liW RURAL NEW-YORKER 
155 
» 
A Stick That Walks 
While working in the fields at the reaf 
of m.v dwelling 1 fonnrt a curious insect. 
As l have never before seen anything of 
its kind I forward it to yon ; perhaps you 
could give some information on what 
species of insect it is. MRS. c. m. 
Ilemptead. N. Y. 
The rambler along woodland paths is 
often greatly mystified and surprised to 
find that a part of a branch absent- 
mindedly broken from a shrub has come 
to life in his hands and has begun to 
walk slowly and awkwardly away. Closer 
examination will show that this animated 
stick has .six long, slender, awkward legs, 
two very bright eyes on one end and two 
long, thread-like feelers, that wave slowly 
and cautiously in the air. These slender, 
brown, slow-moving insects are known as 
walking-sticks, and are really near rela¬ 
tives of grasshoppers and crickets, al¬ 
though there doesn’t seem, at first glance, 
to be very much resemblance between 
them. 
The walking-sticks are certainly re¬ 
markable for their resemblance to the 
twigs of shrubs and trees. Indeed some 
species of walking-sticks have knot-like 
growths along the side of the body which 
increase the stick-like appearance, while 
some that live in tropical countries have 
wings that almost exactly resemble leaves. 
The walking-sticks that are found in New 
York State do not have wings. 
Another curious feature of these inter¬ 
esting insects is the resemblance of their 
eggs to beans and to other seeds. The 
walking-stick sent in by the foregoing 
correspondent simply drops its eggs in the 
Fall without thought or care on the 
ground among the leaves, where they lie 
at. least one Winter, and some of them 
probably two Winters, before they hatch. 
Each egg is black, with a whitish stripe 
on one aide, and resembles a beau in 
shape and appearance. Probably this re¬ 
semblance of the egg to a seed saves it 
many times from being destroyed by cer¬ 
tain of its enemies. Thus the walking- 
stick. in spite of its careless habits of 
egg-laying, is protected, to some extent 
at least, from extermination by this in¬ 
teresting provision of nature. 
A\ alking-sticks rarely occur in suf¬ 
ficient numbers to cause any damage, al¬ 
though this particular one has the un¬ 
savory record of having been numerous 
enough in New York State in 187-1 to 
have nearly stripped the leaves from 50 
acres of woodland. And interestingly 
enough. The Rural New-Yorker for 
November 7. 1874, states that it was ex¬ 
ceedingly abundant aud destructive in the 
vicinity of Ferrisburg, Vermont. 1 am 
.not aware that this walking-stick has oc¬ 
curred since in any such numbers, al¬ 
though it is present every year, if one 
knows how and where to look for it. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
There was a distinct air of chastened 
resignation about him as he penned the 
following note: “Dear Miss Brown—I 
return herewith your kind note in which 
you accept my offer of marriage. I would 
draw your attention to the fact that it 
begins ‘Dear George.’ I do not know 
who George is. but my name, as von will 
remember, is Thomas."—Credit Lost. 
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