Giant prickly stick insect Extatosoma tiaratum
Is it a leaf... or an insect?
The female owes her scientific name of ‘tiaratum’ to the group of spines on her head.
The giant prickly stick insect in a nutshell
- eats
- mainly eucalyptus leaves
- inhabits
- Australia
- excels at
- camouflage
Major difference
In this species, the males and females have a very different external appearance, which is known as sexual dimorphism. The females are bulky and spiny and have wings that are too small to enable them to fly. The males are much smaller and flatter and have larger wings, so they can fly. Because of the enormous differences, researchers thought for a long time that the males and females were two different species.
Stick insects are masters of camouflage and will sway back and forth like a leaf in the wind when disturbed. When a female feels truly threatened, however, she rolls her tail up and raises her front legs in the air. This makes her look like a scorpion and scares off other animals.
Eggs
A female is capable of laying eggs without a male. In this case, the eggs hatch after nine to 12 months and the young are always female. By contrast, when there is a male available to mate with, the eggs hatch after only four to six months, and the young are both male and female. A young giant prickly stick insect moults about six times in the first few months, after which it reaches maturity.