From tic-tac to giant
The eggs of a goliath stick-insect are brown and about half the size as a tic-tac. The eggs drop down from the female and spend around 4-6 months in amongst the leaf litter before they hatch. They start off as little brown stick insects, but after shedding five times they will grow their wings and turn green to match their favourite food source of acacia and eucalyptus.
Code red
Although they are very good at camouflaging, if they are spotted by a bird, they will flash open their wings to reveal a pinkish-red stripe. In the wild, red and pink is commonly seen as a warning colour and potentially indicative of poison – a clever way to quickly scare away any predators.
No mate? No problem
The female goliath stick-insect can lay eggs even if they haven’t mated with a male. This is a really crafty process called parthenogenesis and is a form of cloning. When utilising this process, the eggs will only hatch into females. It’s possible for them to lay up to 1000 eggs in their lifetime – though 1000 children really does seem like a handful.
