Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: What is this strange insect., 1 by kennedyh

kennedyh wrote:
While surveying plants in Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, Australia, someone drew my attention to this very strange insect, sitting still on the blade of a sedge leaf (Lepidosperma concavum). It has me completely baffled! I cannot even get as far as the order it belongs to. At first sight it looks like a larval form, but it has well developed antennae and most larvae don't have obvious antennae. That leads me to think it may be a flightless female of some sort. I know several moth species have flightless females, but I just can't visualise this as a moth. It looks (and feels) leathery and is almost hairless, there is a fuzz of short hairs on its rear end.

Can anybody tell me where to look to ID this strange creature? It is about 13 mm long and the head end is on the right.

Kennedy