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Sticks Insects - Family Phasmatidae
Most stick insects we found are in family Phasmatidae.
- We found different species of stick insects in this family, included the longest insect in the Australia.
Subfamily Phasmatinae
- Stick insects in this subfamily are robust and stick-like. They are mostly with well developed wings.
- Tessellated Stick-insect
- Anchiale austrotessulata (former Ctenomorphodes tessulata), subfamily Phasmatinae, adult male and female, body length 80mm, 140mm
- We found this stick insect in most areas of Brisbane. The males fly and some of them fly towards the window lights. The males are light brown in colour with two lines of fine small black dots on their thorax. Their bodies are slender with short fore wings that cover only the base of their hind wings. The females that we found colour vary from brown to green. We have more about this stick insect in the Tessellated Phasmatid page.
- Titan Stick Insect
- Acrophylla titan, female, subfamily Phasmatinae, body length 250mm
- Titan Stick Insect is the longest insect in Australia. They also known as Great Brown Stick Insect or Great Brown Phasma. Their thorax are spiny, with chequered brown pattern on its hind wings. They feed on leaves of cypress pine trees. The picture shows the female Titan found in Brisbane inner suburb. More information can be find on Titan Stick Insect page.
- Goliath Stick Insect
- Eurycnema goliath, subfamily Phasmatinae, adult female, body length 200mm
- The Goliath stick insect is a very large insect. They are green in colour. The females of this species have a broad abdomen, with white bands around the abdomen. Their fore-wings are small which cover only a small part of their hind-wings, whilst the hind wings cover only part of the abdomen. Its wings are a green colour with some white markings on each side. Their thorax are long and yellow, with green-blue bands running down from the head. The eggs of the stick insect measure approximately 6mm long. We have the more detailed report in the Goliath Stick Insect page.
Subfamily Tropidoderinae
- Stick insects in this subfamily are robust and with well developed wings. They usually associated with eucalypts.
- Children's Stick Insect
- Tropidoderus childrenii, subfamily Tropidoderinae, adult female, body length 140mm
- The Children's Stick Insect has short antenna, about 20mm. The whole body and wings are green in colour. The surface texture and colour is resemble to the eucalypts tree leaf. It has a fat abdomen about 8mm in width. The legs are flatten plates with saw-toothed edge which are also look like leaf. It has relatively long wings, with the forewings cover half and hind wings cover all but one segment of its abdomen. If it is disturbed, it will display the blue blotches at the wings base to scare away the predators. More information on the Children's Stick Insects page.
- Spur-legged Stick Insect, Violet-winged Stick Insect
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- Didymuria violescens, subfamily Tropidoderinae, adult male, body length 90mm
- This is the male Spur-legged Stick Insect. Its inflated hind femora bearing two black large spines. If it opens its wings, they are violet in colour. It is fully winged but it did not seem it can fly. They are also known as Violet-winged stick insects. More information and pictures can be found in this page.
- Ringbarker Stick-insects
- Podacanthus wilkinsoni, subfamily Tropidoderinae, adult female, body length 90mm
- This dry female stick insect was found in Karawatha Forest She-oak area on Dec 2007. It was on spider web for quite a while.
- Reference:
- 1. Grasshopper Country - the Abundant Orthopteroid Insects of Australia, D Rentz, UNSW Press, 1996, p254.
- 2. The Complete Field Guide to Stick and Leaf Insects of Australia - Paul D. Brock and Jack W. Hasenpusch, CSIRO PUBLISHING, 2009, p139.
- 3. Species Podacanthus wilkinsoni Macleay, 1882 - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory, 1997.
- Reference:
- 1. Order PHASMATODEA Stick Insects - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory, 1997.
- 2. The Complete Field Guide to Stick and Leaf Insects of Australia - Paul D. Brock and Jack W. Hasenpusch, CSIRO PUBLISHING, 2009.
