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A Needle in a Haystack

More giant insects from the tropics

Bronwen Scott
3 min readApr 25, 2023
Close up of the head of Wülfing’s Stick Insect, Atherton Tablelands, FNQ. © Bronwen Scott

Stick insects are one of nature’s most remarkable disappearing acts. But not this one, which parked itself in the carport for a few days before relocating to the car.

Crypsis works best against a complex background, not concrete blocks and duco. But standing out was not a problem on this occasion. The carport provided daytime shelter from the gangs of Pied Currawongs, Hornbill Friarbirds and Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes, marauding Mad Max-style through the neighbourhood. They hunted through the trees, unaware of the potential meal hidden by the corrugated iron roof.

To get an idea of the size, the height of a concrete block is 18 cm. © Bronwen Scott.

This is Wülfing’s Stick Insect (Acrophylla wuelfingi, Phasmatidae), one of Australia’s longest insects. George Robert Gray described the genus Acrophylla in 1835, including eleven species, all from Australia. Among the species in Gray’s work was Acrophylla titan from SE Queensland and NE New South Wales, which is now commonly kept as a pet.

But Wülfing’s Stick Insect wasn’t described for another 73 years. Josef Redtenbacher named it after Wolff von Wülfing, a German merchant in Jakarta (as Batavia), Java, who first observed parthenogenesis

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Bronwen Scott
Bronwen Scott

Written by Bronwen Scott

Zoologist, writer, artist, museum fan, enjoying life in the tropical rainforest of Far North Queensland. She/her. Website: bronwenscott.com

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