Rats! Another species of insect that’s gone extinct. Or so we thought.
Off the east coast of Australia, the Lord Howe Islands once hosted the aptly named Lord Howe Island stick insect …a species of phasmid (or walking stick) growing to nearly 6 inches long.
Often called “tree lobsters,” they lived a relatively peaceful “bug life” until 1918, when a shipwreck just offshore brought more than the ship-less crew to Lord Howe Island. The ship contained a horde of rats that quickly made the island their new home. With no larger mammals to keep the rats in check, their population exploded. And one of the items on the rats’ menus…stick insects.
Along with 12 other invertebrate species and five bird species, by the early 1930s, the Lord Howe Island stick insect had disappeared from its namesake island and was presumed extinct.
But there were rumors. In 1960, a group of rock climbers on the nearby island of Ball’s Pyramid (a spear-like wedge of barren rock jutting from the sea) found what appeared to be the dead remains of the "extinct" insect.
It wasn't until 2001 that researchers returned to Ball's Pyramid. And to their amazement, atop a lonely tea tree, 213 feet above sea level, they found a few living examples of what appeared to be the Lord Howe Island stick insect.
Since it’s rediscovery, the two breeding pairs taken from Ball’s Pyramid have started breeding programs at several different zoos around the world. With efforts underway to eradicate the rat population on Lord Howe Island, after more than a century, what’s undoubtedly the rarest insect on earth may soon reclaim its historic domain.
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