A stick insect with the weight of a golf ball and the length of your forearm has been sitting undetected in the treetops of Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands. It may be the heaviest insect ever documented in the country.
Researchers say the newly identified species, Acrophylla alta, measures nearly 16 inches and is bulkier than most stick insects by a wide margin. “There are longer stick insects out there,” said Professor Angus Emmott of James Cook University. “But they’re fairly light-bodied. From what we know to date, this is Australia’s heaviest insect.”
The species was found in a patch of high-altitude rainforest in Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands. It lives up in the canopy, which makes it hard to spot without help from a strong wind, a hungry bird, or, in this case, a lucky discovery. “Unless you get a cyclone or a bird bringing one down, very few people get to see them,” Emmott explained.
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So why is this one so heavy? According to Emmott, its size might be an adaptation to the environment. “It’s a cool, wet environment where they live. Their body mass likely helps them survive the colder conditions, and that’s why they’ve developed into this large insect over millions of years.”
The eggs, too, helped confirm that Acrophylla alta was something new. Stick insect species can often be identified by their eggs alone, since no two kinds lay the same ones. “They’ve all got different surfaces and different textures and pitting,” Emmott said. “Even the caps on them are all very unique.”
Two of these oversized sticks are now sitting in the Queensland Museum, waiting to help scientists piece together what else we’ve missed by never looking up. What they reveal could change how researchers understand the forest and the species holding it together.
“To conserve any ecosystem, we actually need to know what’s there and what makes it tick before we can think about the best ways to conserve it,” Emmott said.
As for Acrophylla alta, it may have stayed hidden for this long simply by staying high, still, and extremely good at looking like a stick.
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