This incredibly spiky animal is a female stick insect of a species which does not have a common name but whose scientific name is Spinohirasea bengalensis, which I'm sure you'll agree is a bit of a mouthful!  This species originates from Vietnam in southeast Asia but my animals are all captive bred and most have been bred and hatched in my own collection!

The males of this species are much smaller than the females as you can see below, with the tiny male sitting on top of the female!

The eggs or ova of this species are amongst the roundest of all the stick insects, and as you can see below they look a little bit like tiny dried oranges!