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Australian researchers have revised the stick insect genus Anchiale and found that specimens previously treated as two species actually represent five. Two of them, Anchiale robusta and Anchiale mabiensis, are new to science. A third, A. albopunctata, has been reinstated after years of being treated as a synonym. The taxonomic paper was published online on 21 September 2026.
“New” here means newly described and formally recognized. It does not mean the insects recently evolved or arrived. They were already there, and people had photographed them. Nobody had separated them properly.
What changed in the classification
The work is a revision of Anchiale in Australia. A revision re-examines every name, specimen and population in a group and decides how many distinct species exist. In this case the answer was five. The revision recognizes:
- Anchiale albopunctata (reinstated from synonymy)
- Anchiale briareus
- Anchiale mabiensis (new)
- Anchiale robusta (new)
- Anchiale spinicollis
“Reinstated from synonymy” means an older name had been folded into another species. The new analysis found it deserved to stand on its own.
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Where each species lives
| Species | Range given in the revision |
|---|---|
| A. albopunctata | Mideastern Queensland |
| A. briareus | Northeastern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland |
| A. mabiensis | Tropical eastern Queensland |
| A. robusta | Tropical eastern Queensland |
| A. spinicollis | Northern Territory |
The ranges come from the paper’s own summary. They reflect the specimens and records the authors examined.
How the species were told apart
No single feature settled it. The study combined three kinds of evidence:
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- Morphology: the physical form of the insects, including egg features.
- Specimen and locality data: where each specimen was collected, and so where each species occurs.
- Genetics: phylogenetic analysis of a mitochondrial COXI fragment.
The paper says the COXI analyses covered all species except A. spinicollis, so not every species was genetically sampled. Its status rests on the other lines of evidence.
The University of Sydney describes the context as museum specimens, surveys, captive populations and citizen-science observations. It reports more than 1,000 citizen-science observations on iNaturalist and the Atlas of Living Australia, and says the species still remained unresolved. That figure is the university’s 2026 count, not an independently verified total. It shows how a well-photographed animal can still hide taxonomic problems. A photo can record that a stick insect exists. It cannot always show the egg structure or the fine anatomy that separates one species from another.
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Lead author Dr Braxton Jones said: “Even among some of Australia’s most photographed and frequently reported insects, we’re still finding species that have escaped scientific recognition.” The line is reproduced by AOL from the University of Sydney press release.
The Mabi rainforest species
A. mabiensis is associated with Mabi rainforest on Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands. The university identifies Mabi rainforest as a critically endangered ecological community. The insect also has an unusual lid-like egg structure, one of the features that helps distinguish it.
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Why the split could matter beyond taxonomy
The university says a stick insect known for plague-like outbreaks was found to comprise multiple species. Separating them may help future management of forestry and agricultural impacts, because outbreak behavior, host plants and range may differ between species that were previously lumped together.
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What is still unresolved
The university release suggests another species may exist in Cape York. More specimens are needed to confirm it. It has no name and is not a formally described species.
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