World's Biggest Bug
She's called a Weta Bug and has a huge wing span of SEVEN inches and weighs as much as three mice.
Renowned entomologist Mark Moffett, 55, discovered the cricket-like creature up a tree on New Zealand's Little Barrier Island.
He spent two days searching for the creepy crawly which were thought to be extinct after Europeans brought rats to the island many years ago.
American Mark, 53, said: "Three of us walked the trails of this small island for two nights scanning the vegetation for a giant weta.
"We spent many hours with no luck finding any at all, before we saw her up in a tree.
"The giant weta is the largest insect in the world, and this is the biggest one ever found.
"She enjoyed the carrot so much she seemed to ignore the fact she was resting on our hands and carried on munching away.
"She would have finished the carrot very quickly, but this is an extremely endangered species and we didn't want to risk indigestion.
"After she had chewed a little I took this picture and we put her right back where we found her."
Mark, from Colorado, added: "We bug lovers hear a lot of people who think insects are inferior in some way because of their size, so it was great to see such a big insect.
"This became all the more amazing when we realised that this was the largest insect recorded."
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...-Weta-Bug.html
This reminds me of the aliens from District 9. Also, I should have used a better article because three mice is a terrible description for a measurement of weight. Other than that that is a huge freaking insect. Here is are some finer points from the wikipedia article.
Weta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Weta can bite with powerful mandibles. Tree weta bites are painful but not particularly common. Weta can inflict painful scratches, with the potential of infection, but their defence displays consist of looking large and spiky, and they will retreat if given a chance.
There are 11 species of giant weta (Deinacrida spp.), most significantly larger than other weta, which are themselves large by insect standards. They are heavy insects with a body length of up to 100 mm (4 in) excluding their lengthy legs and antennae, and weigh about 20–30 g. A captive giant weta (Deinacrida heteracantha) filled with eggs reached a record 70 g, making it one of the heaviest documented insects in the world [5] and heavier than a sparrow. The largest species of giant weta is the Little Barrier Island weta, also known as the wetapunga. Giant weta tend to be less social and more passive than other weta. They are classified in the genus Deinacrida, which is Greek for terrible grasshopper. They are found primarily on small islands off the coast of the main islands, and are examples of island gigantism.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Mr. E
Bookmarks