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1. kho (kho@shitposter.club)'s status on Thursday, 19-Oct-2023 22:52:19 JST kho

   in reply to
   The Giant Prickly Stick Insect, also refferred to as Macleay’s Spectre Stick Insect, is a large stick insect from Australia and New Guinea. Its scientific Latin name is Extatosoma tiaratum.
   
   This species of stick insect looks more like a cactus than like a twig. Its body is bulky and covered in small spines. On its legs it has big lobes that are also spiked and look like leaves of a desert plant. Extatosoma tiaratum are often light to mid brown, but occasionally you can find green, beige or dark brown varieties. There is also a rare “lichen” type color that can be found in some young Giant Prickly Stick Insect females.
   
   Like most stick insects this species is docile by nature. It is nocturnal and will generally only move during the night.
   It has an amazing defense strategy: it will mimic a scorpion when threatened. If they are disturbed, they will curl up their tail to mimic a scorpion. Sometimes they will even raise their front legs to mimic the shears of a scorpion. Predators who are interested in eating a stick insect, see a scorpion and are not willing to take the risk and attack a poisonous scorpion. The stick insect is harmless but just uses its tail to bluff off predators!