A walking dead leaf
Its body and legs have ragged flaps that look exactly like dry, curled leaves.
Tropical north · Grasshoppers, crickets, mantises and stick insects
Spiny leaf insect
Extatosoma tiaratum
A big, brown stick insect covered in spines and leafy flaps, that curls its tail over its back like a scorpion.
- Size
- Females up to 15cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rainforest and eucalyptus forest of Queensland and New South Wales
Rocks after you like a dead leaf in the wind. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Spiny leaf insect
Good to know
Six things about the spiny leaf insect
It rocks as it walks
It sways backwards and forwards with each step, as if stirred by a breeze.
A scorpion impression
The curled tail is pure bluff. It has no sting.
Babies dressed as ants
The eggs look like seeds, and ants carry them into their nests. The young hatch looking and running like ants.
No male needed
A female with no mate can still lay eggs that hatch, though all the young will be females.
A popular pet
It is kept in homes and classrooms all over the world, and eats bramble leaves happily in Britain.
The real thing
Photos of the spiny leaf insect
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
It is very hard to find in the wild: look for something that sways when the other leaves do not. Many zoos and butterfly houses keep them.
How to help
If you keep stick insects, never release them or throw their eggs outdoors. In the wrong country they can become a pest.