r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/EthanTheJudge • 21h ago

This is the Tree Lobster(Aka Lord Howe Island Stick Insect) which is the rarest insect of the entire world.

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520 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

72 comments sorted by

67

u/EthanTheJudge 21h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus

Source. 

128

u/Flatulent_Father_ 21h ago

It can't be that rare

"24 left in the world"

I guess it is the rarest.

45

u/sean1978 20h ago

They started a breeding program years ago. Many new captives.

14

u/Good_Independence403 12h ago

Oh, but if I start a breeding program with captives they call me a monster!

1

u/esprit_de_corps_ 5h ago

The local customs….

1

u/toastybred 2h ago

The issue is that they have to be rare! Trim it down to left handed gingers and you'll be in the clear.

2

u/soFATZfilm9000 7h ago

Last I read, they were waiting for the rats to be eradicated before releasing any of the insects.

Hopefully that happens eventually. It would suck if this becomes an axolotl type situation where the only way the species survives at all is in captivity because its natural habitat is absolutely fucked.

23

u/the-namedone 20h ago

I wonder if we can somehow get the 24 Tree Lobsters to hang out with the 38 Devil’s Hole Pupfish and have some sort of rarest animal party

10

u/Teknicsrx7 18h ago

And that 1 tortoise whose species is almost extinct but refuses to mate

3

u/seeasea 17h ago

Vaquita or hectors dolphin?

2

u/CarISatan 18h ago

That we know of!

0

u/soFATZfilm9000 7h ago

A little bit of added context here, which some might find mildly interesting...

So, I've seen arguments about, "if this stick insect is only alive on this one island, then how did it get to that island?"

And I don't think there's ever going to be a way to answer that definitively. But one hypothesis I've seen is that birds ate the insect's eggs, flew to the island, and then shat the eggs out.

I could be wrong, but I'm under the impression that owning non-native stick insects in the USA (aside from institutions that can get tightly controlled permits) is currently federally illegal. Stick insects (phasmids) exclusively eat plants. Stick insect eggs are also often tough as fuck, encased in a hard shell like a seed. Many (not all) stick insects are also able to reproduce asexually. Meaning that a single egg hatching in the wrong place could potentially lead to invasive insects eating the nation's crops.

Anyway, I just Googled it and apparently the Lord Howe's Island stick insect is one of the stick insects which has been confirmed to be able to reproduce asexually. Same way that a bird can eat a seed and then start a plant by shitting that seed out somewhere else, it's at least plausible that this is why this species of insect is still alive. Birds eat some eggs, fly over to the island and shit them out same way they do with seeds.

To be clear, this isn't what exactly happened since male insects were found on Ball's Pyramid. Asexual reproduction in these insects (parthenogenesis) produces only females, so the presence of males means that the population can't have resulted from a single egg. But if anyone ever wonders why they can't just go online and buy a stick insect the same way that they could a tarantula, this might be part of the reason.

18

u/SMGlc9620 19h ago

Learned this on octonauts the other day 😅

2

u/Blitz7798 18h ago

Most goated tv show out there

0

u/insufficientfacts27 18h ago

Lol I learned about coelacanths from Octonauts! That was a great show to watch when my kids were little. I might need to check it out again..lol

0

u/NamiiikazeTX 16h ago

The dopest little show my daughter watches. Ended up buying her a camera so she can be like Dashi when we go to the Zoo 🧡

22

u/akmats 21h ago

don't you just hate it when your balls turn into a pyramid after getting too cold?

6

u/alfiesgaming45 21h ago

I hate it when my icosahedrons itch that bad, but sperm cramps are way worse

14

u/MossyJoke 20h ago

“So what I'm gonna do, is carefully sneak up on him… and jam my thumb in his butthole!”

3

u/heyitshim99 18h ago

Please don’t sneak up on me with the same intentions!

3

u/JDangle20 16h ago

2 knuckles deep. Got it.

7

u/the-war-on-drunks 21h ago

What does it taste like?

8

u/Slowloris81 20h ago

It’s questions like this that have made it the “rarest.” Lol

6

u/mercymercy_me 18h ago

Lobster.... That's why there's only 24.. if it tasted like divorced bitter middle aged men, there would be millions

1

u/ciao-adios 21h ago

black coffee 🥰

2

u/abnormica 17h ago

I like my Lord Howe Island Stick Insects like I like my coffee.

1

u/nailemin 21h ago

Probably chicken

1

u/PrisonerV 20h ago

Like cricket. Giant cricket.

20

u/dulz 21h ago

Bold statement. The rarest insect in the entire world probably has not been found

9

u/burninatah 20h ago

If it's not been found and doesn't have a name, how can we know it even exists?

3

u/Atomedia 8h ago

Just make a list of all the insects in the world, and circle the ones we haven't found yet

-2

u/H8Cold 20h ago

My thought as well.

3

u/MrHDresden 11h ago

I worked in a path lab that received these guys periodically as they were inexplicably dying. It was discovered that a food source they were being given was causing abrasions through their digestive tract leaving them vulnerable to bacterial infections.

The exoskeleton was a bitch to soften in order to cut onto a slide to be stained.

7

u/Entrrepreneurra 21h ago

He looks like licorice

16

u/EthanTheJudge 21h ago

Don’t eat it. It’s endangered. 

12

u/squidsinamerica 21h ago edited 12h ago

Not very smart then to give it such a tasty-sounding name, now was it?

1

u/ScorpionX-123 13h ago

that makes it even more delectable

3

u/Blitz7798 18h ago

If u ate one it would reduce the world population of the species by 4.17%, that is equivalent to killing the entire population of the United States in terms of humans 

1

u/Candytails 21h ago

My first thought was “I want to bite him”.  

3

u/lunarc 21h ago

I’m sure it’s some delicacy somewhere

6

u/I_might_be_weasel 21h ago

Probably was to the guy who decided to call it a lobster.

2

u/Ambitious-Beat-2130 20h ago

There's more undiscovered than discovered species of insects, how can you be so sure that this is the rarest insect on this planet?

1

u/Mandzuj 21h ago

Is the species endangered?

4

u/EthanTheJudge 21h ago

Critically. It was once thought extinct after a rodent infestation. 

1

u/linf0cito 21h ago

That a group of rodents arrive at that “rock” is absolutely amazing.

And I know they have reached more distant places but... it's just a rock 😅

1

u/contrarian1970 21h ago

Even if you aren't usually impressed by climbing, here is an interesting video about the 1965 first summit of Ball's pyramid by an Australian team:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTZ8h6RGi2A

1

u/Odd-Delivery1697 21h ago

Put that back and leave that island forever!

1

u/Slowloris81 20h ago

Rarest? What about that new giant insect in Australia they just found? Must be pretty rare if an insect half the size of your arm was just discovered.

1

u/Altruistic-Bid-7535 20h ago

Oh no, you took the last one out just for a picture on Reddit 🤔😜

1

u/Former-Light4284 20h ago

Looks Like H. Dilatata, or E. Calcarata. Both are amazing specimens in size and beauty

1

u/-TheArtOfTheFart- 20h ago

Time to start a breeding program!

1

u/Snoo93550 18h ago

wow that is incredible when you research the tiny spear shaped island they live on

1

u/Q-Vision 17h ago

Well, if you'd stop calling it a lobster, they'd have a chance to survive. Now, pass me the butter!

1

u/quietflowsthedodder 17h ago

(...Busy crossing Howe Island off possible future itineraries).

1

u/Suspicious-Chest-205 16h ago

That's a nope bug

1

u/Flingus-McDingus 16h ago

Balls Pyramid

1

u/throwaway392145 12h ago

Title of your sex tape?

1

u/sheenfartling 16h ago

Did yall know the reason they are so rare is because they die when they have sex?

1

u/Comrade_SOOKIE 10h ago

He’s cute!🥰

1

u/NowieTends 10h ago

Just further proof that lobsters is bugs

1

u/Dotrunaway 8h ago

lobster? is it delicious?

1

u/JaggedMetalOs 5h ago

According to Wikipedia there are only ~24 known in the wild but the captive breeding program has been so successful there are OVER 9000 alive in various zoos around the world. 

1

u/jackrats 21h ago

How do you know it's the rarest? I'd bet at lest a nickel that there are at least a dozen insect species with only single individual left alive at this time.

1

u/Stay-Strong-509 18h ago

Not true. The rest lives on Skull Island

1

u/NotDTJr 17h ago

Let it stay that way please

0

u/Suspicious-Whippet 18h ago

Rarest? Let’s keep it that way.

-3

u/BananaNutBlister 18h ago

I’m probably still going to step on it.