General News
6 August, 2025
Supersized stick insect discovered on Tablelands
IT WEIGHS about the same as a golf ball, lives in high altitudes in the Atherton Tablelands, and could bump off the giant burrowing cockroach as the current heavy-weight champion insect of Australia.
A 40cm stick insect, the focus of a new research paper, has stunned the public and the science community after it was discovered and photographed around the Mt Lewis National Park and the Evelyn Tablelands region by Renee and Wayne Young.
Locally-based biologist working at JCU, Angus Emmott, and research co-author Ross Coupland saw the discovery on the iNaturalist website and social media. They visited the area and also located the giant bug.
After detailed examination, their study was published last Thursday, which concluded the Acrophylla alta was a new species of stick insect, and could be the weightiest insect in the country, at 44 grams.
“There are longer stick insects out there [in the region], but they’re fairly light-bodied,” Professor Emmet said in a statement last week.
“From what we know to date, this is Australia’s heaviest insect.”
The scientists suspect that one possible reason why this stick insect species was not discovered until now was that its habitat was simply too difficult to access.
“It’s restricted to a small area of high-altitude rainforest, and it lives high in the canopy. So, unless you get a cyclone or a bird bringing one down, very few people get to see them,” Prof Emmet said.
Despite their size, they were extremely well camouflaged to the vegetation.
The habitat could also be the reason behind their large body size.
“It’s a cool, wet environment where they live,” he said.
“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.”
Two specimens of the species have now been included in the Queensland Museum to be used by other scientists to help with species identification.
Prof Emmet said the discovery also had wider implications for ecosystem conservation.
“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,” he said.
