By Jewell Lee Cozort, Park Biologist

The giant walkingstick (Megaphasma dentricus) is commonly seen in Phil Hardberger Park in late spring and early summer. Females of this species are larger than males reaching up to 7 inches in length and are the longest insects in North America!

To those squeamish of bugs, walkingsticks can be a pleasant find out in nature. They aren’t known to bite or fly around your face. They don’t even make a sound! They’re relatively calm and slow and simply interested in eating the leaves of common vegetation like oak, mesquite, and hackberry trees.

Walkingsticks go through incomplete metamorphosis, hatching from eggs into nymphs that resemble tiny adult walkingsticks. They reach adulthood after molting several times and live up to two years.

There are a number of interesting evolutionary adaptations that walkingsticks exhibit. For example, some species have the ability to reproduce by parthenogenesis, which is the ability of a female to produce viable eggs without the need for male fertilization. They can traditionally mate as well.

When threatened they can “drop” their limb to avoid being eaten and younger nymphs can regrow the limb by regeneration! Walkingsticks exhibit mimicry with cryptic colors matching the green and brown vegetation they live on and their long slender stick-like bodies resemble twigs. They also imitate the swaying motion of twigs in the wind to disguise their movements!

Next time you see one look for these adaptations. This is a great time of year to be on the lookout for walkingsticks, but that’s only IF you can find one!