Move over, you grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches. You’re all marvellous insects, it’s true, but your lesser-known relatives—the walking sticks, or stick insects—are simply amazing. Especially the way they can “disappear” right before your eyes!

Walking sticks are masters of disguise. Of the more than 2500 species in the world, most resemble twigs or leaves in colour, shape, and texture. From spring to fall, some species change colours to keep blending with the trees and bushes they live and feed on. Walking sticks are so well camouflaged that even their predators have a hard time spotting them.

At night, stick insects are busy munching, but during the day, they often stand as still as death. Now and then, they might shift slowly from side to side, mimicking the movement of host plants that are blowing in the breeze.

If their disguise fails, some stick insects may try to turn away a predator by squirting it with a chemical spray. In Asia, female Malay giant walking sticks might attempt to beat off an attacker with the sharp “thorns” on their back legs or scare it by his-s-s-s-ing with their wings.

Not all is lost if a young walking stick loses a leg to a predator. The next time the insect moults, it can usually regrow the leg—though the new one might be a smaller size. Stick insects moult five or six times before becoming adults.

Like most other insects, walking sticks do nothing to care for their young. The females just let their eggs fall to the ground where many are attacked. Help might arrive, however, in the form of ants that can carry the eggs to the safety of nests underground. Of course, the ants are not deliberately trying to be helpful. They just like to nibble on outer parts of the eggs, which doesn’t harm the developing walking sticks. On hatching, the little insects leave the ant nests and head up to the trees to hide and feed.