The biggest insect in the world is in China

A museum in China claims to have breed the world's largest insects. This female insect has a length of 64 centimeters (25 inches) or along the average arm of a youth, and defeats its own parent length of 62.4 centimeters.

This Chinese native insect species was discovered in May 2014 in the southern part of the country. Written by the Daily Mail last week (10/8/2017), an entomologist Zhao Li was conducting a midnight field inspection in a forest in Guangxi province and found the insect.

Zhao dubbed the species with the Latin name Phryganistria chinensis Zhao. In free translation, the insect is called the giant stick of China.

She hatched from the egg in December and is the longest specimen ever discovered or raised by Zhao.

When measured from head to end of abdomen, body length reaches 38.2 centimeters (15 inches). While the rest from the front leg to the back foot is 64 centimeters.

Zhao said the eight-month-old insect is not just the longest, but the largest in the world. "According to international standards, insect size can be calculated from the length or range of its wings," Zhao further explained.

He went on to say that the life span of these giant stick insects is usually only one year long and can reach 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) after hatching. The insect also has a sweet tooth.

"They are very fond of strawberry jams, we are afraid that artificial addictive substances may not be good for their health, so we only give them occasionally, but we know they will release other foods for it," Zhao added.

Global Times (9/8) mentions that stick insects are very skilled in disguise. They use twigs or tree leaves that are difficult to recognize. And the giant stick is one of 3,000 similar insects around the world.

The "Tongue" hatched from one of six eggs is now in an insect museum in western China, Chengdu. Besides him, there are also 13 live specimens, while 15 other specimens died.

Due to their enormous size, live specimens were given a cage with a height of more than 1 meter (3.3 feet) and each cage contains only three insects.

"The insects look so great, so lucky I can find them, and by discovering this species, I feel a real splendor, their existence reminds me that many species have become extinct, and there are still many beautiful insects on the planet," Zhao said.

Before the giant insect, the world's longest insect is 56.7 centimeters long in Malaysia in 2008. The insect is now on display at the Natural History Museum of London, England.