While adventurer Mark Moffett was roaming around the Little Barrier Island in New Zealand, what did he see sitting in a tree? It wasn’t two people K-I-S-S-I-N-G, but the largest known insect in the world!
The record-breaking cricket-like creature is known as a weta, and it weighs about as much as a gerbil and its wingspan is 7 inches. It’s so big, it munches on carrots.
Apparently, weta’s used to live all around the mainlands of New Zealand, but were wiped off from rats who were accidentally introduced into their ecosystem by early European settlers.
Moffett fed the female insect a carrot, took a picture, weighed her, and then put her back into the tree where he found her. We never thought we’d say this, but for a bug, she’s kind of cute! (It must be the carrot, kind of like when you dress a puppy up).