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Project Noah Nature School
Neopromachus sp.
A heavily "armed" juvenile ( http://lemondedesphasmes.free.fr/spip.ph... ) stick insect (Order Phasmatodea or Phasmida). Often they resemble sticks or leaves, making very effective natural camouflage. "Phasmatodea can be found all over the world in warmer zones, especially the tropics and subtropics. The greatest diversity is found in Southeast Asia and South America, followed by Australia. Phasmids also have a considerable presence in the continental United States, mainly in the Southeast." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmatodea...
Spotted on vegetation along transect in secondary coastal lowland mixed freshwater swamp forest/sago swamp forest.
The cloth material you see is an upside-down kiddie umbrella we were using to look for micro weevils. Shake a bush and theoretically they are captured in the funnel of the umbrella. We didn't find any of those but got plenty of other cool stuff like this! I did not dare touch it... A similar member of the genus from Papua can be seen 1/4 way down on the page http://www.papua-insects.nl/index/Hot%20.... Another relevant link here ( http://ecoport.org/ep?SearchType=slidesh... )
Spotted on Jun 14, 2012
Submitted on Aug 19, 2012
8 Comments
Thanks Albert!
Very nice Spiny Stick!
Yes indeed, Luis ;-)
Comouflage and defense at the same time.
Thanks Sergio!
I missed this one when it appeared here. Very impressive!
Thanks. Here's another specimen from the same spotting session: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/132...
Wow! Never seen one with "thorns!"