The Molting of Sipyloidea sipylus, etc.

(move your mouse over the pictures for more info.)

    Here are some pictures S. sipylus shedding it's skin (molting).  Before a molt, a stick insect will start behaving strangely.  It may not eat for a day or two and might lay on the ground in preparation.  When ready, it will attach itself to a place where it can utilize gravity to help pull it out from the older skin.  Soon the older skin will split and the insect (now much larger) will slowly begin pulling itself out.  It allows gravity to do most of the work.  The entire exoskeleton (outer shell) is shed.  For example the first picture shows the antennas being pulled from the original skin.  The phasmid will proceed to remove its legs from the shell and then climb the skin to the top of  the cage or leaf.   Phasmids have been know to consume their own skin.  The entire process can take a few hours.  At the end, the skin is left hanging, and a much larger (up to 2X) insect leaves the scene.  It's body will be soft and must harden, but fortunately it's still an excellent stick mimic (note the stick in the background in the first picture).     

Some close-up pictures of the molted skin from a 2nd-instar Extatosoma tiaratum...

(60X)

(200X)