Its female is among the heaviest insects alive and lays the largest eggs known in any insect, comparable to a peanut.
From Jungle Nymph
It defends itself by snapping its spiny hind legs shut on whatever is holding it, and it also produces an audible hiss by rubbing its reduced wings together.
From Jungle Nymph
Incubation of its eggs can last more than a year, one of the longest embryonic developments in the insect world.
From Jungle Nymph
It walks while rocking back and forth to mimic a leaf stirred by the breeze, so that the camouflage does not break down as it moves.
From Giant Leaf Insect
Only females are known: it reproduces by parthenogenesis, and the unfertilised eggs always give rise to more females.
From Giant Leaf Insect
Its eggs look like seeds and are dropped to the ground, where they lie for months before hatching, one more layer of camouflage.
From Giant Leaf Insect
There are hardly any males: the species keeps going by parthenogenesis, and the populations consist almost entirely of females producing clones of themselves.
From Indian Stick-insect
It changes colour through the day, darkening at night and paling in the light, by moving pigment granules in its skin.
From Indian Stick-insect

Ecosystems