Macleay's Spectre Stick Insect Longhorn vs Four-spotted Dung Beetle

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Macleay's Spectre Stick Insect Longhorn Four-spotted Dung Beetle
Scientific Name Penthea vermicularis Helictopleurus quadripunctatus
Order Coleoptera Coleoptera
Family Cerambycidae Scarabaeidae
Size 20-30 mm body length 12-18 mm
Habitat Woodlands Farmland
Diet Wood Feeders Dung Feeders
Regions Australia Madagascar
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Macleay's Spectre Stick Insect Longhorn

A slender longhorn beetle with mottled grey-brown bark-like camouflage patterning. It is found on dead wood in eucalypt forests of eastern Australia.

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Did You Know?

Its bark-like coloring makes it virtually invisible when resting on dead tree trunks.

Four-spotted Dung Beetle

A medium-sized dung beetle with four distinctive pale spots on its dark elytra. It is one of the few Helictopleurus species that has adapted to open habitats alongside cattle.

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Did You Know?

It is one of only five Helictopleurus species that have successfully shifted from forest-dwelling lemur dung specialist to open-habitat cattle dung feeder.