Stick Insect Laying an Egg

Another one of my top-ten favorite pix: a landing module docked with an alien interstellar probe.

Actually, it’s a stick insect laying an egg.

Stick insects just drop their eggs onto the forest floor with a stereotyped abdominal shake. This critter was in an aquarium standing on end, so every egg made a little tick when it hit the bottom pane. They do this mostly at night, hence the black background of our living room.

I caught this egg just before release, aiming through the glass wall with an LED flashlight for illumination, through close-up adapters on a DSC-F717 on a tripod. A bit of fiddly image editing got rid of most of the “stars” caused by dirt on the glass, but the insect and egg aren’t edited.

Although stick insects can live for up to three years, we cannot find food for them during the winter months. They’re rather fussy eaters, specializing in oak leaves in these parts, and simply don’t accept substitute meals.

A high-res version serves as the background on my right-hand portrait monitor.

A different view of the eggs is there.

An overall view of the critter, with the two front legs extending frontward along the antennae in a characteristic pose.