Australia is known for its exceptional biodiversity. The country separated from the supercontinent Gondwana nearly 135 million years ago, and completed its separation from Antarctica over the last 40 ...

The Lord Howe Island stick insect vanished from its home, but an effort at zoos in San Diego and Melbourne highlights the possibilities and challenges of conserving invertebrate animals. Lord Howe ...

Stick insects keep evolving to have the same strange body plans over and over again, scientists have discovered. This evolutionary blueprint has enabled researchers to predict the critters' next ...

Known for exceptional mimicry, stick insects have evolved a range of egg-laying techniques to maximize egg survival while maintaining their disguise – including dropping eggs to the ground, skewering ...

Considered extinct for over 80 years, a chance find on a sea stack where little survives has sparked hope for the future of the Lord Howe Island stick insect. When the SS Makambo ran aground on the ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. The Lord Howe stick insect (Dryococelus australis) was ...

Two new frog species have recently been discovered on the small, boulder-studded Dauan Island off Queensland. The frogs have been named for their granite boulder habitat: Choerophyrne koeypad (“rocky ...

The stick insect is a popular model organism in biological research for gaining a better understanding of insect walking movements. The advantage of the stick insect is that the structure of its body ...

At every stage in their lives, from egg to adult, leaf and stick insects prove to be prey that can trick their predators. The giant Malaysian leaf insect (Pulchriphyllium giganteum) starts life as a ...