Submitted 2 days ago by maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone to australia@aussie.zone
A newly discovered stick insect which weighs slightly less than a golf ball may be the heaviest insect in Australia, scientists say.
The 40cm-long new species, named Acrophylla alta, was found in the high altitudes of the Atherton tablelands in north Queensland – and scientists said the habitat could be part of the reason for its large size.
With stick insects, the eggs are very diagnostic
Insectology is a weird field…
The insect was so high up that they had to use a long stick to get it down
“Want me to climb up to the canopy and see if I can grab it?” “Nah, just hand me that long stick there”
I like the idea that it just got stuck high up and the put out a stick and it was like “oh shit, now this I like and immediately crawled onto a dead stick because it looked similar”
Nah, just hand me that long stick there”
…and that’s when they found the really big stick insect.
I have a ruler in my desk partially to train my brain in centimeters. Whipped it out just now.
40cm?!
The Insulindian Phasmid!
I see, you’re a person of culture as well.
“Supersized”? What if all the other stick insects are actually little and this one is regular sized.
It evolved to branch insect.
I don’t think I would be that brave coming that close to anything unknown in Australia given it’s propensity for lethal life forms.
Sometimes ya just gotta raw dog life…
PineRune@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I see we are using the American system of measurements here.
maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 1 day ago
It’s a weird trick though. As someone whose brain doesn’t know what 40 to 45g feels like in weight, it certainly thinks it knows what a golf balls feel like in weight.
x00z@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“It weighs 40 to 45g - slightly less than a golf ball - and …”
lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
“<thing> is so heavy! It weighs about as much as 13,879.25 elephants!”