It's a rare Phasmid Sir

Name that film.

Identification - Phasmatodea sp, stick insect.

Great session today. I didn't find the spider/ant team that I want to video or the caterpillars that I wanted to collect, but plenty of material was available. I saw an otter too, but by the time I had snapped down the flash, flipped the distance range, and the auto focus switches on the lens and cranked up the ISO to 1600, she was gone. 'Hardly surprising' I hear you say, but I practice this adjustment regularly for just such occasions and it takes about two seconds.

Finally I found my first stick insect in 18 months of looking. I knew they had to be here, but their sophisticated camouflage makes them very difficult to spot. I did a double take on this one and I am fairly sure that a few months ago I would have walked right past and missed it. But, my search for different, new and more interesting subjects means that I have to be much more attentive to the task in hand.

I always thought that stick insects were bug eaters, but I found this specimen chewing away on a leaf, in fact you can see where he was feeding by the notch in the leaf by his front legs. Research confirmed that phasmids are herbivorous bugs and also confirmed why I never find them as they are nocturnal.

The farmer had scraped up all the refuse debris from yesterday and rather than throw it all back into the stream, he incorporated it into the path that he rebuilt - smart.

As I reached the furthest point of the safari route, the light dimmed suddenly by about 4 stops. I abandoned any further search and made my way back to the bike with some haste, but keeping safety in mind in these slippery conditions. I tied a plastic bag around the camera, mounted my steed and set off.

By the time I reached home, the road had been converted into a river and I could not be more wet if I had got on my belly and rolled in it. No big deal though, my flip-flops were clean and I have no hair to get wet.

Dave