Acrophylla titan
I saw this fellow in my backyard recently (October 2024). This is Acrophylla titan, the titan stick insect, one of Australia’s largest and longest phasmids. I live in a sizeable urban area, and although it is leafy in places - Toowoomba is the garden city after all - I didn’t think there was enough habitat around here for this kind of insect to flourish. It’s the first stick insect of any size I’ve seen outside of the bush environment.
They can grow up to 26 centimetres long, though I estimate this specimen to be 22 or 23 centimetres in body length, mostly from estimation compared to the size of my hand.
They are harmless, although their prodigious wingspans and large sizes will startle or frighten people unaccustomed to them. They are herbivorous, eating leaves of many native plants, such as Eucalyptus and its allies (Corymbia, Angophora, Syncarpos et al) and according to the Australian Museum, they are relatively simple insects to keep in captivity, though I’ve personally never tried it. This specimen lingered in my backyard and vicinity for much of the day before disappearing. I can only hope he or she (I suspect it was female) survived to live another day without becoming bird fodder.
Seeing this guy has made me keener in looking out for other stick insects around my parts. They can be cryptic, as they have evolved to resemble twigs and sticks as a camouflage measure. The below is a short 11 second video I took of the stick insect moving around on the garden shed.