The file photo shows the then world's longest insect on the forearm of an adult in 2016. The Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, said that insect was 62.4-cm-long. (Photo/Xinhua)
The Insect Museum of West China (IMWC) said Tuesday that it has successfully bred the largest insect in the world.
The artificially bred stick insect, Phryganistria Chinensis, is 64 cm long, according to the IMWC.
The previous record holder, the insect's mother, measured 62.4 cm. Zhao Li, curator with the insect museum, found the insect during a field inspection in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2014. Zhao took the insect back to the IMWC and it laid six eggs, including the new record holder.
The largest insect is now a specimen at the IMWC.
In China, stick insects are only found in Guangxi, Zhao said.
Stick insects are good at disguising themselves as twigs or tree leaves, making them hard to notice. There are more than 3,000 kinds of stick insects worldwide.
