Stickbugs have been part of this blog since the beginning(the Stickbug Photo Gallery still generates a ton of hits). We thought we lost all of our stickbugs, but a few survived and we are hoping the colonies get back up to normal levels this year. We ended up with only three Indian Stickbugs. These ladies are almost big enough to start laying eggs, so hopefully we will have a normal batch of little stickbugs from them (we started the colony with only two, so three should do the trick!) There was a weird off-season hatching of Australians Stickbugs, but there were no females. So there are a few lonely bachelors roaming the enclosure. The normal hatching is underway, and it looks like we'll have enough to get back to normal (again, we started with a single pair). We still have several months before any of the Australians are big enough to mate, but I am being optimistic.
I haven't photographed any of the sticks for a while - taking no chances on stressing out the few we still had. Now that there are only male adult Australians, I hope to get some pictures of these guys up soon - especially would like some pictures showing their wings spread. Check back, I'm working on that!
I will update the tattoo scene later...
