Meet the new species of giant stick insect that weighs about the same as a golf ball
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Australia’s heaviest new stick insect discovered
The new species of Acrophylla alta is 40 centimeters (15.75 inches) long and weighs 44 grams (1.55 ounces) It was discovered in the canopies of the mountainous Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland, in Australia’s northeast. The remote habitat was probably also why it had remained undiscovered for so long.
The new species of Acrophylla alta is 40 centimeters (15.75 inches) long and weighs 44 grams (1.55 ounces), about the same as a golf ball.
How did scientists discover the giant stick insect?
The new stick insect was discovered in the canopies of the mountainous Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland, in Australia’s northeast.
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James Cook University’s Angus Emmott, who helped identify the new Acrophylla alta species, said the remote habitat was probably also why it had remained undiscovered for so long.
Despite their size, the giant stick insect is able to blend in with, well.. sticks Professor Angus Emmott/James Cook University/REUTERS
“Their body mass likely helps them survive the colder conditions, and that’s why they’ve developed into this large insect over millions of years,” Emmott said in a statement.
“From what we know to date, this is Australia’s heaviest insect… It’s restricted to a small area of high-altitude rainforest, and it lives high in the canopy. So, unless you get a cyclone or a bird bringing one down, very few people get to see them,” he added.
Scientists identified the stick insect as a new species thanks to its distinctive eggs.
Two specimens have been added to the Queensland Museum collection to support future research.
Edited by Sean Sinico
New species of giant stick insect discovered
A researcher in Australia has identified a new supersized stick insect. The species was discovered in high altitudes in North Queensland. The insect measures about 40 centimeters long, or approximately 15.75 inches.
The species was discovered in high altitudes in North Queensland.
The insect measures about 40 centimeters long, or approximately 15.75 inches, and weighs about 44 grams, or around 1.55 ounces, which is slightly less than a golf ball.
A new giant stick insect species has been discovered in North Queensland, Australia.
Researchers at James Cook University say that makes it one of Australia’s heaviest insects.
They believe the species wasn’t discovered until now because it’s habitat is too difficult to access.
Two specimens of the stick insect are now in the Queensland Museum.
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New species of giant stick insect found in Australia
Scientists have discovered a new species of stick insect they believe is the heaviest ever found in the country. The new species weighs 44 grams (1.55 oz), about the same as a golf ball, and is 40 cm (15.75 inches) long. It was discovered in the canopies of the mountainous Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland, in Australia’s northeast. Two specimens have been added to the Queensland Museum’s collection to aid future research.
Sydney Reuters —
In a remote rainforest in Australia, home to deadly snakes, spiders and creepy-crawlies, scientists have discovered a new species of stick insect they believe is the heaviest ever found in the country.
The new species weighs 44 grams (1.55 oz), about the same as a golf ball, and is 40 cm (15.75 inches) long.
James Cook University’s Angus Emmott, who helped identify the new Acrophylla alta species, said the creature’s large size could be an evolutionary response to its cool, wet habitat.
“Their body mass likely helps them survive the colder conditions, and that’s why they’ve developed into this large insect over millions of years,” he was quoted as saying in a media release.
“From what we know to date, this is Australia’s heaviest insect.”
The giant insect is suspected to be the heaviest in the country. Professor Angus Emmott/James Cook University
The new stick insect was discovered in the canopies of the mountainous Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland, in Australia’s northeast.
The remote habitat was probably also why it had remained undiscovered for so long, Emmott said.
“It’s restricted to a small area of high-altitude rainforest, and it lives high in the canopy. So, unless you get a cyclone or a bird bringing one down, very few people get to see them,” he said.
The stick insect’s distinctive eggs also helped scientists identify it as a new species.
The insect weighs 44 grams, about the same as a golf ball. Professor Angus Emmott/James Cook University
“Every species of stick insect has their own distinct egg style,” Emmott said.
“They’ve all got different surfaces and different textures and pitting, and they can be different shapes. Even the caps on them are all very unique.”
Two specimens have been added to the Queensland Museum’s collection to aid future research.
What is the New World screwworm, and why is the US building a ‘fly factory’ to fight it?
New World screwworms are known to nest in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and slowly eat them alive. The fly reached southern Mexico in November, sparking concern among US agricultural industry officials. The US mostly eradicated the New World scewworm populations in the 1960s and 1970s by breeding sterilized males of the species and dispersing them from planes to mate with wild, female flies. Now, as the insects continue to spread north officials are hoping the approach could work again. However, hundreds of millions more sterile flies are needed to slow the outbreak, according to a June 17 letter from 80 US lawmakers. The next day, the US Department of Agriculture announced plans to open a “fly factory” in a yet to be determined town near the Texas-Mexico border. The flies can kill an animal in a matter of one to two weeks and spread to others, posing a threat to the livelihood of ranchers. The tropical fly is less active in the winter, making surveillance of the parasite’s spread more challenging.
Hundreds of millions of flies dropping from planes in the sky might sound like a horrible nightmare, but experts say such a swarm could be the livestock industry’s best defense against a flesh-eating threat poised to invade the southwestern border of the United States.
An outbreak of New World screwworms — the larval form of a type of fly that’s known to nest in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and slowly eat them alive — has been spreading across Central America since early 2023, with infestations recorded in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. Most Central American countries hadn’t seen an outbreak in 20 years.
The fly reached southern Mexico in November, sparking concern among US agricultural industry officials and triggering the closure of several border-area cattle, horse and bison trading ports.
It wouldn’t be the first time the US has had to battle these invasive bugs. The nation mostly eradicated the New World screwworm populations in the 1960s and 1970s by breeding sterilized males of the species and dispersing them from planes to mate with wild, female flies.
The strategy — essentially fighting flies with flies — slowly degraded the insects’ populations by preventing them from laying more eggs. Now, as the insects continue to spread north officials are hoping the approach could work again.
However, today only one facility in Panama breeds sterilized New World screwworms for dispersal, and hundreds of millions more sterile flies are needed to slow the outbreak, according to a June 17 letter from 80 US lawmakers.
The next day, the US Department of Agriculture announced plans to open a “fly factory” in a yet to be determined town near the Texas-Mexico border. But the process of defeating the screwworm may not be quick — or inexpensive.
The adult fly form of the New World screwworm has a blue-green metallic exoskeleton. Michael Miller/Texas A&M AgriLife
Screwworm dangers
New World screwworms are the parasitic larva of a metallic blue blow fly species called Cochliomyia hominivorax. Unlike all other blow flies native to the Western Hemisphere, the New World screwworm feeds on the flesh of living animals, rather than dead ones, said Dr. Phillip Kaufman, a professor and head of the department of entomology at Texas A&M University.
The flesh-eating maggots go for most warm-blooded animals, including horses and cows.
They have also been known to infect domestic pets and even humans in rare cases, Kaufman said.
“After mating, the female fly finds a living host, lands on its wound, and will lay up to 200 to 300 eggs,” Kaufman explained. “After 12 to 24 hours, those eggs all hatch, and they immediately start burrowing and feeding on the tissue of that animal, causing very, very large wounds to form.”
After the larvae feed on the tissue with their sharp mouth hooks for several days, they drop from the animal and burrow into the ground to emerge later as fully grown adult flies, according to Thomas Lansford, the deputy executive director and assistant state veterinarian for the Texas Animal Health Commission.
Since the outbreak began in 2023, there have been more than 90,000 New World screwworm infestations reported, according to a USDA spokesperson.
Animal health worker Eduardo Lugo treats the wounds of a cow at the Chihuahua Regional Livestock Union in Nuevo Palomas, Mexico. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters
Treatment for infested cattle often involves cleaning, antiseptic treatment and coverings for the wounds, Lansford said.
If left untreated, the flies can kill an animal in a matter of one to two weeks and spread to others, posing a threat to the livelihood of ranchers.
“It’s a daily chore to provide those inspections to our livestock, just to make sure they’re not infested,” said Stephen Diebel, a rancher and the first vice president of the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. “We know the incredible economic impact an infestation would cause.”
There are no known vaccinations or effective repellant methods to prevent infestation, Diebel said. Instead, during warmer months, ranchers should avoid branding, tagging and other procedures that create potential entry points for the screwworms in livestock, he recommended. The tropical fly is less active in the winter.
While regional cattle trading is thought to be a major way the fly populations travel, Diebel said infestations can also affect wildlife such as deer, birds and rodents, making surveillance of the parasite’s spread even more challenging.
A worker drops New World screwworm fly larvae into a tray at a facility that breeds sterile flies in Pacora, Panama. COPEG/AP
Fighting flies with flies: How it works
Just like a caterpillar goes into a cocoon before becoming a butterfly, the New World screwworm becomes a black, pill-sized pupa before emerging as an adult fly, Kaufman explained.
In a sterile fly production facility, the pupae are subjected to high-energy gamma rays that break down the DNA of the males, damaging their sex chromosomes, according to the USDA. The result: impotent adult flies that cause female mates to lay unfertilized eggs.
The amount of radiation the male flies are exposed to does not pose a danger to animals or humans, according to the USDA. But since the female flies only mate one time in their short, 20-day lifespan, once populations are exposed to sterile males, the populations die out over the course of months or years, depending on the size of the outbreak.
While it is unclear how dispersal would work in the US in the event of an outbreak, Kaufman said the adult flies are typically loaded into temperature-controlled containers and dropped from planes. However, there’s no need to panic about the fly drops coming to a suburb near you, he said — they usually target sparsely populated rural areas, since the flies have no interest in urban environments.
A photo from 1960 shows US workers preparing sterile flies for dispersal. USDA National Agricultural Library
A pricey battle
At the Panama–United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm Infestation in Livestock (COPEG) facility, about 100 million sterilized flies are produced and dispersed aerially in affected regions each week.
Currently, the dispersal efforts have been focused in the southern regions of Mexico and throughout Central America, where cases of infestation have been reported, according to COPEG’s website.
The new US dispersal facility is expected to be located at the Moore Air Base in Hidalgo County, Texas, and to cost $8.5 million, per the release. The location and price tag of the production facility, or the “fly factory” itself, has not been revealed, but lawmakers estimate it could cost around $300 million.
In addition to the new sterile fly facilities, the USDA also announced $21 million plans to renovate an old fly factory in Mexico by late 2025.
While the plans are expensive, it’s a price worth paying to save the multibillion-dollar livestock industry, Diebel said.
‘When you offset the $300 million to the $10 billion of economic impact these flies would have, it’s an easy trade-off to understand,” Diebel said. “Having (a domestic production facility) here is super important … to control the distribution of those sterile flies more efficiently.”
Shortly after the June 18 announcement, the USDA shared plans to begin reopening livestock trading ports in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico that closed last year, citing “good progress” in surveillance and sterile fly dispersal efforts throughout Mexico.
COPEG did not immediately respond to request for comment on further details about the current progress of the US dispersal initiatives.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the latest screwworm infestation numbers from COPEG.
Australia’s Heaviest Stick Insect Unveiled: A Giant Marvel of Nature’s Diversity!
Scientists discovered a new, 40 cm long stick insect species in Australia, believed to be the heaviest in the country. The newly identified stick insect, named Acrophylla alta, measures an impressive 40 centimeters (15.75 inches) in length and weighs 44 grams (1.55 ounces) Its significant size has intrigued researchers, who speculate that its mass helps it thrive in the cooler conditions of its high-altitude rainforest habitat.
www.dw.com
Scientists have recently discovered a new species of stick insect in Australia, believed to be the heaviest ever found in the country. This remarkable find, announced on July 31, 2025, highlights the rich biodiversity of the Wet Tropics region in Far North Queensland.
6 Key Takeaways New stick insect species discovered in Australia
Measures 40 cm and weighs 44 grams
Found in Wet Tropics region of Queensland
Adapted to survive colder conditions
Identified by distinctive eggs
Specimens added to Queensland Museum collection
The newly identified stick insect, named Acrophylla alta, measures an impressive 40 centimeters (15.75 inches) in length and weighs 44 grams (1.55 ounces), roughly equivalent to a golf ball. Its significant size has intrigued researchers, who speculate that its mass helps it thrive in the cooler conditions of its high-altitude rainforest habitat.
Fast Answer: A newly discovered stick insect in Australia, Acrophylla alta, is the heaviest ever found in the country, showcasing the unique biodiversity of the Wet Tropics region.
This discovery raises important questions about the ecological significance of such large insects. How do they adapt to their environment? And what other undiscovered species might be hiding in remote habitats? Key points include:
Acrophylla alta is restricted to a small area of rainforest.
Its unique eggs helped scientists identify it as a new species.
Two specimens have been added to the Queensland Museum for future research.
The discovery underscores the need for ongoing exploration and conservation efforts in biodiverse regions worldwide.
As researchers continue to study this fascinating insect, it serves as a reminder of the countless species yet to be discovered. Will we uncover more hidden gems in our planet’s rainforests?