Chinese state medium announcedthis workweek that a museum has bred the world ’s longest insect .
Although a reefer insect by name , this affair is practically a branch . The lanky female measuring in at a length of 64 centimeters ( 25 inch ) .
This soul is the offspring ofthe former record bearer , a 62.4 - centimetre ( 24.5 inches ) stick insect find three years ago during a athletic field review in the southern state of Guangxi . It plow out , this mortal was actually a previously unknown species , now known asPhryganistria chinensis . This mintage go to thePhasmatidaefamily , which includes a whole host of weird and fantastic control stick insects including many of the big and longest .
" I was collecting insects on a 1,200 - meter [ 3,937 foot ] tall sight in Guangxi ’s Liuzhou City [ when ] a dark shadow appeared in the distance , which looked like a tree sprig , " the hemipteran ’s discoverer , Zhao Li , toldXinhua News Agencyat the clip . " As I endure near , I was shocked to see the Brobdingnagian insect ’s legs were as long as its body . "
Before this , the lengthiest insect was a 56.7 cm ( 22.3 inch)long stick insect , known as , Phobaeticus chani , discovered in 2008 and now on exhibit at London ’s Natural History Museum . Just three specimen of this insect have been detect so far , all from the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia .
This latest record - bankrupt worm was artificially engender at the Insect Museum of West China ( IMWC ) , the enceinte insect museum in Asia , found near Dujiangyan city in Sichuan Province .
“ The largest dirt ball is now a specimen at the IMWC , ” according to Xinhua News Agency . presumptively , this means it ’s now dead and on presentation at the museum . However , it ’s middling to say this insect attain a hatful during its life story .
There are over 3,000 known species of stick insect but very piddling is know about these super - sized spliff bugs . scientist are n’t even too certain where many of them live . No doubt , this is for the most part thanks to their exceptionally full camouflage .
Funnily enough , the"first known stick insect”was found fossilized in north - eastward China . Dating back from over 126 million years ago , this creature is one of the early examples of an insect mime a works for the purpose of camouflage .
