OK, that's big!

If you suffer from entomophobia (also called insectophobia), you might want to skip this post. If not, the New Zealand web site Stuff has a report that boggled my mind.

An American tourist has claimed he's found the world's biggest insect during a two-day hunt on Auckland's Little Barrier Island - but the experts aren't buying his tall tale.

Mark Moffett, a former park ranger from Colorado, found the Little Barrier giant weta up a tree and snapped it nibbling a carrot.




The nocturnal creature, known as wetapunga or "god of ugly things", is the largest sub-species of the giant weta, weighing the same as a small bird.

But Landcare Research entomologist Dr Thomas Buckley says, based on Moffett's photos, the weta's size looks about average for its species.

"The species itself is the heaviest in the world but whether that individual is the heaviest you couldn't really say.

"From the picture it's a female, but it just looks like an average sized one of that species."

The largest ever recorded weighed 71 grams - larger than the average sparrow.

. . .

The wetapunga can grow up to 10 centimetres long and its leg span can reach 20 centimetres.

There's more at the link.

The biggest insects I've so far encountered have been so-called 'Parktown prawns' in South Africa (you can read - and laugh - about an encounter with one here, and learn about their less-than-endearing habit of squirting vile-smelling feces when under stress here):




and Louisiana's hissing cockroaches, which are originally from Madagascar, but have enthusiastically adapted to the New Orleans environment, and also grow pretty big:




However, they pale into insignificance beside that New Zealand thingumajig! That's big enough to give me the creepy-crawlies all night, just thinking about it - and they say it's big enough to eat a carrot? Rabbits do that, not insects!





Peter