The thesis presented is a continuation of my bachelor thesis which engaged in the mimetic in nature. In the introductory part there are hypothesis whether Phasmatodea are appropriate didactic group that could be used in the biology and ecology classes, whether there are some easily bred species of Phasmatodea, which could be possibly recommended to scholar insectariums and whether school textbooks for elementary and high schools engage with breeding Phasmatodea and the topic of mimetic. These hypotheses are refuted or confirmed at the end of the thesis. The next part origins from detailed study of many species of Phasmatodea where there are specific species described with detailed information. The next part of the thesis is about breeding few kinds of this sort, the opportunities of beginning the breeding in school environment with advices from real practice, in which way it is possible to manage the insectarium and the breeding and whether Phasmatodea in general can be used as appropriate didactic group in biology and ecology classes. The following part is full of specific motifs of observing and tests in school, thus the didactic use is regarded especially for teachers of elementary and high schools. Both aforementioned parts of the thesis are accompanied by pictures and photographs - some of...

Stick and leaf insects (Insecta: Phasmatodea) are a mesodiverse order of insects distributed across the world. These masters of masquerade crypsis are riddled with analogous morphological characters and lack a robust taxonomic framework. It seems that convergent evolution and the re-evolution of complex traits like wings and ocelli is perhaps the rule rather than the exception in stick insects. To investigate the re-acquisition of traits in this unique study system, a robust phylogenetic framework is essential. Our analyses combine traditional Sanger data with a transcriptomic backbone to provide the most corroborated phylogenetic analyses to date. To accomplish this, we employ a taxon sampling strategy which nearly doubles the number of exemplars in previous studies covering nearly a third of species diversity in Phasmatodea. Ultimately, we found that stick and leaf insects contain rampant taxonomic incongruence and provide a framework for future studies on all aspects of their evolution.