Stick insect caught on camera in Saudi

A Saudi man stumbled across a stick insect in the Gulf Kingdom and used his mobile phone to document its moves.

Ajel newspaper, which carried the U-Tube film, said the tropical insect was crawling on a tree when the man spotted it.

It said the insect kept freezing and changing its shape for camouflage when it felt danger as the man poked it with a stick.

According to National Geographic website, the stick insect resembles the twigs among which it lives, providing it with one of the most efficient natural camouflages on Earth Stick insect species, often called walking sticks, range in size from the tiny, half-inch-long (11.6-millimeter-long) of North America, to the formidable 13-inch-long (328-millimeter-long) of Borneo.

Stick insects generally mimic their surroundings in color, normally green or brown, although some species are brilliantly colored and others conspicuously striped. Many stick insects have wings, some spectacularly beautiful, while others resemble little more than a stump.

Many stick insects feign death to thwart predators, and some will shed the occasional limb to escape an enemy’s grasp.