An article calling for people to look out for an uncommon stick insect started me re-looking at my population of stick insects in the garden. It turns out that they are all the common or garden alien Indian stick insects, but the Common might harbour the more uncommon varieties. See my article Stick insects in the news. (Click on the highlighted text. To get back again, click on the arrow on the top left of the window.)
These goggas are most interesting, and apparently in some species who live in fynbos, their hard, seed-like eggs are attractive to ants who treat them like edible seeds or ant larvae, or dead ants, that need to be carried into their underground nest, where they are safe from fires and parasitic wasps.
Caroline Voget