The Insect That Isn't There
Carausius morosus, the Indian stick insect, can hold itself motionless for hours on a branch and become, to any predator scanning the canopy, a twig. Not approximately a twig. A twig with the right diameter, the right surface texture, the right slight bend. The order Phasmatodea, the stick insects and leaf insects, contains roughly 3,500 known species worldwide, and India is home to a significant cluster of them, concentrated in the dense, layered forests of the Western Ghats and the northeastern hill states of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. What makes India's populations scientifically compelling is the sheer diversity of mimicry strategies packed into a relatively small geographic zone.
