Melbourne Museum has successfully bred some of the world's largest stick insects, in the Australian captive breeding program, in which keepers hope will help ensure the species survival. this is the first capitve breeding programme for this Stick Insect.
Insect keepers at the museum spent more than a year rearing the gargantuan stick insects (Ctenomorpha gargantua) in captivity, after finding a female of the species, affectionately named Lady Gaga-ntuan, in 2014.
One of Lady Gaga-ntuan's offspring has now grown to become the largest known stick insect in Australia, at 56.5cm long, that is just 2mm off the world record.
Melbourne Museum's Maik Fiedel said the second generation of the species had just laid their own eggs, which he hoped might grow to become the largest in the world, fingers are crossed!
It is believed the insects were quite widespread in far north Queensland, but were very rarely seen, this is due to were the animals can usually be found. They prefer to spend time in the canopy far away from humans.
Picture by Robyn Powell.
humans Before the breeding programme was set up little to nothing was known about this species, witha lot of the programme being done by trial and error. We have previously not had any knowledge on what they eat in capitivity, how long they live for, and how many eggs they lay, and the gestation period.
We have found that this increadable insect only lives for one year.
And if you ever find yourself in Melbourne for the day, the insects are now on public display for the first time.
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