Spiny Leaf Insect Eating Molted Skin

'Twas two nights before Christmas, and rather than posting wishes for Peace on Earth and the Joy of the Season, she was posting videos of her spiny leaf insect eating her molted skin....

I was fascinated to find my spiny leaf bug this morning, hanging precariously from her molted skin.  I had missed the actual molt, but soon realized that she was eating her skin (no wonder I never find any in the cage, as I do with the stick bugs).  The whole process of chewing it, as she hung from it, took probably an hour.  I took two video clips, which I would like to share.  I promise to be more seasonal in upcoming posts.

Spiny Leaf Insects Eggs !!

I had a nice surprise tonight.  My oldest spiny leaf insect, who was born in April (see post), so is just shy of 8 months old, started laying eggs tonight!  My son helped me spot 5 eggs, which I have removed to another container on a layer of moist paper towels, to await the long 9 months until they will hatch.  Here they are in my hand (aren't they pretty?) :

By the time we looked back at the mom, she had an egg showing at the end of her tail (sorry for the blurry photo) :

My son and I waited until it dropped.  Pretty exciting.  I read that she could lay as many as 100 eggs.

This is pretty good timing, since it is a bittersweet time for me and my girls.  A long time ago, I posted an ad that I would be willing to sell up to 2 of my 5 girls, and recently I've been contacted by a lady who is so excited to buy them that she will have a friend bring them by airplane for her.  He is supposed to come this weekend to pick them up, and I've had such mixed feelings about parting with any of my girls, but I know they will be going to a good home where they will be appreciated.  Now I am also glad that I will have eggs to provide hope of a new generation once my dear bugs are gone.  If I have any sense, I won't keep all the eggs, and certainly not all the offspring! 

Here are some recent photos of all my girls.  This is #1, my big 8 month old girl (now a mom!) with the regenerating front leg.  She has a wonderful weight to her, when she is held, and little spines on her belly can be felt against my skin :

This is #2, she is a bit more green than my first one :

 This is # 3 :

This is # 4 :

This is # 5, who is 3 1/2 months old now :

I am thinking to keep #1, 2 & 5, and part with #3 & #4.

Spiny Leaf Insects Munching Leaves

If you're not already tired of my photos of the spiny leaf insects, here is a video I recorded on my Blackberry this evening:



If I were clever, I would figure out how to add music to the clip, but it's too late at night for such a challenge.

Spiny Leaf Bug Regrowing Her Leg

I am still enjoying my spiny leaf insects, my oldest being now almost 5 months old.  Recently she lost a front leg while molting, and I have been hoping that she will regrow it.  Spiny leaf bugs, like stick bugs, have the ability to regenerate missing limbs.  Pretty cool.

Anyhow, after arriving home from a one week vacation, I was very pleased to see that she is regrowing the leg.  See it in the photo below, it is still much smaller than the other legs, but through successive molts, it should get longer.  Way cool.  You go girl!

I was also pleased to find that I now have a new hatchling too, my 5th leaf bug now.  I am getting quite a collection.

For any of you who follow my blog for my garden, I apologize that I have not shared much of my garden lately. Happily, I have been able to spend quite a bit of time there, and have made significant progress re-working sections of it, but have not been taking my camera with me often enough, and often it is too dark by the time I remember.  I'll try to take it with me and share photos in the upcoming weeks.

There are signs of fall already, with changes in leaf colours starting a few weeks ago. I am doing lots of clean up already. I even got my act together this year, and harvested much of my lavender. Tonight I cut down many of my globe thistle flowers, and will dry and hope to use them for a dried flower arrangement. They look like something out of a Dr. Seuss story.

Another Spiny Leaf Bug

I apologize to those who follow my blog for photos of my garden.  Tonight I noticed another spiny leaf bug had hatched.  I now have 2 spiny leaf insects.  The oldest is 9 weeks old now, and is looking more like a curled up leaf every day:

I tried to be clever and get a photo with them both on my hand, which I did:

But the newly hatched bug moves very quickly, and after this photo, it promptly disappeared up my sleeve.  At which point I put the older bug back in her cage, and ended up taking off my shirt to search for the little one.  Fortunately, I found her without squishing her.

On the stick bug side, I still have way too many, and keep telling myself I will try to find a home for many of them.  I managed to give away 4 to good homes last weekend.  Good thing I have a plentiful supply of blackberry leaves in the neighbourhood.

Spiny Leaf Bug at 6 Weeks

I'm sure most of you are tired of my bug photos by now, but I am so fascinated by my spiny leaf insect, that I created a photo collage, showing the transformation so far, from the red/black ant-like newborn (top left) to the crinkly dried leaf at 6 weeks old (bottom right):

On the gardening side, the weather was wonderful last week, so I made an amazing amount of progress at cleaning it up, planting many of my recent purchases, and had 2 yards of soil brought in, which I spread into the cleaned up areas.  This week has been not bad either, considering the forecast a week ago was for 5 or 6 days of rain, and it has only rained a couple of times.  So I am continuing to make good progress on evenings and weekends, and hope to bring in another 2 yards of soil soon.  Most of the time, I have been too busy to take photos, but here is a collage of some of my recent photos, and I hope to take more soon.

Happy gardening, everyone!

Spiny Leaf Bug at 2 Weeks

Okay I'm a freak for bugs, but I am really enjoying my spiny leaf insect which hatched 2 weeks ago. When I open the door to her cage, she seems to sense it, and finds her way out. She is so interesting to handle, since she runs very quickly, her tail tightly curled, and then when she calms down, she slows down, and lets her tail unroll. The stick bugs move when provoked, but rarely do much walking, and when they do, it is much slower.  Here are a few photos of my spiny leaf girl (they will all be girls) from today (click any photo for a slightly larger image):

The red colour in her head is gone, but isn't she still freaky looking?  I am really fascinated by her.

We had a second one hatch a few days later, but it had a gimpy front leg, and has not done well.  I don't think it will last until tomorrow.  Earlier today I found it lying on its face on the bottom of the cage, its body quite shrunken flat.  So I pulled it out, and gave it some water in my hand.  It seemed to drink, and revived and filled out a bit.  I also finally removed the leg, since it was stumbling on it, and having difficulty moving forward at all.  Later today I found it looking almost dead again, and gave it some sugar-water in my hand.  Again, it seemed to drink, and its body filled out a bit, but it didn't revive very much.  Instead of its tail curling up, it hangs down onto the ground.  Poor little thing.  I hope more eggs will hatch soon.