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INSECT FACTS |
Identification
The Peppermint Stick Insect (Megacrania batesii) is a bluish-green coloured stick insect. When disturbed they emit a milky substance with a peppermint smell from a gland at the front of the thorax. They use only their front two pairs of legs for moving around the tree, and do use their hindlegs at all. Both males and females have small wings and do not fly.
Size
Length: females - 10cm.
Habitat
lives on the leaves of the screwpine (Pandanus tectorius)
Food
feed at night on foliage of Pandanus tectorius
Range
In Australia thy are restricted to small areas in far north coastal Queensland. Also found on several islands in the Pacific Ocean including the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the New Hebrides and the Philippines.
Classification
| Class: | Insecta | | Order: | Phasmatodea | | Family: | Phasmatidae | | Genus: | Megacrania | | Species: | batesii | | Common Name: | Peppermint Stick Insect |
Relatives in same Genus
Big-headed Stick Insect (M. alpheus)
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