Little Barrier Island giant weta or Wetapunga (Deinacrida heteracantha) from New Zealand is regarded to be the world's biggest insect, more certainly to say the heaviest. The scientific name of the genus is Deinacrida, which in means "Terrible grasshopper" in the Greek language. There is documented specimen of 71gr, which is heavier than sparrow or mouse. As well there are more insects pretending for the title largest, mostly of them beetles, but there is not documented heavier specimen as far as I know.Update: There are actually bigger insects if we consider also the larvae of some beetles. However the Wetapunga is still the biggest adult (imago) form.
Update N2: Also, apparently Wetapunga means "God of ugly things" in Maori (for the authenticity of which I can't guarantee, but I don't see reason why the guy from the comment section is going to lie)
Source: Wikipedia
4 comments:
There is now. And it is still a beetle no less. With a weight of 205 gr, the grub of Megasoma actaeon is, by far, the heaviest known insect. No competition whatever.
A translation of the Maori "wetapunga" is "god of ugly things", which also seems fitting.
Blogger plutus said...
There is now. And it is still a beetle no less. With a weight of 205 gr, the grub of Megasoma actaeon is, by far, the heaviest known insect. No competition whatever.
Hm, this is true, the grubs of some beetles are really huge. However I have couple of points to make. First is, there may happen to be even larger grub, like this of the Titan beetles (which at least few years ago was still in the realm of the mysteries, because nobody yet had found them) and second point is that I had rather in mind largest adult (or imago) form (which again is my fault because I didn't specify what I mean, when I write "largest insect". Anyway, cheers for the correction.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
A translation of the Maori "wetapunga" is "god of ugly things", which also seems fitting.
Wow, this is something I didn't knew. Need more Maori things around FTW.
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