Bug FAQCristina's Timema
Timema cristinae · Order: Phasmida · Family: Timematidae
Cristina's Timema is a tiny, wingless stick insect that lives on shrubs in a small mountainous area of southern California. Adults are 2 to 3 cm long, with males about 2 cm and females about 3 cm, and they come in green, red, grey, or striped morphs. Females lay single eggs mainly in April-May, which stay dormant for about eight months before hatching in December.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Color morphs include a plain green form, a plain red form, a plain grey form, and a green form with a white stripe down the back.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults are among the smallest stick insects, reaching only 2 to 3 cm in length. Males are about 2 cm long and slimmer than females, which are about 3 cm long.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It lives exclusively in a roughly 30 km² mountainous region of chaparral shrubland. The insects are found within the shrubs themselves.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
It feeds on the shrubs it inhabits, especially Adenostoma fasciculatum and Ceanothus spinosus.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Females can reproduce throughout their lives, laying one egg at a time.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Egg laying mainly occurs in April and May. Hatching starts in December.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Cristina's Timema is native to southern California in the United States.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 1 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What color forms does Cristina's Timema have?
It occurs in four morphs: a solid green form, a solid red form, a solid grey form, and a green form with a white stripe along the back.
Source: Wikipedia
When do the eggs hatch?
Hatching begins in December after the eggs have been dormant for about eight months.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Timematidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timema_cristinae
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-29 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-29.