Wildlife experts in Australia have discovered a new giant stick insect, and it’s the largest, heaviest insect ever found in the region.
Australia is famous for hosting the weirdest creatures we’ve ever seen. Sometimes, these weird creatures also come extra-large—like the newly discovered stick insect that researchers believe may be the heaviest of all Aussie insects.
The insect, named Acrohylla alta, is about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long—about the height of a bowling pin—and weighs around 0.1 pounds (44 grams), slightly lighter than the heaviest golf ball. In a recent Zootaxa paper, wildlife researchers Angus Emmott and Ross Coupland describe in stunning detail the new insect, which they found deep within the rainforests of the Atherton Tablelands, an elevated plateau in southeastern Australia that’s about 3,000 feet (900 meters) high.
A strange photograph of an unknown species sent to the pair prompted the researchers’ trip to the Atherton Tablelands. Their outings typically transpired at night, when stick insects tend to be more active compared to the day, when they’re at risk of predation from birds.
