Gargantuan Stick Insect Has Grand babies
Museum Victoria’s exhibits coordinator Maik Fiedel came across a rare 50-centimeter long stick insect Ctenomorpha gargantuan in the wild in 2014. While she unfortunately died shortly after she was found, Lady Gaga-ntuan managed to lay 12 eggs beforehand. After six months of careful tending done by Fiedel the first eggs began to hatch, and resulted in seven nymphs, four female and three male. These insects have now all reached maturity and laid their own eggs, in a world-first captivity breeding program for the giant species. The females have actually outgrown their mother, the largest one reaching a length of 56.5 centimeters, making her Australia’s longest insect. Fiedel believes with this next batch they may even break the world record for longest insect, which is currently a 56.7 centimeter specimen of a stick insect from Borneo. What’s more, these insects may prove that this species always turn out this large, providing a more reliable world record, rather than one freak incident that was found.
What is the biggest stick insect you have ever seen? Can you believe ones exist that are this large?
