­known for com­mon walk­ing­sticks.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and per­cep­tion meth­ods are cur­rently poorly un­der­stood for this species. In­di­vid­u­als likely use pheromones dur­ing mat­ing.

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones

Food Habits

Di­a­pheromera femorata feeds on the fo­liage of trees and shrub­bery. They are par­tic­u­larly fond of oak and hazel­nut trees. They are her­biv­o­rous and have mandibles to cut pieces of the leaves, stems or flow­ers. Newly hatched nymphs tend to feed mainly on hazel (Cory­lus amer­i­cana) and black cherry (Prunus serotina), but in en­vi­ron­ments where these plants are not in high abun­dance they tend to eat white oak (Quer­cus alba). They have also been noted to con­sume sweet­fern (Comp­to­nia pere­g­rina), var­i­ous straw­berry and blue­berry plants, and beaked hazel (Cory­lus cor­nuta), from the time frame of May to mid-June. The nymphs eat by con­sum­ing all but the major veins of a leaf. Adults tend to feed pri­mar­ily on black oak (Quer­cus ve­lutina) at all times of the day, but peak feed­ing ac­tiv­ity was found to occur at 9:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M., and their feed­ing habits tend to in­clude feed­ing on a sin­gle leaf for quite some time, stop, move about, and then begin feed­ing on an­other leaf. They are leaf skele­toniz­ers. (Clark, 1974; Coul­son and Wit­ter, 1984; Giese and Knauer, 1977; Milne, 1980)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• flowers

Pre­da­tion

Sev­eral in­sec­tiv­o­rous bird species are preda­tors of Di­a­pheromera femorata in­clud­ing crows and Amer­i­can robins. Com­mon walk­ing­sticks show a re­mark­able abil­ity for re­gen­er­at­ing legs that are lost by at­tacks from preda­tors. When preda­tors are pre­sent, they re­main mo­tion­less with their legs close to their bod­ies, thus re­sem­bling a twig.

Di­a­pheromera femorata eggs are sim­i­lar to that of other Phas­mid eggs in which they greatly re­sem­ble seeds of var­i­ous plants, and in the case of D. femorata they re­sem­ble seeds of legumes. This may be a de­fense mech­a­nism, the eggs con­tain a ca­pit­u­lum, a struc­ture that re­sem­bles a plant elia­some, which at­tracts var­i­ous species of ants. In other species of stick in­sects, the ants take the egg think­ing it is a seed, re­move the ca­pit­u­lum as food, and dis­card the rest of the egg at the bot­tom of their nest, thus pro­tect­ing the egg from out­side par­a­sites or preda­tors. ("For­est In­sect & Dis­ease Leaflet 82: Walk­ing­stick", 1971; Hughes and West­oby, 1992; Mill­ron, 1950; Milne, 1980; Sev­erin, 1910)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• mimic
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • crows Corvus
  • American robins Turdus migratorius

Ecosys­tem Roles

Di­a­pheromera femorata is a vo­ra­cious her­bi­vore that can cause sig­nif­i­cant de­fo­li­a­tion when pop­u­la­tions num­bers are high. Dur­ing out­break years, this species may cause en­tire tree branches to die. So far, in­sec­tiv­o­rous birds con­sume enough dur­ing out­breaks to suf­fi­ciently con­trol the dam­age. Abun­dance of prey items dur­ing out­breaks may re­sult in pop­u­la­tion booms for the in­sec­tiv­o­rous bird species that con­sume them. Di­a­pheromera femorata fe­males pre­fer cer­tain tree species (black cherry, black and white oaks) as hosts to lay their eggs. Sev­eral species of par­a­sitic in­sects uti­lize Di­a­pheromera femorata as a host. The wasp species Me­si­tiopterus kahlii is a par­a­site to Di­a­pheromera femorata eggs. Two species of flies, Bio­mya genalis and Phas­mophaga an­ten­nalis de­stroy walk­ing­stick lar­vae. ("For­est In­sect & Dis­ease Leaflet 82: Walk­ing­stick", 1971; Giese and Knauer, 1977; Hughes and West­oby, 1992; Mill­ron, 1950; Milne, 1980; Sev­erin, 1910)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Cur­rently there are no known pos­i­tive af­fects of Di­a­pheromera femorata on hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Com­mon walk­ing­sticks are her­bi­vores that com­monly "skele­tonize" leaves, or eat every part of the leaf but the vein. This causes sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to the trees and dur­ing out­breaks, this species may cause the death of en­tire tree branches. This in­sect species is par­tially re­spon­si­ble for the de­fo­li­a­tion and re­duc­tion of oak forests in the Ozark Moun­tains of Arkansas and Mis­souri in the United States. (Stephen, et al., 2001)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The species is abun­dant and wide­spread, so no con­ser­va­tion meth­ods are being im­ple­mented. If any­thing, fu­ture ef­forts may be made to re­duce the pop­u­la­tion in re­gions suf­fer­ing from sig­nif­i­cant for­est de­fo­li­a­tion.

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Lind­say Har­ring­ton (au­thor), Rut­gers Uni­ver­sity, Dave San­nino (au­thor), Rut­gers Uni­ver­sity, David V. Howe (ed­i­tor), Rut­gers Uni­ver­sity, Rachelle Ster­ling (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

U.S. De­part­ment of Agri­cul­ture For­est Ser­vice. For­est In­sect & Dis­ease Leaflet 82: Walk­ing­stick. 82. Wash­ing­ton D.C.: U.S. Gov­ern­ment Print­ing Of­fice. 1971. Ac­cessed March 30, 2011 at http://​www.​na.​fs.​fed.​us/​spfo/​pubs/​fidls/​walkingstick/​walkingstick.​htm.

Ar­ment, C. 2006. Stick In­sects of the Con­ti­nen­tal United States And Canada: Species And Early Stud­ies. Lan­disville, Penn­syl­va­nia: Coach­whip Pub­li­ca­tions.

Clark, J. 1974. Stick and Leaf In­sects. Great Britain: Barry Shur­lock.

Coul­son, R., J. Wit­ter. 1984. For­est En­to­mol­ogy: Ecol­ogy and Man­age­ment. USA: Wi­ley-IEEE.

Giese, R., K. Knauer. 1977. Ecol­ogy of the Walk­ing­stick. For­est Sci­ence, 23(1): 45-63.

Gre­gory, T. 2002. Genome size of the north­ern walk­ing­stick, Di­a­pheromera femorata (Phas­mida: Het­erone­mi­idae). Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 80(7): 1303-1305.

Huber, B., B. Sin­clair, M. Schmitt. 2007. The Evo­lu­tion of Asym­met­ric Gen­i­talia in Spi­ders and In­sects. Bi­o­log­i­cal Re­views of the Cam­bridge Philo­soph­i­cal So­ci­ety, 82(4): 647-698.

Hughes, L., M. West­oby. 1992. Ca­pit­ula on Stick In­sect Eggs and Elaio­somes on Seeds: Con­ver­gent Adap­ta­tions for Bur­ial by Ants. Func­tional Ecol­ogy, 6(6): 642-648.

Mill­ron, H. 1950. The Iden­tity of a Clep­tid Egg Par­a­site of the Com­mon Walk­ing Stick, Di­a­pheromera femorata Say (Hy­menoptera: Clep­ti­dae). The Pro­ceed­ings of the En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Wash­ing­ton, 52(1): 47.

Milne, L. 1980. Na­tional Audubon So­ci­ety Field Guide to North Amer­i­can In­sects & Spi­ders. New York: Al­fred A, Knopf, Inc..

Sev­erin, H. 1910. A Study on the Struc­ture of the Egg of the Walk­ing Stick Di­a­pheromera femorata Say; and the Bi­o­log­i­cal Sig­nif­i­cance of the Re­sem­blance of Phas­mid Eggs to Seeds. An­nals of the En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Amer­ica, 3(1): 83-93.

Stephen, F., V. Sal­is­bury, F. Oliv­e­ria. 2001. Red Oak Borer, Enaphalodes ru­fu­lus (Coleoptera: Ce­r­am­by­ci­dae), in the Ozark Moun­tains of Arkansas, U.S.A.: An un­ex­pected and Re­mark­able For­est Dis­tur­bance. In­te­grated Pest Man­age­ment Re­views, 6(3-4): 247-252.

Tilgner, E., T. Kise­ly­ova, J. McHugh. 1999. A mor­pho­log­i­cal study of Timema cristi­nae vick­ery with im­pli­ca­tions for the phy­lo­ge­net­ics of phas­mida. Deutsche En­to­mol­o­gis­che Zeitschrift, 46(2): 149-162.

Walker, E. 1922. The Ter­mi­nal Struc­tures of Or­thopteroid In­sects: A Phy­lo­ge­netic Study. An­nals of the En­to­mo­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Amer­ica, 15(1): 1-71.