The largest adult insect ever found actually seems sort of cuddly
By Dan Nosowitz Posted 12.02.2011 at 12:56 pm 17 Comments

Giant Weta SOLENT

This amazing/disturbing picture is of a giant weta, the world's biggest insect at a whopping 71 grams in weight. Wetas are cricket- or grasshopper-like insects native to the smaller islands of New Zealand, having been eradicated from the larger islands due to recently-introduced rats and other mammals. It's been officially named as the heaviest adult insect in the world (though some insects, like the Goliath beetle, attain higher weights in their larval stages).

The pictured giant weta is more specifically a wetapunga (you are encouraged to pronounce this "wetapunga!"), or a Little Barrier Island weta, named for the small island on which it is found. This particular specimen was found by adventurer Mark Moffett, who was somehow able to overcome the terror of seeing a bunny-sized bug.

[via The Telegraph]

17 Comments

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anonymous@popsci.com
12/02/11 at 2:38 pm

"Honey, I got the kids a new pet!"

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Midoman
12/02/11 at 3:29 pm

world hunger solved. The nutrient/calorie ratio of this bugger must be through the roof!

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banditrider
12/02/11 at 6:15 pm

You gotta watch them - they can carry off small children...

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vt007
12/02/11 at 8:16 pm

... district 9...

---
bored? lets go mine the stars... ^^

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ghost
12/02/11 at 8:47 pm

d'awww it's so cute!

to mars or bust!

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xalar
12/02/11 at 10:21 pm

I wonder how smart the bug is, but it doesn't really care: nom nom nom.

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Sevykeble
12/02/11 at 10:38 pm

I wonder if Bear Grylls has eaten that thing yet? "lots of tasty (not) vitamins and protein". Lol

-sevykeble
the future is happening so fast that it is now.

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WillSpaceGeek
12/03/11 at 2:57 am

First, that would have to be the first bug I would have used both feet to stomp on(minus camel spiders)... then peta would have been on my A##. Second I hope grasshoppers don't chirp.....

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beefymclovin
12/03/11 at 12:58 pm

thats a seriously cute bug.....

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El Guapo
12/03/11 at 2:10 pm

I feel like their's something crawling on me right now.

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Quint ile
12/03/11 at 6:04 pm

According to Landcare Research New Zealand this isn't the largest. From a New Zealand News site www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/6076325/Whopping-weta-wows-the-world

"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."

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Midoman
12/04/11 at 11:16 pm

really nobody else thinking world hunger solved?

arent cockroaches supposed to be nuclear resistant..

imagine these buggars..

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NoOneYouKnow
12/04/11 at 11:51 pm

Mama Mia O_O thats a' big'a bug!

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Robot
12/05/11 at 2:01 pm

Mmmm, looks tasty! Honey, turn on the skillet, we got some cricket fries tonight!!! Yummy!

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

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Grunt
12/05/11 at 2:21 pm

I bet the person holding the weta\cricket is happy to be also holding a carrot. I feel sad for the person, when the carrot is gone and that finger looks really really good!

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CosmicJoker42
12/05/11 at 4:02 pm

@quint ile
i think they meant that that species' adults are the largest, not that partucular member of the species.

but more importantly, WHERE CAN I GET ONE???????

i can just see them being popular enough for them to catch on. imagine being one of those people that carries your pet with you everywhere. how would you carry a weta? on your shoulder, like a parrot? in a tote, like a small dog? wear it like a hat? i dont know, but the parrot option seems the least probable. imagine if it decided to nibble your ear like parrots do. lol.

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CodeZero
12/06/11 at 10:36 am

@WillSpaceGeek, camel spiders are actually not as large as people think thanks to that one close up photo that makes them look huge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solifugae

This think just needs a green jacket and red umbrella and top hat!

Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978

"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC



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