Category: Phasmatodea

Found an Indian Walking Stick

8/1/2017

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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Carausius morosus L1 Rearing Notes (4/22/17-4/??/17)

4/24/2017

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Rearing notes for our Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus). These originated from wild collected specimen in Albany, California.

4/24:

Seems to be easier to just put the cup of eggs in the rearing container with foliage due to the enormous number of hatchings now
The nymphs crawl on the raspberry put have only fed minimally on it

4/23:

There has been mass egg hatching for the past few days straight - several dozens a day - they must have broken out of some sort of egg diapause as there were very few hatchings in winter but a very high number now

4/22:

The nymphs haven't really touched the raspberry surprising despite that it is a good host we have used before and several of them look quite starved; perhaps it may take another day or two

4/21:

See Starting Our Carausius morosus Rearing Again

Authors
Alan Liang

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Starting Our Carausius morosus Rearing Again

4/21/2017

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Now that host plants have grown abundant, we have begun rearing our Indian stick insects (Carausius morosus) again.

Authors
Alan Liang

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Indian Walking Stick on Common Ivy

2/16/2017

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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

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Life History of Carausius morosus Gallery

1/17/2017

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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

Comments

C. morosus Rearing Notes (1/8/17-1/31/17)

1/8/2017

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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:

A few adults have been cannibalized from lack of food lately

1/8:

Surprising surge in egg production lately, increasing from 65.9 egg/day three weeks ago to 99.8 egg/day in past two weeks; adult walkingsticks appear quite healthy
Growth rate of nymphs has slowed down, again due to subobtimal conditions (low temperature, high humidity, poor food quality and sanitation)
Count: total eggs: 5105 (+1397 from 12/25/16-1/8/17); avg 99.8 eggs/day from 12/25/16-1/8/17

- Alan

Comments

C. morosus Rearing Notes (12/4/16-12/25/16)

12/25/2016

Comments

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:

Egg production rate has dropped back down which brings the question as to why it spiked in the previous week that had what seemed like the poorest conditionss (eccessive humidity and poor sanitation), but perhaps they prefered that way?
Count: total eggs (last counted 12/25): 3708 (+527); avg 65.9 eggs/day from 12/17-12/25

12/17:

Sanitation was incredibly bad due to the excessively high humidity from the rain this week which caused three adults to die
Despite loss of three adults and poor living conditions, egg production increased by over 50% (92.7 egg/day from 12/11-12/17 compared to 60.9 egg/day from 12/4-12/11) which is quite surprising
Count: L7; 53 (F1), 1 (F0); total eggs (last counted 12/17): 3181 (+556); avg 92.7 eggs/day from 12/11-12/17

12/11:

Collected eggs today; another increase in egg production this week which is actually somewhat surprising due to the cold and extremely humid conditions these days
Some of the oak has been fed on but no where near the degree that the rose is being consumed
Count: total eggs (last counted 12/11): 2625 (+426); avg 60.9 eggs/day from 12/4-12/11

12/4:

Cleaned out all the tubs and collected all the eggs -- a decent increase from last week
Though the camellia leaves had been eaten, it was quite minimal, so we tossed it out and instead put in some oak (Quercus) leaves to see if they would eat it (we don't know since we've never tried before)
Count: L7; 54 (F1), 1 (F0); hatched eggs: 301; total eggs (last counted 12/4): 2199 (+443); avg 55.4 eggs/day from 11/26-12/4

- Alan

Comments

C. morosus Rearing Notes (11/23/16-11/26/16)

11/26/2016

Comments

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:

Collected all the eggs; similar oviposition rate as last week which is rather disappointing since we had expected it increase quite a bit
Count: hatched eggs: 291; total eggs (last counted 11/26): 1756 (+366); avg 52.3 eggs/day from 11/19-11/26

11/25:

The L7 walking sticks have actually eaten a little bit of the camellia leaves!
Three eggs hatched

11/24:

Two eggs hatched

11/23:

Two eggs hatched

- Alan

Comments

C. morosus Rearing Notes (11/15/16-11/22/16)

11/22/2016

Comments

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:

Five eggs hatched

11/21:

None of the L7 initiated feeding on the camellia, but all the L1-3 accepted the thimbleberry as expected
Three eggs hatched

11/20:

Did a more thorough container cleaning and added two new host plants due to the shortage of previously used ones (rose [Rosa], raspberry [Rubus idaeus], blackberry [Rubus fruticosus], and tayberry [Rubus fruticosus x R. idaeus]); instead we used some thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) for our L1-3 and mixed in camellia (Camellia) cuttings for our L7, though we don't know if either of these two new hosts will be accepted but we think they might since thimbleberry is another bramble (Rubrus spp.), and camellia flowers were accepted in the past (though we never tested leaves)
Count: L7: 37 (F1), 1 (F0); L1-6: ??; hatched eggs: 276

11/19:

Another significant increase in egg production based on this week's count; most of the adults must be laying eggs now; their abdomens appear thick and egg-bound
Though high total egg count, egg production per individual female is likely no more than two eggs a day, and the egg size is noticeably smaller than that of the previous generation, probably attributed to the overcrowding and non ideal temperature and humidity this time of year
Count: hatched eggs: 272; total eggs (last counted 11/19): 1390 (+401); avg 50.1 eggs/day from 11/11-11/19

11/18:

Three eggs hatched

11/17:

Two eggs hatched
Cold temperatures and high humidity seems to be slowing down activity and causing a lot of sanitation problems in the containers

11/16:

One egg hatched
Added new rose cuttings for the L5-L6 tub which are feeding at a similar rate as the L7 adults

11/15:

One egg hatched

- Alan

Comments

C. morosus Rearing Notes (11/7/16-11/14/16)

11/14/2016

Comments

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:

Three eggs hatched

11/13:

Three eggs hatched

11/12:

Added a bunch more rose cuttings for the adults which are eating a ton now
Three eggs hatched

11/11:

Cleaned out moldy frass and collected eggs -- huge increase from last week (244 eggs/6 days compared to 122 eggs/7 days)
Five eggs hatched
Count: L7: 28 (F1), 1 (F0); L1-6: ??; hatched eggs: 253; total eggs (last counted 11/5): 989 (+245); avg 40.8 eggs/day from 11/5-11/11

11/10:

Three eggs hatched
Some have escaped due to the to removing lid yesterday so we put it back on; fortunately the escaped ones didn't run far and left a trail of eggs and frass so we were able to track all of them down

11/9:

Six eggs hatched
Poor ventilation and high humidity has caused mold growth on frass, so removed lid for adult tub

11/8:

Four eggs hatched

11/7:

Three eggs hatched

- Alan

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