AusBonsai

guys and gals
i was walking in the yard today and looking at my tree's i noticed this beast sitting on my juniper
cheers dean

That's great. I have not seen one for years.
It's one of the 'stick insects' but I don't know enough to tell you which species. Most of them spend their time in the canopy and are rarely encountered.

Looks like this one is either ready to lay eggs or has an abdomen full of wasp larvae - some wasp species lay eggs into a host insect. When they hatch the grubs eat the host from the inside until they are ready to pupate. Its quite gross to watch a number of big, fat grubs emerge from the still living but mortally ill host but that's nature for you. Maybe we should hope she's ready to lay eggs instead.

Thats Awsome - Healthy garden

My daughter has a golith stick insect and a spiny leaf stick insect that we keep
Theyve been laying eggs and now were waiting (could take months) to hatch.
She just loves them

gday guys
tex i try to look after my garden as much as possible and all the plants you saw were bonsai in grow pots
except for the juni the beast was on
and thanks shibui i was just about to have lunch but it is always a beautiful thing to see and thats the wild creatures visiting
cheers dean

tex048 wrote:Thats Awsome - Healthy garden

My daughter has a golith stick insect and a spiny leaf stick insect that we keep
Theyve been laying eggs and now were waiting (could take months) to hatch.
She just loves them

yes tex also they can have as many as 150 young at a time so be careful daddy tex