• Question: how big is the biggest insect?

    Asked by anon-258096 to Paul on 2 Jul 2020.
    • Photo: Paul Eggleton

      Paul Eggleton answered on 2 Jul 2020: last edited 2 Jul 2020 8:31 am

      The longest insect is Chan’s Megastick – a stick insect from Borneo. The heaviest insect is the Tree Weta – a giant cricket-like insect from New Zealand. The stick insect can be 60 cm (20 inches) long and the weta about 50g, the weight of a small bird.

Comments

  • Photo: Andrew_Y

    Andrew_Y commented on :

    If you look at fossils from the late Paleozoic Era (about 300 to 250 million years ago) there were giant dragonflies with wingspans up to ~70 cm. We don’t think it’s possible for insects to get this sort of size these days because of the way that they breathe, but it’s believed that higher atmospheric oxygen levels then may have helped. Although, as often with science, there’s still uncertainty about this, and it remains an active research topic.
    .
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganisoptera

  • Photo: anon-257889

    anon-257889 commented on :

    actually the longest insect is Phryganistria chinensis. Chan’s megastick is the second longest 🙂 It measures 640mm with legs fully outstretched and was bred at the Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu, Sichuan, China as made public in August 2017.”