Critter Corner – Peppermint Stick Insect
#CritterCorner – Imagine this… you’re a small insect living in a rainforest… what would you choose as your defence mechanism?
How about glands behind your head that can shoot an irritating, peppermint scented spray at predators?
Not what you were thinking? Well, the Peppermint stick insect (Megacrania batesii) has just that!
These fascinating and beautiful insects spend most of their time camouflaged within their food plants – a few species of pandanus, including Screwpine (Pandanus tectorius) – where they can flatten themselves in the natural furrows created by the shape of the leaves.
Peppermint stick insects also utilise sloping, slippery-dip shaped Pandanus leaves for defence – to make a quick getaway, they can slide down into the dense, spiky protection of the crown of the plant. Their seed-like eggs also roll along these leaves, where they roll down to the tight-fitting leaf axil to ‘incubate’.
Females are able to produce fertile eggs without mating (parthenogenetic), which results in all-female populations. The females are the larger of the species but the males have longer wings (not that they’re very useful for flying).
Found in the Wet Tropics of Queensland (a very small and patchy distribution along some beach areas in Cape Tribulation, Innisfail and Mission Beach), the Peppermint stick insect also lives in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and other Pacific Islands.
If you do happen to spot a Peppermint stick insect, we ask that you admire it from a safe distance. When they feel threatened, they will spray a white fluid from their prothoracic glands which may smell minty fresh, but it can be very irritating, particularly if it gets in your eyes. It is also a very strenuous act for the frightened stick insect so please leave them be.
Information sourced from Wet Tropics Management Authority and Minibeast Wildlife.
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