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Spiny leaf insect male

Extatosoma tiaratum

Photo by MartinL
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Thin, brown, winged phasmid highly mimetic of a dry stick.
Images of molting with wings emerging and folding. Note the old skin (exuvia).

Habitat:

Bred in captivity

Notes:

Pic #1 has male drying his new wings
Pic #2 shows mature male with wings folded normally
Pic #1 and pic #4 have a nymph male in the top background.
Pic #5 includes the exuvia beside the freshly emerged male.
Pic #6 shows the male with wings set outstretched.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (3)
MartinL
Its an amazing thing to observe these wings expand and then fold up neatly like a pleated dress. Thanks for your comments ReikoS and Mark
RiekoS
Very interesting. I never saw this spotting (I was not a member then). Thank you so much for sharing this. Amazing.
Mark Ridgway
That's excellent martin. Your setup looks impressive too - I think they're living better lives than me and rightly so :)

Spotted for Missions

Mission
WILD Cities: Urban Biodiversity
Mission
Mimetic Animals of the World

Tags

Photographed
PublishedDecember 26, 2011

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