As Kade would say "Holy Cow"!!

A few weeks ago Kade and I were playing in front of our house [Jen is commenting as I type...she is adding that we do not have a front yard and that we have to play in the street and avoid the cars which are flying around] - [Rob rebuttal: we live on the end of a cul-de-sac]. Anyway, I noticed something that looked odd on the front of the house so I walked over to take a closer look. Much to my amazement this is what Kade and I saw:

The biggest walking stick I have ever seen...the thing was about 6-7 inches long...for reference the bricks in the background are standard bricks (which are 2" x 8"). Kade did not understand what I was telling him "this is an insect Kade"....until I touched it and it moved...he immediately jumped back...it was a good chance to tell him about how things adapt to survive. I am thinking that lesson was quickly filed far behind Superman, Lava Monsters and the Backyardigans!

7 inches is about the longest anyone would see in the USofA but definitely not in the world...maybe I should have kept it, framed it and put it in the living room ;-)

What is the Largest Living Insect?
The largest living insects are Giant Walking Sticks from the (order Phasmida). This bug can grow to up to thirteen inches in length making it surely one of the longest insects in the world. The record holder for the longest insect goes to a specimen commonly found in Western Malaysia and Singapore called the West Malaysian Pharnacia Serratipes and it reaches an amazing length of twenty-two inches. There are approximately 3,000 tropical species of walking sticks, with only 10 species living in North America.

Although principally tropical and Asian in distribution, walking sticks are also found in the temperate regions of Europe and North America. One species, Megaphasma dentricus, is the longest insect in the United States, attaining 7 inches in length. The Malaysian Walking Leaf (Heteropteryx dilatata) is another very large insect to add to that list. Females of this species can be very large, up to 6.5 inches long which makes them half an inch short of being the longest insect. Framed walking stick insects are available in a variety of species for the discriminate insect collector.