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Animal profile

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

Dryococelus australis

InsectaCavities and leaf bases of shrubs on subtropical island vegetation, sheltering by day and feeding at nightCritically Endangered

Field profile

The Lord Howe Island stick insect is a heavy, glossy black flightless phasmid up to about 15 centimetres long, sometimes called the tree lobster. It was thought extinct for decades after rats reached its home island. A tiny relict population was later confirmed on a nearby sea stack.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2026-06-18

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

A stick insect thought extinct survived on one bush

After rats wiped out the Lord Howe Island stick insect early in the twentieth century, the species was written off. In 2001 a surviving population of a few dozen individuals was confirmed on Ball's Pyramid, clustered around a single melaleuca shrub.

Read with evidence →

Lord Howe Island Stick Insect | Daily Animal Facts