Ready to read some?
You've got stick insects over there right (?do you?)?
It's kind of like one of those, just not exactly the same family.
It's called a spiny leaf insect, or Macleays spectre. Dunno the scientific name though...you might know these as the bugs you saw in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thorhakonsen/2476551526/
That's not a bad shot of one...they kind of have a big ant like head, a strange body and a scorpion lookin' tail.
Really cool pic here:
http://members.optushome.com.au/davi...icks/whole.jpg
I've got a female, which is the one in the pic I just linked - the males are a bit longer, stick-ish looking, and have limited flight.
Tried to find a pic online...couldn't, sorry
Either way, less remarkable creature, just looks like most other "stick" insects.
The females can get pretty big, say the length of your forearm, they look a little daunting but the creature is actually harmless - no sting or venom.
Only the females have the tail structure, it's actually a mechanism to throw eggs around - See, they actually asexually reproduce (females on their own produce female spawn) and throw an egg every day or so - the egg looks like a certain type of ant egg, and get this, it lands on the ground, the ants think it's food or one of theirs, takes it down into their hive where gestation conditions are actually ideal, and the nimph hatches down there.
It gets out, because when it's tiny it actually looks very similar to one of the ants....so yeah, they walk out and make for the trees.
The ones here eat almost nothing but Eucalyptus leaves (that's the stuff Koalas eat) which contain some kind've stuff that makes 'em almost stoned-like placid, they're quite happy to just hang about and climb on you.
They also have very cool feet - on each side is a claw, and they've got like built-in sticky pads that can adhere to almost any surface.
Anyways, yeah that's what it is.
Thanks for reading, ha.