Still no Assassin Bug sightings. Still waiting. But November will be here soon enough.
This is a walking stick I found just outside my front door of my home at night here in NW Austin, Texas on 06/17/06. I would say it was about 3 1/2 to 4 inches, perhaps a female? It climbed over the door threshold, and was in my house when I took this. (there’s some whitish hair on the right, from one of our pets no doubt, and a bit of fluff on its neck) You may notice there is a missing front leg. I tried to sharpen the inset of the head to show the socket where it attached. (Youch!)
I understand that they are able to actually grow back a leg, but I’m wondering how it happened? I’m thinking either a predator (bird?), a conflict with a competitor for mating, or an actual mating which possibly got a bit ugly. Also, as I was encouraging it to leave the house, it began swaying back and forth as if being blown in the wind. Indeed its excellent camouflage includes this behavior as well.
I recently learned the order name Phasmatodea comes from Latin “phasma” for ghost because of their excellent camouflage.