[4] Acanthoxyla prasina is a large insect; their body length ranges from 7.5 to 11 cm long when fully grown as adults.

[6] Their antennae are on average just slightly longer than the fore femora and the tail on the end of their abdomen is shorter and more circular than that of other subspecies.

Female stick insects lay their eggs on the ground, and they begin to hatch in spring when the weather warms.

[5] Ananthoxyla prasina will moult approximately 5–6 times in roughly 6 months before reaching adult size.

It is unknown if the male was capable of producing sperm or inseminating females because the specimen was killed, dried and added to the collection at the Natural History Museum in London.

Many native and introduced species feed on A. parsina, including house sparrows, blackbirds, silvereyes, chaffinches and yellowhammers.

[9] Much of the knowledge and wisdom from the tangata whenua of New Zealand about stick insects has been scattered or lost.

[6][7] Stick insects were considered to be relatives of mantids and were called rō, whe and wairaka.

[6] Māori believed the presence of a stick insect would indicate that the land would not make a good garden.