Rainbow Crayfish

Invertebrates > Crayfish

The Rainbow Crayfish (Cherax pulcher), also celebrated as the Blue Moon or Hoa Creek Crayfish, is widely acclaimed as the most breathtakingly colorful freshwater crustacean on Earth. Described by science in 2015 after specimens mysteriously appeared in the European...

Malayan Jungle Nymph

Invertebrates > Stick Insects

The Malayan Jungle Nymph (Heteropteryx dilatata) is an absolute titan among the world’s insects, renowned as the heaviest phasmid (stick insect) on Earth. Exhibiting extreme sexual dimorphism, the monumental female resembles a massive, lime-green spiny leaf...

Canterbury Knobbled Weevil

Invertebrates > Weevils

The Canterbury Knobbled Weevil (Hadramphus tuberculatus) is a celebrated ‘Lazarus taxon’ and one of the rarest, most heavily specialized insects in New Zealand. Believed to have gone completely extinct in the 1920s following the agricultural transformation...

Frégate Island Giant Beetle

Invertebrates > Darkling Beetles

The Frégate Island Giant Beetle (Polposipus herculeanus), or Seychelles Giant Tenebrionid, is an iconic and colossal flightless insect native exclusively to the granitic Seychelles islands in the western Indian Ocean. As one of the largest members of the darkling...

Dead Leaf Mantis

Invertebrates > Insects

The Dead Leaf Mantis (Deroplatys desiccata), also known as the Giant Dead Leaf Mantis, is one of the most masterfully camouflaged predatory insects in the natural world. Native to the humid rainforest floors of Southeast Asia, this formidable member of the family...