Meet our Northern walking stick (Diapheromera femorata), a master of camouflage and subterfuge. Seen here is a male, usually smaller than females, which can grow to 7 inches long. Oaks and hazelnuts sustain this insect from hatchling to adulthood. Looking like a branch certainly helps avoid being eaten, but its reproductive cycle is also ingenious. The eggs are dropped from a tree, one at a time, during late August into September. The eggs mimic seeds, each sporting an edible attachment that clo