The insects in phasmida, commonly known as stick insects, are large or medium-sized, generally 3-30 cm long, with a maximum length of 565,438+0 cm, making them the largest living insects. The elongated body is rod-shaped, shaped like a bamboo pole (such as a stick insect) or a broad leaf, shaped like a bamboo leaf (Ye Xiu). The body color is mostly green or brown. Small head, mouth. Antennas are filiform, jointed and short. Mouth is chewing, compound eye is small; Monocular 2-3, or missing.

Bamboo-shaped person, with short front chest and extremely long middle and back chest; Foliform people are not particularly elongated in the middle and back chest. The front wing is short, leathery, scaly, covered with wings, developed or sometimes degraded or completely missing, and the rear wing is membranous, wide, with a large hip area and folded in a fan shape. Temperate species often have no wings, while tropical species often have developed front and rear wings, and some are degraded or wingless. For hermaphroditism and bamboo-shaped, females have short wings or no wings, while males have the opposite; On the other hand, if the body is like a bamboo leaf, the female insect has developed wings and leaves, and the hind wings are degraded, while the male insect's front wings are degraded and the hind wings are developed. Feet are slender or flat and wide, with 5 hocks, and a few have 3 or 4 hocks.

The abdomen is slender or flat and wide, 10, with similar links. 1 Nodes often heal later in the chest. The ovipositor is underdeveloped, and the tail hair is 1 knot.

The type of metamorphosis is gradual metamorphosis. After hatching from eggs, the larvae and adults are similar in shape and life habits, but the wings of larvae are not fully developed and the reproductive organs are not yet mature. After peeling, their wings and reproductive organs gradually develop and grow. This larva is called nymph. The eggs laid by female insects are scattered on the ground, and the eggs are wrapped in glue stick's bag, shaped like seeds. The egg period is long, temperate species often overwinter with eggs, and the incubation takes 65,438+0-2 years. Nymphs develop slowly, generally it takes 65,438+0-65,438+0.5 years to complete 65,438+0 generations, and molt 3- 16 times to become adults. Some can parthenogenesis.

Stick insects are mostly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. Living in alpine forests and complex habitats, it has typical mimicry and protective color, similar to its habitat, and is not easy to be discovered by the enemy. Among them, stick insects are very similar to twigs of trees, while spider mites are very similar to leaves. Usually live in grass or trees and feed on leaves. Adults can also spend the winter, but they can't or are not good at flying.

There are more than 2,500 species belonging to 2 families and 5 families in phasmida, and there are 100 species in China.