James H. Niehols, ITI, age 10, of Pittsburg,  for his question:

Is there an insect called a walkingstick?

Yes, indeed, there is an insect called the walkingstick. And he could not have a more suitable name. For he looks exactly like a walking stick. His body is long, like a stick. It even has markings to suggest the joints in a cane and his little round head looks like the knob at the top of an elegant cane.

However, he has six long, twig‑like legs and a pair of long, thin antennae trailing back from his knobby head. These features do not belong on a real cane, or walking stick, and tend to spoil the resemblance. On close inspection he looks very like a bundle of fine twigs ‑ which suits him fine. For hungry animals tend to ignore a bundle of twigs.

Full grown, Mrs. Walkingatick is about three inches long, which is large for an insect. Her husband is somewhat smaller. These insects are quite plentiful in the Southland, from coast to coast. In fewer numbers they exist way up in Canada, except in the prairies and the western mountains. Chances are there are walkingsticks around Pittsburgh, though you may need a sheriff’s posse to find one.

Perched on the bark of his favorite tree, the walkingstick is almost invisible. If you looked right at him you might mistake him for a piece of the tree. If he chose to live on a cherry tree in your garden, however you would know he was there. He may be quite destructive, nibbling bites out of leaves here and there. He will also feed on oak, walnut and locust leaves and he always makes his home on the tree of his choice, right near his food supply.

Mrs. Walkingstick lays about 100 eggs. She sits on the tree trunk and drops them on the ground one at a time. Then her duty for the season is over, for she cannot survive the winter. The next generation of walkingsticks in the egg stage, sleeping gently on the ground.

Come spring, the eggs hatch. Pretty soon there is a brood of miniature walkingsticks. The little fellows scum around searching for a tree that can provide them with groceries. The young leave are bursting opens all tender and juicy. The little walkingsticks settle down to dine. They eat and eat and soon get too big for their skins. This is no problem. They simply molt. The old tight skin bursts open and the insects remove it just as you take off your sweater at the end of the day.

Under the old skins the insects have grown new, larger skins. At first the new skins are soft and crumpled. But they soon dry in the air. The youngsters now become a size larger. They settle down again to the serious business of eating. The story repeats itself. They eat, burst their skins, and molt again and again. After five or six molts, the new generation of walkingsticks are adults, ready to have children of their own.