Dog-eared Stick Insect
S1 Male, dorsal
Ellura
Dog-eared Stick Insect
S1 Male, abdomen spines
 
                      
Dog-eared Stick Insect (Hyrtacus tuberculatus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Stick Insects (Phasmida)
Family: Stick Insect (Phasmatidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Dog-eared Stick Insect (Hyrtacus tuberculatus)
This Photo:     S1 Male, head
Other name: Lobed-Abdomen Stick Insect

Thank you Matthew Connors & Aidan Beutel for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
The adult male was ~55mm long, the adult female was considerably larger and just over 80mm.
The body parts of stick insects are a little harder to work out than most insects. It looks like they have 5 main parts rather than 3.
This is because the thorax is broken up into 3 distinct parts, where it often looks like one. The head is obvious, then the thorax starts with the pronotum (looks like a collar behind the head). The 2nd part of the thorax is the Mesonotum & the 3rd part is the Metanotum, followed up by the abdomen from the hindlegs back.

Copyright © 2017-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 14-Dec-2017
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.