Stick Insects of South Africa's Journal

1,118 Observations of 17 taxa by 659 observers

2050 identifications by 191 identifiers

• 544 Research Grade (48%)
• 275 ID only as Stick Insect - Phasmidae (25%) (help put these to family or genus level)
• 77 ID to Family level (7%) [27 Bacillidae, 14 Phasmatidae, 9 Diapheromeridae]
• 120 to Generic level (11%) [54 Bactrododema, 9 Phalces, 4 Macynia]
• 104 to species level (9%) (help by agreeing to these if you are able)

Top Recorded Species:

There are about 50 species in South Africa, and we have recorded 16 identified to species so far.
296 Phalces brevis Cape Stick Insect
143 Macynia labiata Thunberg's Stick Insect

57 Carausius morosus Indian Walking Stick
44 Sipyloidea sipylus Pinkwing Stick Insect
39 Bactrododema tiaratum Tiara Giant Stick Insect
19 Bactricia bituberculata Twohorn Giant Stick Insect
14 Family Phasmatidae no finer IDs for this family!!
12 Bactrododema haworthii Short Horn Giant Stick Insect

7 Maransis rufolineatus Common Grass Stick Insect
6 Phalces tuberculatus Namaqualand Stick Insect
6 Bactrododema krugeri Long Horn Giant Stick Insect
6 Zehntneria mystica Mystic Stick Insect

4 Gratidiinilobus capensis
2 Xylica tomsi
2 Maransis trilineatus
2 Xylica oedematosa
1 Clonaria capemontana

Top observers (10 or more observations)

1 tonyrebelo 36
2 suncana 18
3 sallyslak 16
4 nicky 16
5 bushboy 14
6 colin25 12
7 hhodgson 11
8 karooicus 10

Top species recorders (more than 2 species)

4 spp: nicky
3 spp:
2 hhodgson
3 bloempje
4 felix_riegel
5 koosretief
6 celmari
7 ryanmtippett
8 botaneek
9 qgrobler

Top identifiers (>25 IDs)

1 martin_villet 645
2 rjpretor 411
3 beetledude 232
4 colin25 93
5 traianbertau 93
6 tonyrebelo 66
7 pablo_valero 47
8 alexdreyer 30
9 pengyuan_ji 29
10 dianastuder 26

Being herbivorous and being slow, Stick Insects are usually found on their food plants (except being so successfully crytpic, one usually notices them on walls and windows).
So what do Stick Insects eat. The famous introduced Laboratory Stick Insect feeds on alien Ivy and Privet. But what do our own species eat?
When you observe a Stick Insect, please also add an observation for their food plant, and link them to it via the interactions project: here - please join: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/interactions-s-afr

This is what we have so far:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order_by=votes&place_id=any&project_id=interactions-s-afr&taxon_id=47198&verifiable=any

Please remember to contribute to this useful database. Your options will be

• "associated with" if not seen feeding or

• "eating" if seen feeding
  And add the url of the plant in the relevant field.