This spindly creature is the new holder of the title 'world's longest insect'. The Chan's megastick (Phobaeticus chani) was officially described in a paper last week and has a body that is 35.7 centimetres long. With limbs included, the Malaysian native stretches to 56.7 centimetres (F. H. Hennemann and O. V. Conle Zootaxa 1906, 1–316; 2008).
Phobaeticus chani breaks the record for overall length by 1 centimetre and that for body length by 2.9 centimetres. Both previous record holders were discovered more than a century ago, according to George Beccaloni, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum in London. "It is extraordinary that an even bigger species has only just been discovered," he says.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A sticky situation hits the record books. Nature 455, 1020 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/4551020c
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4551020c