An island on the lost continent contains the rarest insect in the world

Also called the Lord Howe Island stick insect, Dryococelus australis spent 40 years missing until it returned from extinction in 1964, when a group of mountaineers stumbled upon a specimen. He died, it’s true, and several others were found in the following years, as Jim Smith and Keith Bell explain in the book “South Pacific Summit: Exploring the Pyramid Sphere.” “, without Brazilian edition).

Finally, in 2001, a group of 24 individuals was discovered, and the stick insect gained the reputation of being the rarest insect on the planet. After all, he doesn’t live anywhere else. Which was not always the case.

The tree crayfish is a huge insect that can reach 20 cm in length. It was very common in Lord Howe, and fishermen would use it as bait.

But it is believed that the arrival of a supply ship in 1918, which also led to an invasion of black rats, put an end to this reality. Two years later, no lobster has been seen at Lord Howe.

80 years passed and the animal was found alive again. Quite unusual news. All members of the species are concentrated in one small tree, on a rock with no source of fresh water and almost no vegetation.