Jungle Nymph

• Its female is among the heaviest insects alive and lays the largest eggs known in any insect, comparable to a peanut.
• It defends itself by snapping its spiny hind legs shut on whatever is holding it, and it also produces an audible hiss by rubbing its reduced wings together.
• Incubation of its eggs can last more than a year, one of the longest embryonic developments in the insect world.
• It is the heaviest stick insect in the world: females can exceed 60 g.
• Its incubation is among the longest of any stick insect: between seven and fourteen months buried in the ground.
• The dimorphism is extreme: the female is lime green, broad, flightless and very aggressive, while the male is mottled brown, slender and winged.
• When threatened, the female raises her abdomen and snaps her spine-covered hind legs shut like a pair of pincers.
• The nymphs change colour between day and night and roost in groups until the fourth instar.

Habitat & environment

Rainforest of Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra

Gestation / incubation

The eggs take between 7 and 14 months to hatch

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (Heteropteryx); Phasmid Study Group (PSG 18); Catalogue of Life