This absolutely huge stick insect is a female of a species with the scientific name  ACROPHYLLA WUELFINGI, sometimes known as the giant walking stick or Titan stick insect due to its huge size!  My thanks to Mrs Ashleigh Tinson, a teaching assistant at Brinkworth Earl Danby's School in Wiltshire, for coming up with the perfect name for her, 'Titania'! 

This individual is the longest stick insect I have ever had in my personal collection and she measures 21cm from her head to the end of her abdomen.  In the wild they live in the Queensland area of Australia and their natural diet is the leaves of Eucalyptus trees.

When she sits with her front legs outstretched as in the picture below she measures a massive 31cm!  Despite being huge, she is not even close to the record for the world's longest stick insect, as some species have been recorded in Malaysia which, when outstretched, measure more than 50cm or half a metre!

The picture below is of the same insect when I bought her from a friend of mine, who breeds these stick insects as well as many other species, at his home in Somerset.  As you can see she was much smaller and a brighter shade of green, and in just six weeks she changed from this into the beautiful giant in the pictures above!

Like many species of stick insects, male Acrophylla wuelfingi are much smaller and more slender than the females as you can see below.  They are also able to fly well as they are much lighter than the females and have well-developed wings.