http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years
They call it "Ball's Pyramid." It's what's left of an old volcano that emerged from the sea about 7 million years ago. A British naval officer named Ball was the first European to see it in 1788. It sits off Australia, in the South Pacific. It is extremely narrow, 1,844 feet high, and it sits alone.

What's more, for years this place had a secret. At 225 feet above sea level, hanging on the rock surface, there is a small, spindly little bush, and under that bush, a few years ago, two climbers, working in the dark, found something totally improbable hiding in the soil below. How it got there, we still don't know.
This :

was found here:

3/6/2012 8:51:08 PM

nopenopenopenopenope

3/6/2012 8:52:54 PM

nice

3/6/2012 8:54:15 PM

3/6/2012 9:00:23 PM

holy unibrow

3/6/2012 9:08:34 PM

clearly we should not fucking go there

3/6/2012 9:09:40 PM

i would love to see this place

3/6/2012 9:14:25 PM

Im a pretty tough dude, but I think Id shit my pants if one of those crawled out from under the couch

3/6/2012 9:26:47 PM

Yea, it's great that they found them, then felt compelled to collect them, almost killing the last of them off. Fortunately they figured it out in the nick of time. Unfortunately, rare means valuable. Good luck to the last of 'em, as hard as it might be to find them, the authors spelled out the location pretty much to the T.

3/6/2012 9:35:48 PM

Now that you mention it, if I was a billionaire I probably would want one of the worlds largest ant, just to step on it.

3/6/2012 10:14:11 PM

i tell you what, though... we'll be totally fucked when there are 8- or 10-legged insects, giant or not.

3/6/2012 10:15:06 PM

1000 ants the size of dogs could rule this entire planet.

3/6/2012 10:15:55 PM

nah. We've got way more than 1000 baseball bats and cans of Raid. I think we're good to go

[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 10:17 PM. Reason : capitalized raid, lol]

3/6/2012 10:16:58 PM

nonononononono

3/6/2012 10:17:07 PM

It would take 5 gallons of raid to kill an ant the size of a dog, and it could snap a baseball bat like a toothpick.



[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 10:19 PM. Reason : THEM!]

3/6/2012 10:17:57 PM

that ( ^ ) ant is not the size of a dog. and I think we've got more than 5000 gallons of raid lying around

my car can take care of a dog. i think it can handle an ant, lol

[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 10:21 PM. Reason : ]

[Edited on March 6, 2012 at 10:21 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2012 10:20:39 PM

Quote :

"clearly we should not fucking go there"

3/6/2012 10:23:54 PM

Quote :

"SIX LEGGED INSECT"

Haha, aaronburro brings up a good point. This is redundant.

3/6/2012 11:38:17 PM

Quote :

"what u got hoes???"

3/7/2012 12:32:49 AM

that place is just begging for some evil warlord to build a castle on top

3/7/2012 12:34:10 AM

how do you know one hasn't? i mean, there's those evil things crawlin around down below it...

3/7/2012 12:35:01 AM

because i don't see an ominous castle on top in the pic

3/7/2012 12:36:50 AM

it's cloaked

3/7/2012 12:37:09 AM

that guy is so fucking happy with himself

3/7/2012 12:40:42 AM

Not gonna lie...I might've shit myself if I was climbing that and one of those popped out at me

3/7/2012 8:11:00 AM

3/7/2012 8:15:05 AM

Dr. Evil says

"shit shit they found my failed man-eating ants that escaped"


Who would have thought giant ants would be friendly?


Btw... do you think they taste like lobster?

3/7/2012 8:17:26 AM

3/7/2012 8:24:24 AM

aww HELL naw

3/7/2012 8:25:09 AM

seriously though... if crabs are arachnids then i wonder what giant insects taste like...

This thing could be delicious served with some butter & lemon juice.

3/7/2012 8:26:29 AM

KILL IT WITH FIRE

3/7/2012 8:36:12 AM

^^

crabs are not arachnids. They are crustaceans. Arachnids and crustaceans (and insects) are closely related because (IIRC), they are both arthropods.

So i doubt giant insect meat will taste anywhere near as good as crab meat... but knock yourself out!

[Edited on March 7, 2012 at 8:56 AM. Reason : .]

3/7/2012 8:55:48 AM

your title is redundant, by definition an insect is an arthropod with 6 legs.

They were quite common in Australia until the early 1900's when rats infested Australia and ate them all, a few managed to escape to the Lord Howe island, they put 4 of them into a breeding program, 2 died. So now they are attempting to breed just the 2, which is dumb, but whatever.

3/7/2012 9:05:01 AM

This part was funny:

Quote :

"The plan was to take one pair and give it a man who was very familiar with mainland walking stick insects, a private breeder living in Sydney. He got his pair, but within two weeks, they died."

3/7/2012 9:05:55 AM

Goddamn Australia.

Quote :

"Massive spiderwebs engulf Australian town as arachnids escape floods You may have seen this strange tableau in Pakistan a wee while back, but it never ceases to be absolutely amazing. In the town of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia, rising floodwaters have forced uncountable spiders to seek shelter on higher ground. Sprawling spiderwebs have overtaken bushes, shrubs, fields, and the occasional dog, like the real-life equivalent of the red weed from War of the Worlds. 9,000 residents in the flood zone were evacuated, leaving the arachnids to build their kingdom. Imagine how many capes and violin strings those fields could create."

http://io9.com/5891091/massive-spiderwebs-engulf-australian-town-as-arachnids-escape-floods

3/7/2012 9:11:45 AM

tell me that's not the goonies rock.

3/7/2012 9:23:51 AM

poor giant walking sticks

3/7/2012 9:39:35 AM

Quote :

" They were quite common in Australia until the early 1900's when rats infested Australia and ate them all, a few managed to escape to the Lord Howe island, they put 4 of them into a breeding program, 2 died. So now they are attempting to breed just the 2, which is dumb, but whatever"

Um your reading comprehension skills are kind of lacking. That article clearly stated they were common on lord howe island (not mainland australia) until a shipwreck brought rats there. They were thought extinct until found on ball's pyramid, where they caught 4 for breeding.

Also it sounds like that single pair was pretty successful in reproducing.

3/7/2012 10:32:32 AM

sorry, I didn't read this particular article because we discussed this last year in one of my entomology classes, so good job, native to the Lord Howe Island.

*pat on the back*



Just because 2 of the captive insects made offspring does not mean success. If they are kept in this program, there will be inbreeding, and releasing insects like that are not likely to be successful. Also, they do not know enough about them to make this successful (yet) since they were thought to be extinct.



[Edited on March 7, 2012 at 10:47 AM. Reason : .]

3/7/2012 10:35:14 AM

Survival of the fittest. They should have evolved to defend themselves against the rats like this dude did:

3/7/2012 10:38:29 AM

This thread reminds me of... O&A this morning.

3/7/2012 10:40:16 AM

Quote :

"If they are kept in this program, there will be inbreeding, and releasing insects like that are not likely to be successful."

3/7/2012 10:42:27 AM

3/7/2012 10:45:34 AM

3/7/2012 10:48:06 AM

yeah I was thinking that inbreeding would be a problem as well

they should go get some more

3/7/2012 10:50:28 AM

there is less then 20 in the wild, they had to get special permission just to take the 4, which they killed half of, probably won't happen.

3/7/2012 10:52:08 AM

isn't this the part where fanatics like Green Peace step in to break the law for the betterment of insects or some shit

3/7/2012 11:09:11 AM

human intervention is not going to help, at this point, they are on their own.

3/7/2012 11:12:23 AM

Why do people even give a fuck??

I understand if it were some insect that actually had an effect on the world in some way...but not this one. It's been living on a rock for a long time and nobody even knew it. There is no benefit or detriment to the rest of the world if this insect were to not exist.

Let them be.

3/7/2012 11:14:27 AM

set em up

3/7/2012 11:18:53 AM