China has found the largest insect in the world

On Thursday, the Xinhua News Agency told the world that a huge insect with a length of more than 62 cm was found in southern China, recognized by entomologists as the longest insect in the world. The insect, which was named Phryganistria, was found by an employee of the Entomological Museum of Western China, Zhao Li, on an expedition he had undertaken in 2014.

Museum workers say that among all the insects known to science, of which there are already 807,625 species, the found new species of stick insects is the largest. The previous length record belongs to the Malaysian chopstick, found in Malaysia in 2008 - 56.7 cm. You can get acquainted with it by visiting the London Museum of Natural History.


')
Zhao Li said that he had been counting on meeting with the giant since 1998, when, while on an expedition in the Guangxi region, he heard from local residents about a giant stickman more than half a meter long and a man’s index finger. Lee believed the stories, but he only managed to see the insect alive 16 years later.

“On the night of August 16, 2014, I collected samples of insects on a 1200-meter-high mountain in the town of Lizu, Guangxi District, when I suddenly noticed a dark shadow resembling a tree branch,” Li recalls. “When I came closer, I was shocked by the look of the insect and its legs, which was as long as its own body.”



Lee took the insect into his museum. It laid six eggs, which soon hatched. The smallest among newborn insects reached a length of 26 cm. A scientific work detailing the finding is being prepared for publication. Total in the world at the moment found about 3000 varieties of stick insects.