Today we found an adult Indian walking stick (Carausius morosus) at Albany Hill in Albany, California. Indian walking sticks obviously exist where we are because we have found them in the wild in the past. Every time we have encountered them, however, it really is just out of pure chance. There is simply no way to reliably find these at all, no matter what host plant or habitat you try. It's been several months since we last found one, but today we got another at Albany Hill. It was sitting on a shaded fence along the creek that had some ivy (Hedera) on it that it was probably eating. This one is already an adult. Interestingly, it is a green morph (well, sort of intermediate, but close enough) whereas every single one we have found before have been brown. There is just something about the outside environment that causes this -- probably humidity -- because captive rearing in closed containers usually results in bright green insects. While in perfect condition down to the antennae and crotchets, it looks to be sort of worn down and old. We gave it a new home with some raspberry (Rubus idaeus) cuttings to try to milk some eggs out of it so we don't lose the stock when we head to Ithaca. ![]() Authors Brian Liang
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Rearing notes for our Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus). These originated from wild collected specimen in Albany, California. 4/24:
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4/21: ![]() Authors Alan Liang While pruning our trees today, we were very surprised to find a fifth instar Indian walking stick (Carausius morosus) on Common ivy (Hedera helix). It was intermediate green and brown morph. Though our C. morosus stock was originally started from wild caught specimen six or seven years ago when we were able to find dozens of young walking sticks on Dahlias (Dahlia) every fall, the wild population has seemed to become quite sparse for the past several years as we only ever find a few each year now which is why this was a surprising find. - Alan
Life history of the Indian walkingstick (Carausius morosus), through egg, six nymphal instars, to adult. Egg First instar Second instar Third instar Fourth instar Fifth instar Sixth instar Adult - Alan
Rearing notes for our Indian walking sticks (Carausius morosus). These are offspring of an adult we have been rearing since March 2016 and a wild caught brown form adult no longer with us. Rearing Notes 1/8/17-1/31/17: 1/28:
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- Alan
Rearing notes for our Indian walking sticks (Carausius morosus). These are offspring of an adult we have been rearing since March 2016 and a wild caught brown form adult no longer with us. Rearing Notes 12/4/16-12/25/16: 12/25:
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- Alan
Rearing notes for our Indian Walking sticks (Carausius morosus). These are offspring of an adult we have been rearing since March 2016 and a wild caught brown form adult no longer with us. Rearing Notes 11/23/16-11/26/16: 11/26:
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- Alan
Rearing notes for our Indian Walking sticks (Carausius morosus). These are offspring of an adult we have been rearing since March 2016 and a wild caught brown form adult no longer with us. Rearing Notes 11/15/16-11/22/16: 11/22:
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- Alan
Rearing notes for our Indian Walking sticks (Carausius morosus). These are offspring of an adult we have been rearing since March 2016 and a wild caught brown form adult no longer with us. Rearing Notes 11/7/16-11/14/16: 11/14:
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- Alan
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |