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Sticker of Tessellated stick insect
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Tessellated stick insect

Anchiale austrotessulata
Name means: “named for the black and white checked pattern on its wings”
Eats: PlantsStick and leaf insectsForests and woods6 legs

The tessellated stick insect is a long, brown grey insect that looks just like a twig. The females are about 15 centimetres long. The males have long wings with a black and white checked pattern and can fly.

Lives in
Australia, around the city of Brisbane
Length
12 to 15 cm (4.7 to 5.9 in)
Top speed
about 0.27 km/h (0.17 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It has no sting and does not bite people.
What does it eat?
It eats leaves, and the young ones eat so much while they grow that they can strip plants bare.
For real!Photo of Tessellated stick insect
Picture by Lucinda Gibson. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Tessellated stick insect about 15 cm long (5.9 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)A house cat about 50 cm (20 in)
as long as 5 toy building bricks in a rowabout as long as your handcould run across a dinner table in 13 seconds

How big is Tessellated stick insect compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The females have short wings and cannot fly, but the males have long wings and can.

2

A female can lay eggs without a male, and all the babies from those eggs are girls.

3

The mother flicks her tiny black eggs to the ground. Ants carry them to their nest, where they later hatch.

4

Its eggs are only 3 millimetres long, shiny black with a little white cap.

5

In the mating season the grown-up males rush around in a very busy, wild way.

you asked

Most asked questions about Tessellated stick insect

?How big is the tessellated stick insect?

Females are about 15 centimetres long and males about 12 centimetres.

?What does the tessellated stick insect eat?

Leaves. The growing young ones eat a lot.

?Is the tessellated stick insect dangerous?

No. It is a harmless leaf eater.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Anchiale austrotessulata
Named by
Gray, 1835
Group
Stick and leaf insects
Family
Phasmatidae
Classification
Insecta > Phasmatodea > Phasmatidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Tessellated phasmid, Tessulata stick insect

Where the facts come from

  1. Anchiale austrotessulata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Lucinda Gibson. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Stick and leaf insects

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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