https://tilvids.com/videos/watch/8cf2066b-68b9-4cd3-bf64-d45858f1c238 Yet another video fresh from the slop mill, this time on an animal that's been done over and over again before on other platforms. Oh and yeah I forgot to mention a bunch of stuff that might've made this more coherent, but that's a past me problem. Transcript: Ayo what’s up, I cannot think of a good introduction this time, so I’ll just say this video is about a peculiar animal species, one from Australia no less. Dryococelus australis, or, the tree lobster. Now, assuming you know basic animal anatomy, you may realize this is an insect given the 6 legs and 2 antennae, and not a crustacean as in the case of an actual lobster. And yes, although you’d be correct in saying that, this creature is technically still a crustacean since all true insects evolved directly from early crustaceans that left the water during the mid Paleozoic, in addition to the line between vernacular concepts of ‘bug’ and ‘shellfish’ are hazy to the point of nearly being synonyms, hence why the words locust and lobster both have the same root. The species of interest here is a member of the order Phasmatodea, the lineage comprising stick insects and leaf insects, distinguished by their mimicry of plants, large body size, completely herbivorous diet, and absent or poor flight ability. They are related to crickets, grasshoppers, mantises, earwigs, and cockroaches, all of which were formerly classified together in the singular order Orthoptera, given that they all go through a nymph stage, have mandibles, and are usually not aquatic, thus distinct from the other insect orders such as Odonata, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, or Hemiptera. But enough with higher level taxonomy, let me explain tree lobsters specifically. The Lord Howe species, originally named Karabidion australe by french naturalist Xavier Montrouzier in 1855, was native to the titular Lord Howe island during its discovery, existing alongside the other fauna in the Australasian realm such as kangaroos or emus found on mainland Australia. Tree Lobsters are not to be confused with the similar looking wetas or wetapunga of New Zealand, which are likewise giant herbivorous cricket-like insects in this area of the world, but unlike the tree lobster which is a member of the Phasmatodea, wetas belong to true order Orthoptera just as crickets or grasshoppers. I should specify that they used to live on Lord Howe Island since the animal has unfortunately been rendered extinct there due to a myriad of human caused factors, namely the introduction of black rats that ate both adults and the nymphs of the tree lobster. Evidently, people also used them as fishing bait and probably ate the critters directly, though that last part is just an inference based on how often large insects appear in cuisine, even the bible has several mentions of locusts as a food item. Either way, only 2 years after the rats were introduced, the species was declared extinct in 1920, and it would remain that way for some 80 years. That was until 2001, when a group of researchers or something stumbled upon an island with a funny name that just so happened to possess a relict population of 24 individual tree lobsters living under a single paperbark tree at 100 metres up the rugged island. 2 breeding pairs were collected to found a captive population that was raised in Melbourne Zoo, allowing their numbers to bounce back after their perceived extinction, and there is now thousands of them distributed between zoos and other animal conservation facilities in cities such as Budapest, San Diego, Bristol, Toronto, and Prague. Besides being rare and having a unique story, not much distinguishes Lord Howe island stick insect from its relatives on the mainland, but the novelty of a species coming back so abruptly remains fascinating. Anyway, that’s all from me today, see you next time. Sun, 02 Aug 2026 01:16:21 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tilvids.com https://tilvids.com/lazy-static/avatars/a8b2efbf-2a14-445c-a432-b4ebcf28cb7d.png https://tilvids.com/videos/watch/8cf2066b-68b9-4cd3-bf64-d45858f1c238 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tilvids.com/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.