Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • ZME & more
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
Home Other Offbeat

World’s biggest insect found – it’s so big it eats carrots

by Mihai Andrei
December 2, 2011
in Offbeat, Science
A A
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSubmit to Reddit

Mark is a former park ranger who found the world’s biggest insect so far: this giant weta is so big that it can actually eat carrots.

This little critter was found on an island off New Zealand, and it’s one of the few survivors from its species, which were almost wiped out by rats accidentally introduced by Europeans.

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 weighs the equivalent to three mice. 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.”

It gives me great pleasure to hear that they put it exactly back where they found it, instead of taking it for whatever purpose.

Mark, from Colorado, America, 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 realized that this was the largest insect recorded.”

Tags: biggest insectweta

ShareTweetShare
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • ZME & more

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • ZME & more
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.