A newly discovered stick insect which weighs slightly less than a golf ball may be the heaviest insect in Australia, scientists say.
The 40cm-long new species, named Acrophylla alta, was found in the high altitudes of the Atherton tablelands in north Queensland – and scientists said the habitat could be part of the reason for its large size.
weighs slightly less than a golf ball
I see we are using the American system of measurements here.
It’s a weird trick though. As someone whose brain doesn’t know what 40 to 45g feels like in weight, it certainly thinks it knows what a golf balls feel like in weight.
The real issue is when they start comparing the weights of things using hippos and the like.
“It weighs 40 to 45g - slightly less than a golf ball - and …”
You’ve got the job.
“<thing> is so heavy! It weighs about as much as 13,879.25 elephants!”
The insect was so high up that they had to use a long stick to get it down
“Want me to climb up to the canopy and see if I can grab it?”
“Nah, just hand me that long stick there”
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I like the idea that it just got stuck high up and they put out a stick and it was like “oh shit, now this I like” and immediately crawled onto a dead stick because it looked similar
Nah, just hand me that long stick there”
…and that’s when they found the really big stick insect.
The Insulindian Phasmid!
I see, you’re a person of culture as well.
I have a ruler in my desk partially to train my brain in centimeters. Whipped it out just now.
40cm?!
It evolved to branch insect.
“Supersized”? What if all the other stick insects are actually little and this one is regular sized.
I don’t think I would be that brave coming that close to anything unknown in Australia given it’s propensity for lethal life forms.
Sometimes ya just gotta raw dog life…
With stick insects, the eggs are very diagnostic
Insectology is a weird field…
