The biggest insect in the world is the African Goliath Beetle. Males can be up to 11 centimeters long and can weigh up to 100 grams; more than enough for a well stocked sandwich! This beetle lives in the tropical regions of Africa and feeds on tree sap and fruit. When raising Goliath beetles in captivity, their larva happily eat commercial cat and dog food as they need a tremendous amount of protein to reach their gargantuan size. They are a member of the scarab-beetle family. To give you an idea of the abundance of this family of insects, one of every four bugs in the world is a beetle.

The longest insect in the world is the Borneo Stick Insect measuring almost 55 centimeters with outstretched legs. In fact, Borneo is the best place in the world to study stick insects with over 300 species on the island alone! Stick insects in general have interesting defense mechanisms; of course, the most well known being that they look exactly like the twigs they hide amongst. In addition, they will shed a limb to escape a predator or secrete smelly goo that repels their attackers. It seems that lots of animals use the smelly goo defense. I wonder if there are any extrapolations to be made…

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