Naming newly discovered giant insect a sticking point
A new species of stick insect found in Queensland’s high altitude rainforests is believed to be Australia’s heaviest insect, but naming it could prove tricky.
What could be Australia’s heaviest insect has been discovered in northern Australia’s high altitude rainforests.
The supersized stick insect, about 40cm long, was discovered in high altitude trees in Millaa Millaa in Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands and identified by James Cook University researcher Angus Emmott and wildlife expert Ross Coupland.
“They live high up in the rainforest canopy, and accessing that is almost impossible,” Professor Emmott told AAP.
“You’ve got to wait until, for instance, a bird knocks one down or you get a big storm and they get knocked down. It’s very, very hard to find them in situ.”
The female specimen weighed 44g, just less than a golf ball, but significantly heftier than Australia’s heaviest insect, the up-to 30g giant wood moth.
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“The females have wings, but because of their heavy bodies they’re not really great flyers,” Prof Emmott said.
The specimen, along with another female, are now in Queensland Museum’s collection.
The next step in identifying and eventually naming the species is finding a male, which is proving difficult, and not just because they are as thin as a stick.
Male stick insects tend to be significantly smaller and visually distinct from females that in other cases pairs have been described not only as different species, but different from a different genus altogether.
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“You really need to find the male copulating with the female,” Prof Emmott said.
“You know what it is then and you collect the eggs and you can actually ascertain that they’re one of the same thing.”
The eggs of the newly-discovered stick insect were key to its identification, as no two species’ eggs are the same.
Stick insects tend to be quite still in daylight hours to avoid predation by birds, so researchers traipse through the rainforest at night with head torches for the best chance of glimpsing them.
Likewise, their lifespan remains somewhat camouflaged.
“We don’t actually don’t know that yet, but I imagine only a couple of years maximum,” he said.
“Because, yes, there’s a lot of pressure on them with birds looking for them and eating them all the time, and I guess that’s why they’re so cryptic.”
The depth and density of life in Queensland’s rainforests mean untold numbers of insect species remain undefined or undiscovered.
“Up here in the tropics, in northern Australia, we’ve got so many insects that are as yet undescribed,” Prof Emmott said.
“For instance, I’ve got an undescribed cicada in the garden here that a friend of mine is in the process of describing, and I’ve been working on the moths up here as quite a number of them are undescribed.”
-with AAP
