Twiggy enigma
A newly identified insect has the coloring of an exotic tropical bird, the defense mechanism of a skunk, and the look of tree debris. Researchers collected the otherworldly stick insect a few years ago from a remote mountain on the Philippine island of Mindoro, and found that it is so unique that it deserves its own genus.
“We were baffled,” Marco Gottardo, a PhD student at the University of Siena, Italy, told the BBC. “It looked so different from any other known stick insect in the world that we immediately realized it was something very special.”
The twiggy creature, Conlephasma enigma, has a dazzling blue-green head and fiery orange and yellow body. When provoked, it releases a foul smelling spray from glands on its head. Also unique, the new stick insect “is wingless, with a stout body and rather short legs,” which may be an adaptation to the ...
