A mysterious insect from Western Australia dubbed 'creature from hell' has been identified. the creature has shocked people around the world. An Australian spotted the creature and shared the video of it on TikTok. The video shows the insect rearing its body in an aggressive way.
The video was viewed over 10 million times on TikTok and had thousands of comments from viewers from across the globe. According to a report by News.com.au, the blue-greyish creature appears to be a half-stick insect, half scorpion. It also has wings and a tail that goes up and down in a stabbing motion.
See the video here:
The Australian man claimed that the creature was spotted in the outback town of Laverton, Western Australia- about a 10-hour drive from Perth.
The video amassed an array of reactions and a section of users said that they were "terrified" to come to Australia.
"Australia looks gorgeous but the insects carry guns and smoke cigars, never going," a user wrote.
"Yeah, Nah, just another reason to never go to Australia," another said.
"Too many spicy scorpions, fan, pencil things like this."
Many people from Australia said that they hope that the creepy crawly remains in the remote part of Western Australia.
"Saw one of these in Woodford, Queensland, a few days ago," one recalled.
"It was definitely not something I wanted in my house!"
News.com.au spoke to a Perth-based entomologist to identify the insect.
"This is a walking stick insect, in the family Phasmatidae," Nikolai Tatarnic, Curator of Entomology at the Western Australian Museum told the media outlet.
"While most people are aware of their camouflage (i.e. looking like a stick), some species also engage in threat or startle displays (also called 'deimatic behaviour') to ward off potential predators.
"We think the insect in the clip is the genus Paronchestus, probably P. cornutus, as it closely resembles a specimen in our collection, which was collected from Laverton.
"Phasmids are herbivores and are not venomous. The terrifying display in the video is all a ruse, but it clearly works.
"Phasmids are found all across Australia, but because of their amazing camouflage, they mostly go unseen," Mr Tatarnic told the media outlet.
