Especially the upper wings have the same leaf appearance in terms of shape and pattern. As the name suggests, they look just like a leaf. Therefore, these insects are also called “walking bushes” or “walking leaves”. The Giant leaf insect (Phyllium giganteum Hausleithner, 1984)
In France is commonly called the Phyllie géante, in Germany Das grosse Wandelnde Blatt, whilst in England Walking leaves or True leaf insect and in Italy, Fillio or Insetto foglia.
It belongs to the family of the Phylliidae and to the order of the Phasmatodea, from the Greek “φάσμα” “phasma” = ghost or apparition, to which belong about 2000 species diffused in all the world excepting Antarctica and Patagonia.
This order, less known than others such as, for instance, those of the coleopterans or of the lepidopterans, has always had the merit of getting close 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, amateurs and/or simple onlookers of the fascinating world of the entomology. This thanks to the fact that all leaf or stick insects are herbivorous species, in particular phytophagous, that is nourishing of leaves; animals harmless to humans and easy to breed, seen that almost all do have vestigial wings and consequently cannot fly away. They give great satisfactions, especially to the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, because they can keep them in the hand, and extremely prolific seen that they reproduce by parthenogenesis.
Moreover, the leaf insect is one of the classical examples the science teacher or the professor of zoology utilize for describing the cryptism that, in most of the cases, is mistaken with the mimicry.
