New-to-science stick insect is the heaviest ever found in Australia

A newly named species of giant stick insect found in the wet tropical forests of Australia is considered to be the heaviest insect ever found on the continent.

Acropylla alta Weighs 44 grams, almost the same as a golf ball, and measures approximately 40 centimeters long. Only two female specimens have been collected so far, while a third individual has been photographed but released by the stunned inhabitants.

Although the kind of insects has been known since 1835, the species has remained unknown by science so far, probably because of its habitat, explains Angus Emmott at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia.

The humid tropics of northeast Australia are a real wilderness, covered with a fresh tropical forest which houses other unusual animals such as trees.

So far, Acropylla alta Was only found on mountain ranges with an altitude greater than 900 meters and in trees up to 60 meters above the ground, near Millaa Millaa and Mount Hypipamee, both in northern Queensland.

The name of the species AltaWhat means high, refers to both the altitude of the forests where the life of the insect and the height of the forest trees it frequents.

“It has quite substantial wings, but it can only use them to slide on the ground, because it also has such a bulky body,” explains Emmott.

Whether rare or not is currently unknown. “Because it’s in the canopy, we really don’t know,” says Emmott. “It is limited to a small tropical forest area at high altitude and it lives in the canopy, therefore, unless you obtain a cyclone or a bird by falling one, very few people can see them.”

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