Posted: Dec 31, 2010 9:04 pm
It´s worth noting that bugs are insects belonging to the Hemiptera, whereas leaf insects belong to a group called Euphasmida. They are distantly related, but their most recent common ancestor was at the base of the Neoptera. Butterflies and Beetles have a closer relationship than that. It bugs me (no pun intended) sometimes, that people don´t check these things with insects first. Imagine somebody writing a thread called "huge bat swimming the ocean feeding on krill", asking how evolution allowed a bat to swim through the ocean feeding on krill and meaning blue whales. They aren´t bats of course, but both bats and whales are mammals. Calling Phasmids bugs isn´t that different (it´s just a group that we aren´t as much involved as as mammals, but making up most of metazoan diversity should count for something).