Saturday, June 02, 2007

Extatosoma tiaratum



Thanks heaps to my mate Geoff Heard who kindly granted me access to his workplace where I was able to photograph some of Australia's most amazing invert species! Stay posted .. there are more to come! This is the Spiny Leaf Insect of Queensland. When eggs are laid they resemble seed pods which ants mistakingly carry into their nests. When they hatch they imitate the same ant species. They then emerge from the ant nest and assume there place amoungst the eucalyptus vegetation. Check out http://www.microcosmos.org.uk/Extatosoma%20tiaratum.htm to see documented life stages.

2 comments:

Cool Daddio said...

Humm I may have been mistakenly raised like that ;-)
Very cool and striking details.

Anonymous said...

Awesome macro snaps dude! The detail is stunning.