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Sydney
\n Reuters
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\n In a remote rainforest in Australia, home to deadly snakes, spiders and creepy-crawlies, scientists have discovered a new species of stick insect they believe is the heaviest ever found in the country.\n <\/p>\n
\n The new species weighs 44 grams (1.55 oz), about the same as a golf ball, and is 40 cm (15.75 inches) long.\n <\/p>\n
\n James Cook University\u2019s Angus Emmott, who helped identify the new Acrophylla alta species, said the creature\u2019s large size could be an evolutionary response to its cool, wet habitat.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTheir body mass likely helps them survive the colder conditions, and that\u2019s why they\u2019ve developed into this large insect over millions of years,\u201d he was quoted as saying in a media release.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cFrom what we know to date, this is Australia\u2019s heaviest insect.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n The new stick insect was discovered in the canopies of the mountainous Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland, in Australia\u2019s northeast.\n <\/p>\n
\n The remote habitat was probably also why it had remained undiscovered for so long, Emmott said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s restricted to a small area of high-altitude rainforest, and it lives high in the canopy. So, unless you get a cyclone or a bird bringing one down, very few people get to see them,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The stick insect\u2019s distinctive eggs also helped scientists identify it as a new species.\n <\/p>\n
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\n \u201cEvery species of stick insect has their own distinct egg style,\u201d Emmott said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey\u2019ve all got different surfaces and different textures and pitting, and they can be different shapes. Even the caps on them are all very unique.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Two specimens have been added to the Queensland Museum\u2019s collection to aid future research.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Sydney Reuters \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 In a remote rainforest in Australia, home to deadly snakes, spiders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-38482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}