Two new stick insects, hiding in plain sight in Australia's most-photographed forests

Dr Braxton Jones calls taxonomy 'a bit like detective work' — and the case he and colleagues at the University of Sydney have just closed is a good one. Revising Australia's Anchiale stick insects, the team found that what everyone thought were two species are actually five: two brand-new species, plus a third that had been hiding in plain sight for decades. One newcomer, Anchiale mabiensis, stretches 16.3 centimetres long in Queensland's endangered Mabi rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands, and lays unique 'lidded' eggs. This in a group already recorded more than 1,000 times by citizen scientists on iNaturalist and the Atlas of Living Australia, across a range from northern New South Wales to the tropical far north. 'Even among some of Australia's most photographed and frequently reported insects,' Jones said, 'we're still finding species that have escaped scientific recognition.'

SDG 15 · Life on land