Strange creatures

This is one of the insects we keep in the vivarium. It is a phasmid - the stick insect family. These are very easy to look after - they eat bramble leaves and generally hang around upside down pretending to be bits of leaves. When I open the door to feed and water them they sway a bit - as if in a breeze, but otherwise they don't move while anyone is looking. They have a tail which looks a bit scorpion like - to put off predators who see through the dead-vegetation disguise.

We have five - all females. Apparently they don't need males to reproduce, they can lay eggs which produce clones.

The eggs have a bit which is attractive to ants. The ants take the eggs to their antheap, eat part and discard the egg. When the egg hatches the lava look and act like ants! Once they leave the antheap they take the adult form and pretend to be dead vegetation...