Mediterranean stick insect

Bacillus rossius · Order: Phasmida · Family: Bacillidae

Also called: Corsican Stick-insect

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It feeds on bramble leaves, ivy and privet, which can damage garden plants.

Their colour ranges from brown to green and may show a pinkish tint on the head, legs and sides.

How to recognize it

Adults have a slim body, short antennae and long, thin legs.

An adult can reach about 10 cm (4 inches) in length.

The species is endemic to the north-western Mediterranean region.

It feeds on bramble leaves, ivy and privet.

Females lay seed-like eggs that hatch into nymphs after 8 weeks to 2 months. The species lives up to about one year.

Adults can be found from June through mid-December.

It is native to Italy, Spain, southern France and the Balkans.

It is also known as the European stick insect, European walking stick, or Mediterranean stick insect.

What does the Mediterranean stick insect eat?

It feeds on bramble leaves, ivy and privet.

When can I see these insects?

They are present from June to mid-December.

How big do they get?

Adults grow to about 10 cm (4 inches) long.

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.