By Ecoist in Animals & Habitats, Geography & Travel, Nature & Ecosystems

(Image via: Pro Dive)

In a world of dwindling resources and ever-increasing extinction rates it is always remarkable to see an exception to the rule – particularly one composed of a series of chance happenings and involving one of the strangest species and off-the-map locations on Earth: an odd insect that has survived only under one bush, on one bare rock face, hundreds of feet in the air and miles from other land.

(Image via: Environment.gov)

Ball’s Pyramid is a towering 2,000-foot spire that shoots up from the waters of the Pacific Ocean, essentially bare, desolate and isolated – except that it is home to what might be the most endangered insect on the planet.

(Image via: Howe Divers)

This remarkable little stick insect was thought to have died out after their single largest habitat – the adjacent Lord Howe Island – was the site of a shipwreck that spread black rats (which ate the insects) nearly a hundred years ago.  Since their rediscovery scientists have brought sample populations back to shore in order to breed them in captivity.