Chan's megastick - longest insect in the world

Stretching to an extraordinary 22 inches, this newly discovered bug is the longest stick insect in the world. Named the Chan's megastick, it was discovered in the Borneo rainforests by a stick insect enthusiast and has been handed to the Natural History Museum in London…
Almost nothing is known about its biology and lifestyle, although it probably lives in the highest canopies of the rainforest, making it hard to spot. Its body without legs is 14 inches long.

In addition to its size, its eggs may also be unique in the insect world…The female sent to the museum was full of eggs, each had wing-like extensions on either side like a miniature golden snitch - the Quidditch ball from the Harry Potter books.

'Other stick insects lay their 0.5 cm eggs individually and flick them in to the air where they fall to the ground,' he said.

'It looks like these are flicked into the air where they can be picked up by the wind and carried away from the tree.

'It increases the dispersal of the eggs and means that the young don't climb up the same tree as the parents and start competing for the same food.'

Blogged not because of the size of the insect, but because of the remarkable adaptation of winged eggs to enhance egg dispersal. Ingenious and fascinating. Also very cool is the title of the person interviewed for the article: Dr George Beccaloni, curator of stick insects, cockroaches and grasshoppers. (!!)