Ancient Antipodean Stick Insect

[Delta9]

Came home to this handsome guy/gal loitering on my doorstep yesterday....
..It had died by the following morning

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[Rosebud]

Those are so cool.

 

[Delta9]

Those are so cool.

Yes Rose-quite beautiful I think-and so prehistoric looking.

Looks to me like a cousin of a prawn that grew legs, crawled up onto land and went to live in the trees..lol

 

[St_Nick]

Compared to the ones I have seen around here, that guy is a monster. Ours are rarely 3" long. Cool.

 

[Delta9]

This guy was about 15cm long -pretty big -& to be honest he seemed a little out of place in the cool climate we have here...I used to live further north, where the climate is subtropical and I've seen em as long as 25ish cm up there!

Besides preying mantis's- I think stick insects are one of my favourite bugs.
Though I tend to think of them more of an animal than insect really..not sure why..