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Indian Stick Insect | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Indian Stick Insect

Carausius morosus

InsectaShrubs and low woody vegetation; widely kept in classrooms and laboratories

Field profile

The Indian stick insect is a slender green-brown phasmid about eight centimetres long, with red patches at the base of the forelegs. It is the standard laboratory and school stick insect. Almost every individual in culture is female.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2023-10-05

Indian Stick Insect

This stick insect breeds without any males

Cultures of Carausius morosus have been maintained for generations with no males present. Unfertilised eggs develop into female offspring by parthenogenesis, and males are so rare in captivity that most keepers never see one.

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