Bug Babies

In 2015 I adopted 5 australian stick bugs from my biology 201 class and kept them for about a year or two. I had all females but what is interesting about this species is that they can reproduce without any males present, meaning they can clone themselves. Every egg they lay is female and an exact copy of its mother. After my first 5 started laying eggs, I soon became overwhelmed by eggs and decided to hatch them - incubating them in coco peat and water mist, three times a day. Eventually I was elated at the site of tiny little babies appearing everywhere in my kitchen ( I had them in tupperware, however they were small enough to escape through the air holes. I went so far as to adding panty hose on top of their cages because they could be smart little escape artists. I had over 50+ adult females by the next year and, interestingly enough, one actually transitioned itself into a male. He was sterile and could not mate with the females but I found it an interesting trait that I previously didnt know about stick bugs. I now have 3 or 4, including the lone male, frozen and ready to place in shadow boxes.