A giant mosquito was discovered by entomologists in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, with impressive mosquitoes at 4,52 inches wingspan.
The director of the Insect Museum of Western China, Zhao Li, explained that the insect was found last summer during an expedition to Mount Qingcheng, a tourist spot located in that same province.
The mosquito belongs to the species "holorusia mikado", discovered in 1876 by British entomologist John Obadiah Westwood during research in Japan, although its specimens usually do not exceed eight 3,14 inches in length between the ends of its wings.
Although they are called "giant mosquitoes", scientifically they make up a different species from the best-known mosquitoes, which differ, among other things, in their eating habits.
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"They look horrendous, but they do not feed on blood, adults tend to live a few days and generally eat nectar," Zhao told Xinhua news agency, noting that only a few hundred of the tens of thousands of insects in the planet have vampiric habits.
In central China this insect, known as the "crane fly", usually inhabits mountainous areas above 3,937 feet, although it can also be found in the plains of Sichuan Province.
The same area is also the habitat of the world's longest insect, a stick insect of 24.5 inches in length that was found in 2014 and can also be admired in the Insect Museum of Western China.
That insect was found by Zhao himself, with more than 20 years of experience in the search for large species in western China.
Source:
MSN News