These were my comments when I last saw and snapped a stick insect in my garden in May 2018:
"My garden in Paignton. Presumably a prickly stick insect, Acanthoxyla geisovii, since these are common to Torbay. The first one was sighted in Paignton in 1909. In 1907 tree ferns were imported from New Zealand, home of these insects, to the Isles of Scilly and some of them were sent to Paignton. When we moved here we unwittingly destroyed their main habitat in our garden by cutting down a large leylandii, but they still appear every now and again. This one is about 4 or 5 cm long, so just a youngster." 30 May 2018
