Fun Facts

  • In this species, the female Anisomorpha buprestoides is much longer, thicker, and stronger than the male.  In fact, she is nearly always carrying him.
    Adult female and male two-striped walking stick pair. Photo used courtesy of Alan Cressler.      
  • A. buprestoides has a plethora of nicknames, including: “Southern Two-Striped Walking Stick,” “Devil Rider,” “Spitting Devil,” “Devil’s Riding Horse,” “Prairie Alligator,” “Muskmare,” “Florida Walking Stick,” “Devil’s Darning Needle,” “Witch’s Hose,” and more (Samuel 2010).       
  • This is the most common species of walking sticks in Florida (Sharp 2014).
  • A. buprestoides can regenerate lost legs (Sharp 2014).    
  • A. buprestoides has also exhibited strange behavior immediately before hurricanes hit.  In 2004, all the males that had a female partner within a large aggregation of the white form simultaneously started drumming their legs against the leaves they rested on for about two minutes, just before a hurricane began ten to fifteen minutes later (Tozier 2005).
    A mating pair of two-striped walking sticks. Photo used courtesy of John Humphreys.    
  • Newly hatched walking sticks are referred to as nymphs.       
  • When Stoll first discovered A. buprestoides, he described the first male he found as a completely different species from the first female (Conle et al. 2009).
  • Take caution if you ever approach a two-striped walking stick, and protect your pets too.  These insects can spray accurately from up to 30 to 40 centimeters away, and dogs have often been victims of their attack (Thomas 2003).

 

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