http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/photographs/nature/photos/walking-stick-bug.jpg

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/attachments/invert-classifieds/24729d1286962137-10-x-eurycantha-calcarata-giant-cimg1819.jpg
http://www.rattata.dk/Eurycantha%20Calcarata%20(Hun)%201.jpg
Don't forget about the eurycantha calcarata.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ckBlasgNSzg/SY9_ERgPxuI/AAAAAAAALFE/Q8NbQTx2-oA/s400/Blobfish.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ckBlasgNSzg/SY9_nX3LZVI/AAAAAAAALFU/xinnQKUXoBU/s400/Psychrolutes+marcidus.jpg

or Psychrolutes marcidus (Blob Fish)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qUFDMUpk9jE/SwfijuAF41I/AAAAAAAAbAw/bTWvR0hMEEA/s1600/orthodox-jews-2.jpg

Conjoined Twins, Abby & Brittany Hensel turn 16 - YouTube

Um...this was meant to be a CELEBRATION of the NOBLE WALKING STICK! Not a parade of freaks in a sick display of one upsmanship.

Thanks, guys.

I am now going to retire from the net for a few hours and cry.

The world is so cruel. SO CRUEL!

Seriously...I think we need to have a

WALKING STICK WEEK on VNN. Like shark week, but gloriouser.

And then at the end, we cap it off with a stick beauty contest, and crown the winner

MISS WALKING STICK AMERICA USA!

I have very rarely encountered a walking stick in the savage and turkey-strewn wilds of Northern Missouri. I must say I felt honored to have one on my finger.

You actually found a walking stick?

I have very rarely encountered a walking stick in the savage and turkey-strewn wilds of Northern Missouri. I must say I felt honored to have one on my finger.

We have them here in the southeast. I remember being fascinated and somewhat repulsed by them as a youngster. My grandmother called them the "devil's stick-horse" - Anything unwholesome was associated with the devil. Puffballs, a type of fungi, the insides of which turn into a brown powder when they are old and dried out, were called the "devil's snuff-box."

Interesting article about this tiny population of stick insects on Lord Howe Island have totally brought an entire species back from the brink of extinction:

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/02/29/how-giant-walking-stick-insects-come-back-from-extinction/

In 1918, a shipwreck at the Lord Howe Island, Australia, introduced black rats which proceeded to eat the native species of walking sticks so large that they were called "tree lobsters." In two year's time, the Lord Howe stick insect, Dryococelus australis, went extinct.

Or so, scientists thought. Turns out, a small population of 24 somehow managed to escape to a spindle of rock in the middle of the ocean. They live off one spindly little bush there for 80 years, hidden away from the world, until rock climbers spotted them some years ago.

What comes next is the heroic effort of scientists to save the large insects from going extinct (again). Robert Krulwich of NPR has the fascinating story:

(snip)



http://natureafield.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/patrick_custom.jpg

Interesting article about this tiny population of stick insects on Lord Howe Island have totally brought an entire species back from the brink of extinction:

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/02/29/how-giant-walking-stick-insects-come-back-from-extinction/



http://natureafield.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/patrick_custom.jpg

Those are quite a bit more substantial than the type we have around here:

http://home.planet.nl/~mkramer/pic/Stick_Insect.jpg

I have very rarely encountered a walking stick in the savage and turkey-strewn wilds of Northern Missouri.
They're all over the place, at least in the midwest, I know. You're brushing past or stepping on them all the time, if you're in the woods. Our screened-in back porch had the door propped open for the dogs and cats to get at their water, and having that opening on one side turned it into a giant bug trap. There was always a bunch of them climbing the screens in the summer.

I got interested and had to go read a bit. The order name is, appropriately, "ghosts" or "winged ghosts"(phasmatodea, phasmida, phasmatoptera)

Personally never saw any with wings, in Kansas.

Has it's own website, lots of porn here http://www.phasmatodea.com/web/guest/photos;jsessionid=547B359B18DA465C27311AA9BE78F919

A southeast asian breed
http://www.phasmatodea.com/phasmatodea-de-5.2.3.1/image.jsp?id=/1218062930126/CE017E4A16C8C1F2D8A99F925C256391

I've seen them, in NE Kansas, at 3/4 that size or a little bigger.

Read that Florida and Georgia have a fat stripey breed that can spray acid at you.

http://www.phasmatodea.com/web/guest/photos?p_p_id=phasmatodeaimagegallery_WAR_phasmatodeade5231_INSTANCE_U96i&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_count=1&categoryId=558 This Malaysian one has it all. Giant wings, evil alien face, superior camoflage.

http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/photographs/nature/photos/walking-stick-bug.jpg

Those used to terrify me when I was a child.

Like a horror movie, the sticks come to a life of their own and start walking around!

I also had my older brother stirring my terror with stories of them being deadly poisonous

You actually found a walking stick?

I have found one or two, if I recall correctly. They are like mantises, which are rare most times/places, but a lot rarer, why I don't know. Missouri might not be their main living place, I guess.

We have them here in the southeast. I remember being fascinated and somewhat repulsed by them as a youngster. My grandmother called them the "devil's stick-horse" - Anything unwholesome was associated with the devil. Puffballs, a type of fungi, the insides of which turn into a brown powder when they are old and dried out, were called the "devil's snuff-box."

They are fascinating. To me, they seem to hold some great secret, some mystery that will be revealed if you look at them long enough, the key to the meaning or construction of the universe. They certainly prove some theory, evolution or adaptation or design. I just don't know which one. They perfectly embody the essential weirdness of things.

They're all over the place, at least in the midwest, I know. You're brushing past or stepping on them all the time, if you're in the woods. Our screened-in back porch had the door propped open for the dogs and cats to get at their water, and having that opening on one side turned it into a giant bug trap. There was always a bunch of them climbing the screens in the summer.

Ah, ok. I have walked over a particular 100-acre piece of land many times, and never seen a one.

We see them quite a bit here in southern part of Missouri. They get on the screens a lot for some reason. It's the only time I can ever spot them.

http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1233583#