Gargantuan stick insect
The gargantuan stick insect is the longest insect in Australia and one of the longest in the whole world. It is brown and looks just like a long twig. The girls are so good at hiding high up in the rainforest trees that people have found only a few of them in the wild.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
With its legs stretched out, a girl was measured at 56.5 centimetres long, longer than a school ruler and a half.
The boys are thinner and only about two thirds as long as the girls.
The boys can fly to look for girls, but the girls cannot fly at all.
A girl can have babies even without a boy.
The mum drops her seed-like eggs from the treetops, and the babies climb all the way back up after they hatch.
Most asked questions about Gargantuan stick insect
?What is the longest insect in Australia?
The gargantuan stick insect. With its legs stretched out, a female has been measured at 56.5 centimetres.
?Is the gargantuan stick insect dangerous?
No. It is a harmless leaf eater.
?Can the gargantuan stick insect fly?
The males can fly, but the females cannot.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ctenomorpha gargantua
- Group
- Stick and leaf insects
- Family
- Phasmatidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Phasmatodea > Phasmatidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Ctenomorpha gargantua (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Matthew Borella. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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