Some of Australia's biggest insects were hiding in plain sight. Researchers at the University of Sydney found that stick insects long counted as two species of the genus Anchiale are really five, including two that are new to science. The work is published in Austral Entomology.
These are not rare animals from remote places. They live from northern New South Wales through coastal Queensland into the tropical north, some of them in backyards.
An egg with a lid
One new species, Anchiale mabiensis, lives in Queensland's endangered Mabi rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands and grows to 16.3 centimeters. Its eggs have a structural lid, which the researchers say is unlike anything recorded in stick insects or their closest relatives. Two to three rings run around that lid.
The other new species, Anchiale robusta, is large and had been mistaken for another species for decades. The team also restored a third species that had gone unrecognized.
Detective work
The researchers combined DNA analysis, museum specimens, field surveys, more than 1,000 iNaturalist observations and insects raised in captivity.
"Taxonomy is often a bit like detective work," says Braxton Jones, the lead researcher. The finding also matters for forestry and farming, because one species prone to plague-like outbreaks turned out to be several different ones.
A likely sixth species from Cape York is waiting for more specimens.
