What are the natural enemies of stick insects? A rundown of common predators in nature

Stick insects are mostly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, living in high mountains, dense forests and complex habitats. They have typical mimicry and protective coloration, resembling their habitat so closely that they are hard for enemies to spot. Among them, stick insects look extremely like the slender twigs of trees, while leaf mites look extremely like tree leaves. They usually live on grass or trees and feed on leaves. Let's take a look below at what natural enemies stick insects have!

Cuckoo wasps

Cuckoo wasps, also known as ruby-tailed wasps, are mostly distributed in parts of North China. Their egg-laying method is peculiar: the cuckoo wasp lays its eggs inside the nests of bees and wasps or on the skin of other larvae. After hatching, the larvae usually eat the food in the nest and even eat the small larvae of bees and wasps. Scientists call this phenomenon “brood parasitism”.

Crows

Crows are birds of the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae, order Passeriformes. They are omnivorous, and many species like to eat carrion and do some harm to seedlings and grain. However, during the breeding season they mainly feed on small vertebrates, locusts, mole crickets, scarab beetles and moth larvae, which benefits agriculture. In addition, because they like carrion and peck at agricultural waste, they can eliminate pollution of the environment by animal carcasses and so on, playing a role in purifying the environment.

Drongos

Drongos are birds that inhabit tropical broad-leaved rainforests in mountainous areas, active in open grassy areas among the forest, beside broad rivers in valleys, or in moist swampy areas. They mainly feed on insects such as locusts and grasshoppers, and also eat flower stamens and berries of plants. They often perch for long periods at the top of isolated tall trees, sometimes suddenly flying up rapidly to catch insects passing in the air, or flying and weaving through dense trees.

Ants

Ants are a kind of insect with a great many species. More than 11,700 species are known worldwide, and more than 600 species have been confirmed within China. They have very long lifespans: worker ants can survive from a few weeks to 3-10 years, while queens can live several years or even ten years. An ant nest can grow in one place for several years or even more than ten years. It should be noted that termites are not ants.

Spiders

Spiders are the most abundant predatory animals in terrestrial ecosystems. The name is the general term for all species of the order Araneae in the class Arachnida, phylum Arthropoda. They are distributed worldwide except in Antarctica, and their role in maintaining the stability of agricultural and forestry ecosystems cannot be ignored. They mostly feed on insects, other spiders and myriapods, and some spiders also feed on small animals.

Mantises

Mantises are terrestrial predatory insects (carnivorous). They are widely distributed around the world except in polar regions, with the richest species in tropical regions. Any small kind of insect can be preyed upon by mantises. In particular, flies, mosquitoes, locusts, the eggs, larvae, exposed pupae and adults of moths and butterflies are all suitable prey for them, and even large insects such as cicadas and migratory locusts are also their prey.

Changeable garden lizards

The changeable garden lizard is a reptile of the genus Calotes in the family Agamidae. It mostly inhabits tropical and subtropical regions and is commonly found in grass under forests, on hillsides, in graveyards, by rivers, along roadsides, and in grass or on tree trunks near residences. It has strong adaptability and is unaffected by human activity. Its survival altitude range is 80 to 2000 m, and it mainly feeds on insects and small vertebrates, including rodents and other lizards.