Need Stick Bug nymph identification please.

[Numismatica]

Hello all,

recently I found this guy hanging from some web in my tarantulas enclosure, seems to be a stick bug nymph which is quite baffling in the city of Peoria, AZ. My tarantula ate a definite male stick bug maybe 4-5 months ago that was wild caught in a part of northish Arizona that I cant recall at the moment. It wasn’t meant to go down like that but it happened. Anyways I’m wondering what the heck this is and how the heck it got in my tarantula enclosure. Someone said they can regrow, I need answers! Immortality?

 

[chanda]

That looks like it might be the nymph of one of the Parabacillus (short-horn walking sticks) - which are native to the southwest.

Are you 100% sure that the wild-caught walking stick you fed it was male? Or might it have been female? It's not as easy to tell with the Parabacillus as with some of the more robust species. If so, she might have laid a few eggs before being eaten.

I've raised the Western short-horn walking stick, Parabacillus hesperus (wild-caught locally in SoCal), and it seems like it takes forever for the eggs to hatch - plus the eggs are so small, you don't even know they're there half the time. They kind of look like grass seeds. I've even had a few of these guys hatch out in the trunk of my car. The only way they could have got there was when I transported mesh pop-up cages that had previously housed these walking sticks. There must have been a few eggs caught in the mesh that dropped out in the car - and later hatched.

 

[Numismatica]

That looks like it might be the nymph of one of the Parabacillus (short-horn walking sticks) - which are native to the southwest.

Are you 100% sure that the wild-caught walking stick you fed it was male? Or might it have been female? It's not as easy to tell with the Parabacillus as with some of the more robust species. If so, she might have laid a few eggs before being eaten.

I've raised the Western short-horn walking stick, Parabacillus hesperus (wild-caught locally in SoCal), and it seems like it takes forever for the eggs to hatch - plus the eggs are so small, you don't even know they're there half the time. They kind of look like grass seeds. I've even had a few of these guys hatch out in the trunk of my car. The only way they could have got there was when I transported mesh pop-up cages that had previously housed these walking sticks. There must have been a few eggs caught in the mesh that dropped out in the car - and later hatched.

I was almost sure it was male but I’m going to agree with you. I see no other possibility! Very interesting, sadly this is the only one I could find and it’s already passed away thank you for your reply!