Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
Dryococelus australis

This flightless and nocturnal stick insect was once abundant on Lord Howe Island (a small island in the Pacific Ocean, about 730 kilometres north-east of Sydney). However, the introduction of rats to the island in 1918 caused the stick insect’s extinction by 1935.

In 1967, Dr David McAlpine, a staff member of the Australian Museum and now Research Associate, rediscovered the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect after seeing a specimen in a photograph taken on Balls Pyramid (a rocky islet about 23 kilometres from Lord Howe Island). Actual specimens were then collected on Balls Pyramid in 1969.

The stick insect is now being reared in enclosures on Lord Howe Island and will be reintroduced as soon as rodents and a weed vine known as Morning Glory are eradicated. Morning Glory nearly smothered the stick insect’s food plants on Balls Pyramid. The Lord Howe Island Board has been working to remove the weed.

Distribution: Balls Pyramid, Pacific Ocean; extinct on Lord Howe Island
Conservation status: Critically Endangered
Evolutionary distinctiveness: not assessed