Green walking stick, possibly Timema sp., in redwood forest - Timema poppense

Moved to Timema poppense

Moved from Timema.

[Hi, Joe. FYI, as a relatively new BugGuide contributor...I just "moved" your images from the "Timema genus page" on BugGuide to the "T. poppense species page". Brandon had previously moved the post from "ID Request" to the "Timema genus page". These are among the things we do as "BugGuide editors".]

… Aaron Schusteff, 13 May, 2018 - 4:18pm

Good find, Joe!

This is no doubt T. poppense...since it (thankfully, for ID purposes) is a male. That can be discerned from the color and shape of the terminalia...sufficiently visible in the photo, even with its small size & somewhat low-resolution/detail. If it had been a lone female, then the species ID would become engulfed in a problematic ambiguity arising from the existence of a "look-alike" species, T. douglasi, consisting of parthenogenetic (i.e. asexual, self-fertile) females.

The narrow darker green stripes (one medial, and one laterally on each side) are characteristic of T. poppense/douglasi here. Both prefer Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) as their host plant, but have also been found on coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). The presence of a male indicates T. poppense here.

I can't tell for certain from the oblique view here but this may be a nymph (i.e. not reached its final molt to fully-mature adult). But the adult stages should be out very soon, if not now. In sexually-reproducing (vs. parthenogenetic) Timema species like T. poppense, most sightings will involve paired individuals with a (smaller) male riding "piggy-back" atop of a (larger) female...often for days. This is considered "mate-guarding" behavior, where the male is trying to prevent other males for mating with the female (presumably to promote propagation of the piggy-backing males genes).

Hope you see more of these fascinating creatures. If you do, try to get a clear & detailed (straight-down dorsal) image of the male terminalia, if possible. For females, a clear & detailed ventral view of terminalia can be helpful, but by themselves females are generally harder to ID than males. And you could conceivably also have T. douglasi present nearby, as well.

And, last but not least...Welcome to BugGuide, Joe! :-)

… Aaron Schusteff, 13 May, 2018 - 3:21pm

Timema poppense

I've posted two more photos of the same individual, both at higher resolution and one showing a different view. Thanks for confirming my ID, and for updating the species name to poppense from the original poppensis.

… Joe Neigel, 13 May, 2018 - 3:47pm

Great, thanks for adding the two more photos!

Note that I subsequently "tagged" and then "linked" your additional photos to form a single post. The convention on BugGuide is to always link photos of the same individual as a series within a single post. We also try to add any comments that pertain to the whole post under the 1st image of the series...though sometimes that doesn't happen ;-)

Also, FYI, you can post images up to a max size of 3072 x 3072 pixels on BugGuide, although only you and BugGuide editors & experts will be able to view those higher resolution images via BugGuide. Other visitors will only see a reduced-size version (scaled to have a max side-length of 560 pixels). The reason most viewers are shown a smaller image size has to do with through-put limitations on the capabilities of BugGuide's servers in providing downloads to large numbers of visitors. However, the ability for experts & editors to view larger images allows them to better scrutinize submitted images in their attempts to discern diagnostic characters for providing an ID.

… Aaron Schusteff, 13 May, 2018 - 5:06pm

Tentative ID of walking stick

Based on the distribution map at http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/Timema/Timema_distribution_map.jpg
this is likely Timema poppensis

… Joe Neigel, 11 May, 2018 - 11:01am

Timema map

Note that the species distribution map appearing on the "Timema Discovery Project" website (which is originally from Wikipedia, and also appears here) is useful as a rough guide, but is also significantly inaccurate in many ways, and thus is not sufficient for a dependable species ID. In particular, both T. poppense and T. douglasi occur widely throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains south of the Golden Gate.
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More importantly, note there's lots of info on the BugGuide "info page" for Timema, and also on the BG info page for T. poppense.

And it would be great if we can generate more participation (e.g. detailed observations and appropriate collection) to help Doug Yanega and others move our understanding forward under the Timema Discovery Project.

… Aaron Schusteff, 13 May, 2018 - 4:16pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… metrioptera, 11 May, 2018 - 10:04am

Undoubtedly a Timema species.

There is a Timema project currently underway at UC Riverside - check out this link: http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/Timema/Participate.html

… Bob Zuparko, 11 May, 2018 - 9:57am

Timema project

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this. I'll see if I can collect some.

… Joe Neigel, 11 May, 2018 - 10:10am