What Is The World's Largest Insect?

Ever wondered what is the world's largest insect? Well, I did this morning and naturally the next thing to do was a google search. And it turns out the answer is not a simple "It's this one". After all, how do you define "largest". By weight? By length? By total volume? What about wing-span?

And if we are to take into account all the different stages insects go through their life things get even more complex! Take for example goliath beetles! When in the larval stage, they can reach a weight ranging from 80–100 g, making them a perfect contender for the world's heaviest insect record... Adults however only weigh half that much! So, yeah the answer to the question "What Is The World's Largest Insect" can be a tricky one.

So, without a clean winner allow me to present you the winners for each respective category. Get ready to see some really big fucking bugs!

1. World's Largest Insect To Have Ever Existed

Well, if prehistoric extincted species get to play,  then the answer to the question is quite easy. When alive some 300 million years back, the world's biggest insect ever looked something like this:

Model of a meganisopteran (CC BY-SA 3.0, credit)

Meet Meganisoptera, an extinct order of large, dragonfly-like insects. Due to their remarkable resemblance to dragonflies the order was originally called "Protodonata", a reference to the odonata order which includes dragonflies and damselflies.

Sometimes the term "giant dragonfly" is also used but it should be noted that Meganisoptera actually lack certain features characteristic of odonata, and the term "griffinfly" is preferred today among many entomologists. 

Today, the biggest griffinfly that we know to have existed is Meganeuropsis permiana, which lived about 275 million years ago and had a wingspan of about 75 cm or 30 inches, a weight of more than 450 g and a body length of 43 cm (16 inches).

Why did griffinflies and other insects get to be so big back then is still unclear, but it is possibly connected to the way insects breath and the increased availability of oxygen back then, which allowed them to reach much greater sizes then they do these days.

Sidenote: Don't forget, Meganeuropsis permiana is the biggest extinct insect that we currently know. Maybe one day something comes up in the fossil record that is even bigger then that! 

Fossil of a Meganeura monyi which attained a wingspan of about 68 cm (27 in)! (CC BY-SA 4.0, credit)

Ok, now let's see some insects that still walk on planet Earth.

2. World's Heaviest Insect

When it comes to weight we have two contenders. The first is the larval stage of goliath beetles that I already talked about in the introduction. The Goliathus genus contains 5 species  of beetles, with all five amongst the largest insects on Earth when it comes to size, bulk & weight and can be found in many of Africa's tropical forests.

With a maximum weight of at least 115 g and a length of 11.5 cm  there's no question.. this is one freaking big larva! The video below will give you a better idea of how big the larvas actually get to be. Just jump to 00:50:

Adult goliath beetles have a similar length but their weight gets halved as they reach adulthood. Still, they are quite a sight to behold:

Looks more like something that spawned from hell than an actual insect.. Still I would pet it ^_^

Now, if we exclude immature specimens then the king when it comes to weight is the Giant weta. Giant weta is the common name used to describe numerous species of weta from the genus Deinacrida.  These creatures are endemic to New Zealand and are examples of island gigantism which is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. I could talk more about this phenomenon, but this is not the point of this post. My online buddy @mobbs has actually written a very good post though, if you want to learn more!

Back to giant wetas now. These things grow to be true behemoths! The heaviest ever recorded specimen belonged to the Deinacrida heteracantha species and had a weight of 71 g. That was one heavy bug! Having said that, most D. heteracantha adults have an average weight of 9 to 35 g and an average body length of about 7.5 cm, so that was more like an exception and not the rule.

Here's a photo of an average adult specimen:

Giant Weda (CC BY-SA 4.0, credit)

In case you wonder, these creatures can only be found in the Little Barrier Island and some other smaller predator-free island conservation areas and are commonly known as "wētāpunga". I have no idea how this is pronounced.

3. World's Longest Insect

When it comes to length, the slender stick insects are the clear victors. Up until 2016, the longest insect ever recorded belonged to an individual from the species Phobaeticus chani. The specimen is held in the Natural History Museum in London and has a total length of 56.7 cm with the legs flexed.

Phobaeticus chani or Chan's megastick as it's commonly known is a newly discovered species that can be found in Sabah, Borneo and as of today only 6 specimens have ever been caught. Here's a photo of the closely related and slightly smaller Phobaeticus serratipes to help you visualize their immense size:

Phobaeticus serratipes, one of the world's longest stick insects (CC BB SA 2.0, credit)

Apparently though stick insects can get even bigger! Today, the record belongs to a specimen from the Phryganistria chinensis species, held at the Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu. This individual has a mind-blowing length of of 62.4 cm. Remember! We are talking about insects here! And this individual is half a meter long and then some!

Interestingly, the existance of  P. chinensis was rumored for years before its discovery by the locals and Zhao Li from the Insect Museum of West China spent years searching for it. Finally, one day he found one individual in the Guangxi Zhuang region and brought it alive to the museum. There the insect laid 6 eggs, with the smallest offspring being a whooping 26 something cm long! 

Unfortunately due to copyright issues I can't include a photo of the creature but you can click here if you want to see some photos. Big fucking stick with legs is a good description I believe. 

4. World's Largest Wings

Size of wings is the last category we will examine with again no clear winner.

If we talk about wing span then the record goes to Thysania agrippina, a moth commonly known as white witch, birdwing moth, ghost moth, great grey witch, and great owlet moth. These moths are usually found in Mexico, Central and South America but sometimes fly as far north as Texas.

To give you some numbers, T. agrippina moths routinely have a wingspan ranging from 27 to 29 centimetres (10.6–11.4 in)  with one recorded specimen having a wingspan of 29,8 cm (12 in)! Again, here's a video to help you visualize their immense size:

But when it comes to wing surface, the gold medal goes to another moth, the Atlas moth from the Southeast Asia. Scientifically described as Attacus atlas, it has  the largest wing surface area covering 62 square inches, which is big enough...to cover your face:

The End

If you ask me, giant insects are really, really fascinating! There are so many more amazing species I would like to mention but I think this post is already big enough for the short attention span of the average steemit user. In a future post I will definitely touch some other more specific categories, like world's largest cockroach, largest ant and largest whatever. 

Extras

Before I close this post I will leave some extras for your viewing pleasure that I stumbled upon while writing this post. Enjoy:

1. The Age of Giant Insects

A great video exploring the reasons that might had caused bugs to be way, way larger 300 million years ago.

2. Hercules Beetle

I wish I had one to play too :)

References

- All references are provided in the form of clickable links in the main body of the post :)