The Giant Insects of the Carolines

Giant walking sticks seven to nine inches long, titan spiders that walk on water, little black crickets that dive and swim long distances under water are some of nature’s curiosities on mountainous, jungle-covered Kusaie, easternmost of the Caroline Islands.

Especially unusual are the winged-blue-and-green walking sticks with their fantastic hand-over-hand way of walking. Among the largest of all insects is a walking stick found on the nearby island of Truk. It is reddish-brown and wingless with a body nine inches long. The huge spider’s usual abode is the foliage of long grasses overhanging jungle streams. There it lies in wait for the insects which are its usual prey. When alarmed the big spider drops off the grass into the water and starts running swiftly over the surface. It is provided with “water shoes,” bristle arrangements on its feet. Probably it does not even get its feet wet.

The submarine crickets are little black insects about an inch long which live on damp basalt rocks along the sides of, and in, the streams. They are almost invisible in the dim jungle light but make themselves known by their continuous chirping. When frightened they make long, high dives from the rocks and swim for undetermined distances a few inches under water, where they are invisible.

By far the most fantastic spectacle found on Kusaie is that of the ghostly light which marks the banks of rivers. It is due to some species of ground-growing fungus. A Smithsonian party once was overtaken by darkness high in the mountains where no trails could be followed through the dank jungle. They started wading down a stream which, they knew, eventually must lead to the lowlands and the coast. They waded, sometimes neck deep, in a tunnel of overhanging branches through whose thick foliage no light could penetrate. But always, glowing on both sides of them, were the lines of luminous fungi.