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Sticker of Touch-me-not stick insect
Bug card No. 4403 of 4,939

Touch-me-not stick insect

Epidares nolimetangere
Name means: “don't touch me”
Eats: PlantsStick and leaf insectsRainforests and jungles6 legs

The touch-me-not stick insect is a small, spiky stick insect from the rainforest. It has no wings, and its body is covered with sharp-looking spines. The males can be red, brown, green or even golden, depending on where they live.

Lives in
Borneo in Southeast Asia, on low bushes in the rainforest
Length
3.5 to 4.8 cm (1.4 to 1.9 in)
Top speed
about 0.15 km/h (0.09 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. The spines look prickly, but it does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It eats leaves of shrubs in the rainforest, for example wild brambles.
For real!Photo of Touch-me-not stick insect
Picture by Drägüs. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Touch-me-not stick insect about 4.8 cm long (1.9 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 8 grains of rice in a rowas long as 1.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 24 seconds

How big is Touch-me-not stick insect compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its scientific name "nolimetangere" is Latin for "don't touch me", because it looks so prickly.

2

The mother digs a little hole with her legs, rolls her egg in and then covers it up again.

3

The eggs are covered with tiny hooked hairs.

4

The babies hatch three to six months after the egg is laid.

5

Pet keepers around the world breed it, and different families come from different mountains in Borneo.

you asked

Most asked questions about Touch-me-not stick insect

?Is the touch-me-not stick insect dangerous?

No. It looks spiky, but it is harmless.

?How big is the touch-me-not stick insect?

Males are about 3.5 to 4.3 centimetres long, and females up to about 4.8 centimetres.

?Can it fly?

No. Both males and females have no wings.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Epidares nolimetangere
Named by
de Haan, 1842
Group
Stick and leaf insects
Family
Heteropterygidae
Classification
Insecta > Phasmatodea > Heteropterygidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Epidares (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Drägüs. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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