62.4 cm with Outstretched Legs: Insect Found in 2014 on a Mountain in Southern China Surpasses 807,625 Recorded Specimens

A long shadow stretches into the night, clinging to the vegetation on a Chinese mountainside. What entomologist Zhao Li first takes for a twig turns out to be an extraordinary stick insect. Its body measures 62.4 centimeters with its legs extended. A record that would itself be surpassed three years later, under unexpected circumstances.

A Chinese discovery that would rewrite entomological records

It all began on a moonlit August night in 2014, on a mountain rising to 1,200 meters near Liuzhou in Guangxi, southern China. Zhao Li, a field entomologist, was gathering insects as he habitually does. Except that something was off this time.

A slender shape draws his attention. It resembles a twig misplaced in the darkness, yet its appearance is far from natural for a simple piece of wood. Zhao quickly realizes he has just stumbled upon a stick insect of unusually large size.

The discovery remained confidential for nearly two years. It was not until May 2016 that the Western China Insect Museum, based in Chengdu in Sichuan, made the information public. The specimen, now preserved in its collections, was named Phryganistria chinensis Zhao, in honor of its finder.

62.4 cm: the extraordinary anatomy of an unknown giant

The number alone is striking: 62.4 centimeters with legs extended, i.e., 624 millimeters. To picture it, imagine an insect capable of spanning the length of an adult arm. This is not a trivial detail in entomology; it represents a genuine upheaval in the hierarchy.

But perhaps the most telling measurement concerns the body alone, excluding the legs. It reaches 36.1 centimeters, which would place this wild female at the top of the body-length ranking among insects, ahead of Phobaeticus chani at 35.7 centimeters.

One detail deserves emphasis: the species remains scientifically undescribed under formal rules to this day. The name Phryganistria chinensis thus remains informal, awaiting an academic publication that would officialize its taxonomic status.

What this record dethrones and why it still stands

Before this Chinese discovery, the title of the world’s longest insect belonged to a Malaysian stick insect measuring 56.7 centimeters, found in 1989 and described in 2008, today on display at the Natural History Museum in London. The Guangxi specimen takes the crown from it by a comfortable margin, among the 807,625 insect species listed worldwide at the time according to Xinhua News Agency.

But the story does not end there, and this is where the title of this article makes sense. In August 2017, the Western China Insect Museum announced that it had raised a direct descendant of that female in captivity. Its name remained the same, but its size surpassed its mother: 64 centimeters versus 62.4.

Guinness World Records officially certifies this new specimen, with a slightly adjusted measurement of 640 millimeters with legs extended. It is this captive-born stick insect, not the wild original captured by Zhao Li, that currently holds the official title of the longest living insect ever measured.

This record has held firm ever since, despite the ongoing efforts of entomologists around the world to uncover new giants. In June 2025, Australian researchers did indeed describe a new species, Acrophylla alta, discovered in the high forests of Queensland. But at 40 centimeters long and weighing about 44 grams—roughly the weight of a golf ball—it remains far behind the Chinese stick insect in terms of length.

What stands out in this story is how one record can conceal another. Nature still seems to have further surprises in store in the tropical forests and mountains of southern China. It remains to be seen how long this giant will retain its title, and which creature might one day redraw the boundaries of possibility for insects.