Thread: Amazing stick insect

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

@Puffin thats a cool photo

Never seen a spikey one before , real neat insect

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

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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....

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.

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

Originally Posted by 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.


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

Originally Posted by 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?

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.

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.

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 .

Originally Posted by 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 .

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.

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......