# Outdoors > Photography and Video >  Amazing stick insect

## Flyblown

This incredible bramble appeared on a Red Band gumboot this morning. I thought it was stuck on the boot and damn nearly grabbed it to pull it off. Check out the astonishing replication of a bramble stick, complete with sharp thorns. How on earth do they do this?

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## zimmer

Nice photos, interesting subject.

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/d...stick-insects/

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## Shearer

Very cool.

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## rugerman

I haven't seen the spikey ones before. amazing camouflage for sure  :Have A Nice Day:

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## hotbarrels

Awesome.  Must be the season.

I just had this fearsome alien sneak in the home office window and take a liking to the camo beanie that was sitting next to the coffee cup.  Gave me a hell of a fright.

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## mopheadrob

Wow, thats cool. Thanks for sharing.

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## Flyblown

I wish now that I’d got out the wife’s SLR and wide angle closeup lens.

If I see it again, it’s getting the full photographic treatment as I can’t find anything on the web that looks like this. 

Ha! It’s probably known as the “common stick insect”, what do I know?

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## Tahr

Its a Prickly Stick Insect (Acanthoxyla prasina).

Nice find.

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## Puffin

Male; a real thin one. The females are more plump, and the spines appear - perhaps as a result - as less pronounced. 
But not as plump as this, a marvel of the Stick Insect world in more ways than one!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis

It lives here - and only here (until rediscovered and bred in captivity) in what could be described as the most spectacular place on earth:

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## Mr Browning

> Awesome.  Must be the season.
> 
> I just had this fearsome alien sneak in the home office window and take a liking to the camo beanie that was sitting next to the coffee cup.  Gave me a hell of a fright.
> 
> Attachment 161331


I have a bush that these breed in I think. The bush is known to have caterpillars in (not the bulldozer type) which spin some leaves together and cocoon themselves up in them, they make a mess out of the bush and deform all the leaves. But last few years I havent noticed the caterpillars but instead have noticed a dozen or more preying mantis of mostly varying in size from very small to medium, I think they must be after the caterpillars. They do a great job at protecting the bush. I think they eat quite a range of bugs, so Im happy to see them around.

Neat picture.

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## Scouser

> I haven't seen the spikey ones before. amazing camouflage for sure


Same here, didnt know they exist, only seen the 'slick' brown or green ones....very cool

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## 7mmwsm

Imagine if they grew to six feet long. Horror movie stuff.

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## Moa Hunter

> Awesome.  Must be the season.
> 
> I just had this fearsome alien sneak in the home office window and take a liking to the camo beanie that was sitting next to the coffee cup.  Gave me a hell of a fright.
> 
> Attachment 161331


Dont watch 'Starship Troopers' if the praying mantis gave you a fright

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## Maca49

> Imagine if they grew to six feet long. Horror movie stuff.


There are a few humans around that look like that?

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## Moa Hunter

> This incredible “bramble” appeared on a Red Band gumboot this morning. I thought it was stuck on the boot and damn nearly grabbed it to pull it off. Check out the astonishing replication of a bramble stick, complete with sharp thorns. How on earth do they do this?
> 
> Attachment 161329
> 
> Attachment 161330


That is so cool. I thought it was a mock-up because it is just so extraordinary. Thank you for posting something I have never seen before

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## Puffin

The spiny green ones here are smart.  They know they are spiny,  and so live on the Rimu. Their cousins - the smooth greens - live on the Rata.  For anyone interested, the eggs can be collected and hatched out in spring, though I see that none of the insects here are currently laying, perhaps it has been a bit dry, and there aren't as many around as usual either.

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## Gibo

Puffin seems some what of a stick insect aficionado! Awesome critters!

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## Huk

@Puffin thats a cool photo

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## Lucky

Never seen a spikey one before , real neat insect

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## Micky Duck

no surprise the wasp is major threat to them......sooner we rid the country of them dirty hot arsed little germanic huas the better.

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## Ftx325

We had a visiter at the hut last time we were out over xmas. I haven't seen one of these big buggers for ages but plenty of the little ones.
Hard to tell in this pic but was a good 4 inches plus long.

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## Nickoli

> We had a visiter at the hut last time we were out over xmas. I haven't seen one of these big buggers for ages but plenty of the little ones.
> Hard to tell in this pic but was a good 4 inches plus long.
> 
> Attachment 161634


….Those give you a hell of a fright when they land on you - they have a fair bit of size and weight if you swat them away without realising what has landed on you....

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## 300wsm for life

This thing was on my son's bike on Sunday. Parasitoid wasp. Tail was 3-4 inchs long and wasp body was approx 2 inches long. The tail is it's egg injector into the host.

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## seano

Went on a school camp to Wainui as parent helper last week,two of the girls found this on their adventures around camp

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

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## Moa Hunter

> This thing was on my son's bike on Sunday. Parasitoid wasp. Tail was 3-4 inchs long and wasp body was approx 2 inches long. The tail is it's egg injector into the host.
> 
> 
> Attachment 161666


Thats not a parasitoid wasp, but I can see how you were fooled. It is actually the Govt's new Corona virus vaccinator drone

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## Cordite

> This incredible bramble appeared on a Red Band gumboot this morning. I thought it was stuck on the boot and damn nearly grabbed it to pull it off. Check out the astonishing replication of a bramble stick, complete with sharp thorns. *How on earth do they do this?*


The official version is .... a stick insect's cell nucleus mistakenly and randomly generated screeds of new DNA code with not a comma out of place.  As a result it grew spines that gave it a survival advantage.  It's spineless siblings went extinct ... but not before one of them (of the opposite sex, there were only two genders back then) got persuaded to breed with it.

Another, plausible version is a banned topic.

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## JessicaChen

A friend of mine has a few of those stick insects he uses for educational outreach with Orokonui Ecosanctuary which I did as well a few times. Really cool and easy to handle. For the braver kids, they are allowed to handle our native tunnelwebs (_Porrhothele antipodiana_) which are an impressive size but fairly docile and easy to read, they let you know if they are not willing to cooperate. Far more docile than my mantises. Picture below says it all.

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## Ftx325

Aren't the imported non native mantis's the more aggressive than the local breed  @JessicaChen ?
 It's Wetas that seem particularly partial to try taking chunks out of my fingers. We have a surprising amount of them on our suburban property. We found what I think is a whole family last weekend hiding in an old wooden fold up chair. Big female , medium size male and two definitely very young ones .

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## JessicaChen

> Aren't the imported non native mantis's the more aggressive than the local breed  @JessicaChen ?
>  It's Wetas that seem particularly partial to try taking chunks out of my fingers. We have a surprising amount of them on our suburban property. We found what I think is a whole family last weekend hiding in an old wooden fold up chair. Big female , medium size male and two definitely very young ones .


Mine are all the imported african ones, aggression toward fingers seems to vary according to the individual mantis.  I wish I had some native ones to at least breed and release into my garden, and to see if finger aggression is the same (for science).
I do know that the african ones do consume our native ones, and they can also reproduce without needing sperm which is a big advantage over our natives. The female african ones can have babies that have the exact same DNA as their mother which is a phenomenon known as parthenogenesis.

The male wetas do have the gear for a good finger chomping! They like to kick too. Havent been bitten by a male but have been kicked by a female. The huhu beetles will attempt some biting as well.

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## Ftx325

The last one that got me was a large female I think ( had the long stinger looking tube poking out the back- egg laying? ) with bloody great big fang things (yes that's the scientific term I believe) like crab pincers on it's face .
It drew a large amount of blood by the time I (gently) convinced it to let go.....
 I had wondered if it was some previously undiscovered vampire breed......

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## Puffin

The spiny green ones here are smart.  They know they are spiny,  and so live on the Rimu. Their cousins - the smooth greens - live on the Rata.  For anyone interested, the eggs can be collected and hatched out in spring, though I see that none of the insects here are currently laying, perhaps it has been a bit dry, and there aren't as many around as usual either.

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## Gibo

Puffin seems some what of a stick insect aficionado! Awesome critters!

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## Huk

@Puffin thats a cool photo

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## Lucky

Never seen a spikey one before , real neat insect

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## Micky Duck

no surprise the wasp is major threat to them......sooner we rid the country of them dirty hot arsed little germanic huas the better.

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## Ftx325

We had a visiter at the hut last time we were out over xmas. I haven't seen one of these big buggers for ages but plenty of the little ones.
Hard to tell in this pic but was a good 4 inches plus long.

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## Nickoli

> We had a visiter at the hut last time we were out over xmas. I haven't seen one of these big buggers for ages but plenty of the little ones.
> Hard to tell in this pic but was a good 4 inches plus long.
> 
> Attachment 161634


….Those give you a hell of a fright when they land on you - they have a fair bit of size and weight if you swat them away without realising what has landed on you....

----------


## 300wsm for life

This thing was on my son's bike on Sunday. Parasitoid wasp. Tail was 3-4 inchs long and wasp body was approx 2 inches long. The tail is it's egg injector into the host.

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## seano

Went on a school camp to Wainui as parent helper last week,two of the girls found this on their adventures around camp

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

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## Moa Hunter

> This thing was on my son's bike on Sunday. Parasitoid wasp. Tail was 3-4 inchs long and wasp body was approx 2 inches long. The tail is it's egg injector into the host.
> 
> 
> Attachment 161666


Thats not a parasitoid wasp, but I can see how you were fooled. It is actually the Govt's new Corona virus vaccinator drone

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## Cordite

> This incredible bramble appeared on a Red Band gumboot this morning. I thought it was stuck on the boot and damn nearly grabbed it to pull it off. Check out the astonishing replication of a bramble stick, complete with sharp thorns. *How on earth do they do this?*


The official version is .... a stick insect's cell nucleus mistakenly and randomly generated screeds of new DNA code with not a comma out of place.  As a result it grew spines that gave it a survival advantage.  It's spineless siblings went extinct ... but not before one of them (of the opposite sex, there were only two genders back then) got persuaded to breed with it.

Another, plausible version is a banned topic.

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## JessicaChen

A friend of mine has a few of those stick insects he uses for educational outreach with Orokonui Ecosanctuary which I did as well a few times. Really cool and easy to handle. For the braver kids, they are allowed to handle our native tunnelwebs (_Porrhothele antipodiana_) which are an impressive size but fairly docile and easy to read, they let you know if they are not willing to cooperate. Far more docile than my mantises. Picture below says it all.

----------


## Ftx325

Aren't the imported non native mantis's the more aggressive than the local breed  @JessicaChen ?
 It's Wetas that seem particularly partial to try taking chunks out of my fingers. We have a surprising amount of them on our suburban property. We found what I think is a whole family last weekend hiding in an old wooden fold up chair. Big female , medium size male and two definitely very young ones .

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## JessicaChen

> Aren't the imported non native mantis's the more aggressive than the local breed  @JessicaChen ?
>  It's Wetas that seem particularly partial to try taking chunks out of my fingers. We have a surprising amount of them on our suburban property. We found what I think is a whole family last weekend hiding in an old wooden fold up chair. Big female , medium size male and two definitely very young ones .


Mine are all the imported african ones, aggression toward fingers seems to vary according to the individual mantis.  I wish I had some native ones to at least breed and release into my garden, and to see if finger aggression is the same (for science).
I do know that the african ones do consume our native ones, and they can also reproduce without needing sperm which is a big advantage over our natives. The female african ones can have babies that have the exact same DNA as their mother which is a phenomenon known as parthenogenesis.

The male wetas do have the gear for a good finger chomping! They like to kick too. Havent been bitten by a male but have been kicked by a female. The huhu beetles will attempt some biting as well.

----------


## Ftx325

The last one that got me was a large female I think ( had the long stinger looking tube poking out the back- egg laying? ) with bloody great big fang things (yes that's the scientific term I believe) like crab pincers on it's face .
It drew a large amount of blood by the time I (gently) convinced it to let go.....
 I had wondered if it was some previously undiscovered vampire breed......

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