Male (left) and female Diapheromera femorata
Myrmecos blog commentators identified Sunday's mystery photo almost instantly as a stick insect laying an egg. The species is the Northern Walking Stick Diapheromera femorata, a common local insect easily collected by beating tree branches. We've taken a few home as pets, and the females are obligingly dropping several eggs a day.
The eggs of D. femorata resemble plant seeds
Photo details (top): Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/200 sec
(bottom): Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper
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uau! fantastic pictures!
these eggs are really amazing!
What is its myrmecolgical importance? Are the eggs carried to the nest by harvester ants?
Great shots! I love these guys. I'm sorry to say the last one I saw was being dismembered by a rather upset Polistes annularis.
The eggs have an operculum that attracts ants, so the ants disperse the eggs. This is analogous to the elaiosome of ant-dispersed plant seeds.