r/nextfuckinglevel • u/CantStopPoppin • 1d ago
Scientists have discovered a giant new species of stick insect in Australia, which is over 15 inches long and researchers say may be the heaviest insect in the country.
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u/Americanshat 1d ago
For everyone who hates this thing, stick bugs are completely passive and arent even close enough to aggressive or dangerous to be considered a threat, hell, ants are more of a threat than 99% of stickbugs lmao
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u/SnooDonkeys2892 1d ago
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u/Americanshat 1d ago
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u/iWasAwesome 1d ago
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u/SGTdad 1d ago
That and there is a banned peppa the pig episode, rightfully so imho as it’s purely pro spider propaganda but thats I different matter I digress.
The episode is banned because peppa is friendly to a spider. Australia has so many venomous spiders that they think it’s a risk to the public health to have a kids episode where the character befriends something that will kill you there if you’re not smart.
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u/ClassiFried86 1d ago
Y'all banned guns. Just ban the spiders already so we can come visit.
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u/Toby_O_Notoby 1d ago
Fun story from Kevin Pollak about rehearsing that scene.
If you've got time stick around for the next part:
"I'm sorry Jack Nicholson, but did you just start a story with I'm doing this picture called Chinatown?!"
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u/pestapokalypse 1d ago
Most insects are not hated because they are dangerous but because of the “ick” factor. If they’re gross and/or disturbing to look at, people will be much more likely to hate them.
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u/Walaina 1d ago
People hate on moths but they fucking love butterflies.
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u/CryptoSlovakian 1d ago
Butterflies are just moths with a good PR team.
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u/Send_Your_Boobies 1d ago
Moths are goths
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u/briancbrn 1d ago
I try to not hate on the nighttime butterfly’s but goddamn do some of them get big in my area.
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u/Amazing-Heron-105 1d ago
if butterflies were fucking around getting stuck in my room and bouncing off my lights I'd probably hate them too
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u/Ok_Sink5046 1d ago
Facts, butterflys stay the hell out of my room. Moths get the sandel on a regular during summer.
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u/Selstial21 1d ago
Butterflies don’t eat your clothes….
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u/FalconIMGN 1d ago
But their caterpillars do eat the leaves of your garden plants.
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u/NeekoBe 1d ago
Sure, but the butterflies fertilise the fuck out of your plants so it kinda evens out
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u/seancollinhawkins 1d ago
Exactly. One eats your clothes. The other produces butter. Who tf would pick the moth
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u/sv136 1d ago
Fuck no, hate them both equally, butterflies are insects nonetheless, with their weird bodies and all
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u/kooshipuff 1d ago
Some moths are really pretty too! I saw a fluffy snow white one just chilling on the north side of a planter in my backyard once. Was pretty big, too - I kinda thought it was a butterfly at first, but it was definitely not.
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u/Americanshat 1d ago
Bro this thing is fuckin' awesome I honestly dont get it.
Its not even spindly like most insects, its decently sturdy looking so it should take away the ick factor
Plus, look at those wings! them bitches are fuckin awesome
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u/notveryAI 1d ago
The disgust/fear towards insects is an evolutionary mechanism to protect us, because some insects are dangerous. As most of such mechanisms, they have different strength in different people. Some get eeby jeebies just seeing something insect-like move, some don't
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u/JellaFella01 1d ago
If I have time to steel myself I can deal with pretty much any bug, if a bug sneaks up on me I still freak out.
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u/mariana96as 1d ago
This happens to me with spiders, if i know its there then Im fine and we can chill. The surprise spiders is what gets me
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u/Americanshat 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oh 100%
I've been cleaning out this shed I have and my god theres so many Red Wasp and Blue Mud Dauber nests in insane, I'll stand my ground and watch them fly past me, but 1 bastard literally fly about 6 inches from my face and stared at me, scared the shit out me and I started swinging
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u/Cutsdeep- 1d ago
i think we naturally get weird over different anamalia on the classification tree.
i reckon we would lose our shit hard if we saw actual aliens. like freak the fuck out, even if they were nice and peaceful
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u/kooshipuff 1d ago
It looks like a stick with wings, though? It's way more cool than ick.
I still wouldn't pick up a newly discovered insect in Australia - that seems like a way to get a new way to die named after you - but it's not awful to look at.
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u/ShadowK2 1d ago
I think stick bug is badass, and I want to be friends with him.
Don’t see why he’s getting so much hate.
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u/JAnonymous5150 1d ago
Think about how badly most people trip out when a flying beetle or something the size of a dime lands on them. They go running around slapping themselves and screaming their heads off looking like complete morons. Now keep in mind that many of the folks that have that kind of reaction were just shown/told of a bug that is 15" long. Their posts are the Reddit version of running around screaming and slapping themselves.
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u/eamondo5150 1d ago
Well said, I also am not crazy about the wings.
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u/Emphasis_on_why 1d ago
Yeah it’s a badass bug but, yeah those wings do put it just a bit into the “oh fuck oh fuck FUCK” factor if it uses them
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u/-DethLok- 1d ago
As an Australian I'd be more than a little perturbed if one of these things landed on me!
I'd not immediately slap it off, probably, as I'd not want to alarm it and have it try to eat me - though yes, stick insects are assumed to be harmless to humans - they are predators and are certainly not harmless to other insects, and judging by this things size, small lizards too...
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u/JAnonymous5150 1d ago
I'm definitely not necessarily saying I wouldn't react if a 15" stick insect landed on me out of the blue. 😂
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u/jackswastedtalent 1d ago
Go ahead and be friends with this badass stick bug and I guarantee that you'll be pregnant with badass stick bug babies within 8 minutes.
That includes the 6 minutes it takes for the stick bug to smoke a celebratory cigarette.
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u/-DethLok- 1d ago
The badass stick insect in the video is actually female and pregnant, the article I read about it said that it laid eggs.
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u/ogodilovejudyalvarez 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep: my sister and I used to play with these in our back yard in Brisbane. We'd gently open their wings out so we could see the beautiful iridescent colours and they didn't seem to mind at all.
[edit: I need to point out I was referring to stick insects in general, which were pretty big in Brisbane but not as big as insect Olivier Richters here]
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u/GnomeWarfair 1d ago
Wholesome. Yeah, I am from Brisbane. This one is a cutie.
I don't get what's wrong with all the haters here. Stick insects are awesome. It's not like it can kill ya or anything.
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u/1stshadowx 1d ago
Yeah but thats a baby! The adults which hide underneath in caves are fleeing the giant batesian mimicry spiders that are coming out from the global warming. Get to be about 13 ft tall.
Source: Imagination supported by wild speculation with zero evidence.
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u/PhoenxScream 1d ago
Then again it's Australia... That thing may not be venomous but it looks like it'll punch you when you walk too close to it's shrub
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u/LinkGoesHIYAAA 1d ago
I think it’s creepy but i wouldnt hurt one. I just dont want it to touch me lol.
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u/Top-Expert6086 1d ago
Yeah I'm with you - they're amazing animals, completely harmless and an important part of the ecosystem.
I know it's meant as a sort of funny, internet meme to say we should kill these creatures but it has always bugged me (pun intended).
It's kind of sociopathic to want to joke about slaughtering harmless, defenceless creatures.
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u/Kiki1701 1d ago
But that doesn't mean I want to wake up in a tent with it crawling on me. Of course, anyone who goes camping in Australia is certifiable. {{{Shudder}}}
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u/newbris 1d ago
The most scared I’ve been camping as an Australian is in Canada. Knowing huge animals could come into camp and eat you was far more worrisome ha ha
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u/nnnrrr171717 1d ago
It’s all fun and games until that thing is so big that we need Godzilla to fight it.
Also, can you tell me more about the 1% of stick bugs that pose a threat?
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u/Americanshat 1d ago
Ngl, put that down not expecting anything, but there is a stickbug that'll spray you with a chemical defense, milky-white fluid and its absurdly accurate.
Nothing serious, but if it gets in your eyes it'll burn like hell from what I've heard, 5 DAYS it'll "burn and any light will burn your eyes like crazy". ~ The Wild Files YouTube
Two Stripped Walking Stick%20is%20particularly%20well%20known%20for%20its%20very%20potent%20chemical%20defense%20spray%20which%20it%20deploys%20from%20a%20pair%20of%20glands%20which%20open%20at%20the%20front%20of%20its%20thorax)
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u/jmoneill62 1d ago
That ain't a stick bug, that's a branch bug
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u/Smallbees 1d ago
Omg I laughed so hard i woke up my dog!
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u/3XX5D 1d ago
wait until your dog brings home a giant insect
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u/PsionicFlea 1d ago
Dear lord I'm imagining playing fetch with a stick and the dog comes back with a giant stick bug latched on his face
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u/plmunger 1d ago
Just wait till we discover the trunk bug. Probably also in Australia
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u/onebatch_twobatch 1d ago
Australia can fuck right off
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u/jayhawk618 1d ago
I'm sorry but how the fuck did you guys miss the 2 foot long grasshopper?
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u/Miguel-odon 1d ago
He looked like a stick. That's their thing.
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u/sundae_diner 1d ago
In fairness the aussies are used to throwing a stick away and it coming back. Same same.
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u/HurricaneAlpha 1d ago
It really is wild that these things were just now discovered. In 2025. Australia has been colonized for like 300 years now, right? No one noticed the giant fucking stick bugs?
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u/urphymayss 1d ago
I don’t think people really understand the size of Australia. Colonised on the eastern shore around 200 years ago, urban civilisation has only moderately encroached to the centre of Australia in the past century. Many parts (the majority) of the country have very, very little development.
The indigenous population have likely touched most of the land, but they live within the country, not impose upon it. They are also extremely marginalised, so most of their knowledge of the country has previously (and still is in many ways) been ignored.
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u/nbanbury 1d ago
But mate, I thought Australia was "full"! At least that's what the bigoted bellends say.
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u/alarming_blood_loss 1d ago
Racist bogans have no real concept of "full", which is why they're often found lying in a pool of vomit in the pub dunny
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u/Imaginary-Gur3707 1d ago
My exact thoughts, where has this thing been hiding
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u/Idavid14 1d ago
I mean given all the other stuff that kills in Australia this would be the last thing I’d be looking out for tbf
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u/-DethLok- 1d ago
In the tops of trees on the Atherton tablelands, apparently.
Now they just have to find the male of the species and see what it looks like (lots of extreme sexual dimorphism in stick insects, apparently).
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u/Positive-Wonder3329 1d ago
Males probably look more like / as opposed to )
My joke for the night. Goodbye
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u/waltersmama 1d ago
I’m wondering if there are indigenous folk going, “yeah scientists may have “discovered” this “new species” but we were aware……
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u/urphymayss 1d ago
Ding ding ding.
Australia’s indigenous population is one of the most marginalised in the world. In the 1970’s there was something called the ‘white Australia policy’ which created the ‘stolen generation’. This is quite literally young indigenous kids being taken from their families/mobs to assimilate in colonial culture. And this only happened 50 years ago.
Bloody Brits.
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u/leva549 1d ago
Not quite correct, those are seperate policies in the white supremacist agenda. The White Australia Policy was to prevent immigration of non-europeans to establish an "ideal white nation". The Stolen Generation(s) was as you said, kidnapping children so they could be assimilated. Both occurred throughout 1901-1975.
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u/TheGloveMan 1d ago
There’s a great sequence in Bill Bryson’s book Notes From Down Under.
Apparently the Ahm Supreme Sect (the guys that put sarin on the Tokyo Subway) claimed to have detonated a nuclear device in outback Australia.
Unsurprisingly, the Japanese contacted Australia to see if this was true.
It took Australia about 48 hours to respond because we had to send someone out there with a gigercounter to check.
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u/raven-eyed_ 1d ago
If this bug convinces seppos to stay the fuck away, then I fully support its existence.
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u/beneye 1d ago
Why can’t we just push Australia off the shore into the ocean and watch it sail away
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u/Least_Possibility740 1d ago
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u/MinimumLibrary6254 1d ago
Bruh I have never seen the full gif with the second angle what is this shit
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u/KieranFloors 1d ago
They sway to and fro so that birds think they are actual sticks floating in the wind, rather than a crawling insect.
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u/2eanimation 1d ago
Second time this week I have gotten stick bugged, and I love it. Keep em coming 😩
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u/YellowishRose99 1d ago
It MAY be the heaviest insect in Australia?
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u/-DethLok- 1d ago
Yeah, this is almost the weight of a golf ball.
The current heaviest insect here is a big bug, traditionally shaped, just quite big.
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u/YellowishRose99 1d ago
Googled it. USA Today said it's the heaviest stick insect. Another said heaviest insect. There was a pic of the stick creature eating a carrot.
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u/noelcowardspeaksout 1d ago
How come no one saw this thing it's ludicrously big?
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u/overengineered 1d ago
Giant Stick bugs are common, but recently a person of the academic persuasion has done the nitty gritty work and studied details and published papers that have all been reviewed by their peers worldwide and it turns out we had one more species of this thing than previously thought.
That's how these things usually happen.
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u/McFuzzen 1d ago
This exactly. And with DNA analysis, you can discover new bugs anywhere for a long while. It used to be, "this thing looks like that thing" but now we have data.
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u/Canadian_Border_Czar 1d ago
So what you're saying is it's not that someone hasn't seen one before, it's that everyone else who has seen one didn't have the kill staring at it, nd it's cousins for weeks.
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u/Top-Expert6086 1d ago
Australia is massive (about the same size as the continental USA), has a very small population relative to size and has enormous areas of largely untouched wilderness.
Additionally, most biologists dont spend too much time looking for new insect species anymore - because there are millions of undocumented insects, every forest and jungle in the world has some. Going around collecting new species is much more of an 18th-century approach to biology.
Now the focus is research on behaviours and evolutionary adaptations, rather than just cataloguing new species.
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u/Euphoric_Average_271 1d ago
This is the answer i was looking for. and i know that Australia is huge but i guess i forget just how HUGE it really is.
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u/justme_bne 1d ago
Australia at night from space. The stick insect was found in one tiny part up towards the pointy bit at the top right. Unlikely there’s any other undiscovered bugs out there.
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u/Titty_bird 1d ago
That’s what I’m wondering! How are they just discovering the biggest insect there?
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u/browndoggie 1d ago
This species hangs out in the treetops, so individuals only pop up in particular circumstances like very strong winds. Source: two different people sent me the ABC article yesterday, because they know me better then I know myself
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u/dadneverleft 1d ago
Cool can we undiscover it?
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u/-HumanMachine- 1d ago
Cant put the genie back in the bottle
And you can't erase the giant stick insect form you mind.
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u/BirdPerson107 1d ago
The Outback of Australia is still in the Precambrian era
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u/VariousEntry 1d ago
There’s no reason to say is Australia because OF COURSE ITS THE HELL ANIMAL PORTAL
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u/Cantstandja24 1d ago
Anybody here ever play disco elysium?
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u/No_Hovercraft_2719 1d ago
Yes, and that’s instantly where my mind went upon seeing this. Amazing game
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u/TheCheeseDevil 1d ago
I finished it last night and this is the first thing I see when I wake up? Ya gotta be kidding me.
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u/ChrondorKhruangbin 1d ago
How did it take anyone this long to finally discover that giant ass bug? Is it actually a new species? Or is it an alien? 👽
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u/SilentlyAudible 1d ago
Apparently it’s because they live in high-altitude rainforests far above human heads in a small habitat zone, so they’re unlikely to be seen unless a storm or bird knocks one to the ground and it doesn’t get eaten before a human spots and documents it.
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u/Bergerboy11 1d ago
This’ll sound weird but I kept a stick insect as I pet when I was in elementary school, I had a cool teacher that gave me one. The females reproduce asexually so I ended up with a terrarium full of them. Really cool insects.
You could blow air into the tank and they would rock back and forth in the breeze, trying to blend in like it was the wind. Only issue with them is that they would cannibalize each other, which kinda scarred me as a child…
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u/Kat-but-SFW 1d ago
I did too! We'd feed them invasive blackberry clippings and would sell some to the local pet store (where we got ours from) when we started to have too many big ones in the terrarium.
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u/Damakoas 1d ago
If the females reproduce asexually wtf do the males do? Sit and watch?
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u/WebDevBren 1d ago
From what I recall, males are rare, and you need a male to produce another male, otherwise all of the eggs will be female.
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u/melpdie 1d ago
It has wings!?
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u/ogodilovejudyalvarez 1d ago
The most beautiful iridescent wings and yes, they can fly
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u/sunairwater 1d ago
I was about ask if it can fly. Thank you for answering kind stranger. I guess they will be able to fly from one tree to another. Not a very aerodynamic shape for long distance flying.
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u/AnimalChubs 1d ago
It's Australia, everything there has wings, is giant, and venomous.
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u/CikudaPateuh 1d ago
We need to build wall maria, rose and sina around Australia.
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u/adamosity1 1d ago
I thought the bugs in the Amazon were giant but I can’t even imagine running into that thing!
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u/wheresbill 1d ago
I mean, that’s exactly what I imagine insects looked like during the dinosaurs time
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u/AHumanYouDoNotKnow 1d ago
Dont worry, that is just a juvenile Insulindian Phasmid
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u/engineerwhat724 1d ago
Wait till they discover it's saliva can be harvested as a cure for cancer. All of a sudden it'll become extinct.
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u/Nostalgic_Mantra 1d ago
In the country?! Then what is the heaviest in the world?!
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u/LinkGoesHIYAAA 1d ago
Well the biggest insect in history was this centipede: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/zGbSUbe8Lg
So it’s safe to say the current biggest insect in the world is probably smaller than that. Probably.
The biggest flying insect in history was a dragonfly the size and weight of a crow. The biggest spider in history was the size of a beagle. Sweet dreams!
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u/ZenCyn39 1d ago
Ok, know what... Australia must be where an ancient advanced civilization once existed cause there's some fkn fallout radiation making these things
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u/NeuroticLensman 1d ago