[1] Anisomorpha buprestoides is a large, stout (for a stick insect) brown phasmid with three conspicuous longitudinal black stripes.

[2] This species, and another in the same genus (Anisomorpha ferruginea, whose range is more west and north, but may overlap with A. buprestoides) is particularly well known for its very potent chemical defense spray which it deploys from a pair of glands which open at the front of its thorax.

The "Devil rider" name for this insect likely comes from this defense, as well as the fact that they are most frequently encountered in the late summer and fall when they are active adults at a time when almost all of them are found in mating pairs, with the smaller male riding on the back of the larger female.

All three color forms each have unique behaviors of aggregation, diurnal activity cycles and egg laying which conform to the ecological conditions in which they are found.

The white color form was featured on the cover of the March issue of Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 2009.