13 of the Largest Insects in the World (Length, Weight, and Wingspan)

What’s the biggest insect in the world?

It’s a simple question. It does not have a simple answer.

Here’s the truth nobody tells you: there is no single “biggest insect.” There’s a longest one. A heaviest one. A widest-winged one. And they’re not the same bug.

The longest insect ever measured is a stick insect from China, stretched out at 62.4 centimeters, longer than a housecat. The heaviest is a flightless New Zealand cricket that can outweigh a sparrow. The widest wingspan belongs to a moth so big it’s sometimes mistaken for a bird.

So instead of picking a winner and pretending the debate is settled, I did the opposite. I pulled every record-holder together, checked each one against multiple sources, and ranked them by every metric that actually matters.

Below are the 13 largest insects alive today. Some are heavy. Some are long. Some are just built like nothing else on Earth.

What Actually Counts as “Largest”?

Here’s how I built this list, and why it’s different from most.

Most “biggest bug” round-ups quietly pick one metric, usually length, and rank everything against it. That flattens the story. A giant weta isn’t long. It’s heavy. Ranking it against a stick insect on length alone makes it look small, when it’s actually one of the heaviest insects that has ever lived.

So I didn’t do that.

Instead, each entry below is ranked and described using the metric it actually dominates: length, weight, or wingspan. Where a measurement is confirmed from a live, wild-caught specimen, I say so. Where it’s estimated, like beetle larvae nobody has ever actually seen in the wild, I say that too.

The simple fix? Stop asking “which insect is biggest” and start asking “biggest at what.”

The 13 Largest Insects in the World

Here they are, ranked from heaviest to widest wingspan, no single metric forced on all thirteen.

1. Giant Weta: The Heaviest Insect Alive

The giant weta is, gram for gram, the heaviest insect on the planet.

One captive female weighed in at 71 grams. That’s about the same as five empty soda cans, or a small sparrow. This is a bug you could genuinely feel the weight of in your palm.

Giant weta live only in New Zealand, on a handful of predator-free islands and reserves. They’re flightless, slow-moving, and completely harmless despite the size: they’re plant-eaters, not predators.

Quick facts:

• Weight: up to 71 g (2.5 oz)
• Length: up to 10 cm (4 in), not counting legs
• Location: New Zealand
• Status: several species are threatened, protected on predator-free islands

Because: rats and other introduced mammals nearly wiped them out. The giant weta survived by retreating to places those predators couldn’t reach.

2. Titan Beetle: The Biggest Beetle by Body Size

If you’re picturing the “classic” giant beetle, this is probably it.

The titan beetle is native to the Amazon rainforest, and it can reach 16.7 centimeters long, over 6.5 inches. Unlike its horned rivals, it has no horn at all. Its size comes entirely from body mass.

Nobody has ever seen a titan beetle larva in the wild. Scientists estimate the larvae grow to nearly a foot long based on the size of the boreholes they leave behind in dead wood.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 16.7 cm (6.6 in)
• Location: Amazon rainforest, South America
• Defense: a hissing sound and a bite strong enough to pierce skin

By the way: this beetle’s jaws can reportedly snap a pencil in half.

3. Goliath Beetle: The Bulkiest Beetle Larva

The Goliath beetle earns its name honestly.

Adults reach around 11.5 centimeters and can weigh over 50 grams, bulky, armored, unmistakable. But the real record belongs to the larva, not the adult. Goliath beetle grubs can reach 115 grams and grow to 25 centimeters long, making them one of the single heaviest insect life stages ever recorded.

They’re native to the tropical rainforests of Central Africa, where adults feed mostly on tree sap and fruit.

Quick facts:

• Adult weight: 50 to 100 g (up to 3.5 oz)
• Larval weight: up to 115 g
• Location: Central and West Africa

Here’s the thing: an adult Goliath beetle can fly, despite its size and armor. That’s rare for an insect this heavy.

4. Phryganistria chinensis: The Longest Insect Ever Recorded

This is the current record-holder for pure length, full stop.

Discovered in China’s Guangxi province in 2014 by researcher Zhao Li, the wild-caught specimen measured 62.4 centimeters with its legs outstretched. A captive-bred offspring later grew even longer, reaching 64 centimeters.

That’s over two feet of stick insect.

Zhao spent six years tracking rumors of an enormous bug before he finally found one, at night, on a mountain, mistaking it at first for a tree branch.

Quick facts:

• Length: 62.4 to 64 cm (24.6 to 25.2 in)
• Location: Guangxi, southern China
• Discovered: 2014

So where does that leave the previous record-holder? Still on the list, just one spot down.

5. Chan’s Megastick: The Second-Longest Insect

Before Phryganistria chinensis took the crown, this was the longest insect known to science.

Discovered in Borneo in 2008 by an amateur naturalist, Chan’s megastick measures 56.7 centimeters, nearly 22 inches. It’s now on permanent display at London’s Natural History Museum.

Stick insects, as a group, dominate the “longest insect” category almost entirely. Their body plan, long, thin, camouflaged as a twig, rewards extreme length in a way no other insect body type does.

Quick facts:

• Length: 56.7 cm (22.3 in)
• Location: Borneo, Malaysia
• Discovered: 2008

The pattern here matters: if you want the longest insect on Earth, look at stick insects first. Every other body type loses this race.

6. Hercules Beetle: The Longest Horn-to-Body Ratio

The Hercules beetle can reach 17.5 centimeters, nearly 7 inches, but almost half of that length is horn, not body.

Males grow two horns, one from the thorax and one from the head, used to wrestle rival males for mating rights. Females have no horns at all.

Native to the rainforests of Central and South America and the Caribbean, this beetle spends up to two years as a larva before a brief adult life focused entirely on competing and mating.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 17.5 cm (6.9 in), including horns
• Location: Central/South America, Caribbean
• Larval stage: up to 2 years

By the way: because so much of its length is horn, comparing it directly to a hornless beetle like the titan beetle is a bit like comparing antler-tip-to-antler-tip on a deer versus body length on a bear. Impressive, but not quite apples to apples.

7. Actaeon Beetle: The Thickest-Bodied Beetle

If length and weight aren’t dramatic enough, meet the beetle built for bulk.

The Actaeon beetle, a rhinoceros beetle from South America, reaches up to 13.5 centimeters long and 4 centimeters thick, genuinely barrel-shaped. Some entomologists consider it, not the titan beetle, the true “biggest” beetle by overall volume.

That’s the whole problem with this topic in one bug: three different beetles can each have a real claim to “biggest,” depending on whether you’re measuring length, bulk, or weight.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 13.5 cm (5.4 in)
• Thickness: up to 4 cm (1.6 in)
• Location: South America

8. Atlas Moth: The Largest Wing Surface Area

The atlas moth doesn’t win on length or weight. It wins on sheer visual impact.

Its wingspan reaches nearly 30 centimeters, about a foot across, with wing surface area larger than any other insect on Earth. The wingtips are shaped and patterned to mimic a snake’s head, a defense mechanism aimed squarely at predatory birds.

Adult atlas moths don’t eat. They live for only about a week, running entirely on fat reserves built up as caterpillars, focused solely on finding a mate before time runs out.

Quick facts:

• Wingspan: up to 30 cm (11.8 in)
• Wing surface area: largest of any insect
• Location: Tropical Asia
• Adult lifespan: about 1 week, no feeding

Here’s the truth nobody tells you: bigger wings don’t mean a bigger, stronger insect. Sometimes they just mean a shorter life, spent entirely on one final job.

9. Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing: The Largest Butterfly

This is, without dispute, the largest butterfly alive.

Females can reach a wingspan of nearly 30 centimeters and a body length of about 7.5 centimeters, genuinely bird-sized, which is exactly what its name promises. Males are smaller, with narrower, more iridescent wings.

It’s found only in the rainforests of eastern Papua New Guinea, and it’s endangered. Habitat loss from logging and agriculture has shrunk its range dramatically.

Quick facts:

• Wingspan: up to 30 cm (11.8 in)
• Location: Papua New Guinea (only)
• Status: endangered

Because: this species exists in one region, on one island, nowhere else. When that habitat goes, so does the species. There’s no backup population anywhere on Earth.

10. Giant Water Bug: The Largest True Bug

Most “biggest insect” lists skip this one entirely. That’s a mistake.

Giant water bugs, in the genus Lethocerus, can reach over 12 centimeters long, making them the largest members of the true bug order (Hemiptera), the taxonomic group that also includes cicadas, aphids, and stink bugs. They’re ambush predators, using powerful front legs to grab fish and frogs many times their own size.

They’re also strong fliers, and get drawn to lights at night, which is how most people ever encounter one.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 12 cm (4.7 in)
• Location: Freshwater ponds and streams worldwide, including the southern US
• Diet: fish, frogs, tadpoles, other insects

The simple fix for “why haven’t I heard of this one?” Water bugs don’t photograph as dramatically as horned beetles. But size-for-size, they’re one of the most efficient predators on this entire list.

11. Tropidacris Grasshopper: The Largest Grasshopper

Grasshoppers rarely make “biggest insect” lists. This genus is the exception.

Tropidacris grasshoppers, found across Central and South America, can reach 5 inches in body length, with a wingspan stretching close to 9 inches. Young nymphs are marked in bold black and yellow, a warning coloration, while adults shift to green, yellow, and brown for camouflage.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 12.7 cm (5 in)
• Wingspan: up to 23 cm (9 in)
• Location: Central and South America

So where does that leave your average backyard grasshopper? Nowhere close. This genus is roughly ten times the length of a common field grasshopper.

12. Tarantula Hawk: The Largest Wasp

Don’t let the name fool you. This insect doesn’t hunt hawks. It hunts tarantulas.

Tarantula hawks, a group of spider wasp species, can reach 2.7 inches long with a 4.5-inch wingspan, making them among the largest wasps on Earth. The females sting and paralyze a tarantula, drag it back to a burrow, and lay a single egg on it. The larva then feeds on the still-living spider until it’s ready to pupate.

Their sting is considered one of the most painful in the insect world, ranked near the top of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. It’s rarely dangerous to humans unless there’s an allergic reaction, but by every account, it hurts.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 6.9 cm (2.7 in)
• Wingspan: up to 11.4 cm (4.5 in)
• Location: Warm regions of the Americas, including the southwestern US

13. Giant Burrowing Cockroach: The Largest Cockroach

Yes, the biggest cockroach in the world is also, somehow, one of the more useful insects on this list.

Native to Australia, the giant burrowing cockroach, also called the rhinoceros cockroach, can reach 3.5 inches long and weigh over an ounce, the heaviest cockroach species known. Unlike the roaches people picture in a kitchen, this one lives entirely outdoors, burrowing underground and feeding on dead leaves.

That leaf litter diet matters. It makes this cockroach a genuine ecosystem contributor, helping break down plant matter and cycle nutrients back into the soil.

Quick facts:

• Length: up to 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
• Weight: up to 35 g (1.2 oz)
• Location: Australia
• Lifespan: up to 10 years, unusually long for an insect

Because: this species doesn’t infest homes, doesn’t spread disease the way pest cockroaches do, and is even kept as a pet by some insect enthusiasts. Same family name, completely different story.

All 13, Side by Side

Here’s the full comparison, one table, every metric that matters:

Why Don’t Insects Get Any Bigger?

Here’s a question worth pausing on: why is the “biggest insect in the world” still only about the size of a housecat, while dinosaurs got the size of buildings?

The answer comes down to one thing: how insects breathe.

Insects don’t have lungs. They take in oxygen through tiny holes along their sides called spiracles, and it diffuses through a network of tubes directly to their cells. There’s no bloodstream doing the heavy lifting the way it does in mammals.

That system works fine at small sizes. Past a certain point, oxygen just can’t diffuse far enough, fast enough, to keep a bigger body running.

The simple fix, 300 million years ago? More oxygen in the air. During the Carboniferous period, atmospheric oxygen levels ran significantly higher than today’s, and insects grew to match. Which brings us to the one insect that beats every single entry on this list.

Was There Ever a Bigger Insect? Meet Meganeura

If you want the actual largest insect of all time, none of the 13 above qualify. You have to go back roughly 300 million years.

Meganeura monyi was a dragonfly-like insect with a wingspan close to 70 centimeters, nearly two and a half feet, tip to tip. It hunted through the swamps of the Carboniferous period, when oxygen levels made a body that size possible.

Nothing alive today comes close. The atlas moth’s 30-centimeter wingspan, the biggest wingspan on this entire list, is still less than half of what Meganeura carried around 300 million years ago.

If ancient extremes are your thing, insects aren’t the only living record-holders worth knowing about. Some of the world’s oldest living trees have been standing since long before any insect on this list was ever recorded.

Largest Insects in the United States

If you’re in the US and wondering which of these giants you might actually encounter, the honest answer is: none of the true global record-holders live here.

But a few close relatives and native heavy-hitters do:

• Giant water bugs (Lethocerus americanus and relatives): common across US ponds and lakes, sometimes called “toe-biters,” and genuinely one of the largest insects most Americans will ever see up close.
• Eastern Hercules beetle: a smaller cousin of the South American Hercules beetle, still reaching around 2.5 inches, found across the eastern and southern US.
• Cicada killer wasp: not on the global list, but the largest wasp native to North America, reaching about 2 inches.
• Tarantula hawks: several species range into the southwestern US, particularly Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

So while the true giants live in the Amazon, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, you don’t have to travel that far to find something genuinely impressive in your own backyard.

Of course, not every insect at home is one you want to admire from up close. If ants are the more familiar houseguest, here’s how to get rid of ants using natural remedies instead of harsh chemicals.

Biggest Isn’t One Race. It’s Several.

So, what’s the biggest insect in the world?

Now you know the honest answer: it depends what you’re measuring, and every insect on this list earns its spot a different way.

That’s the part worth remembering. Size in the insect world isn’t one race. It’s several, run by completely different body plans, in completely different corners of the planet.

If this kind of nature trivia is your thing, don’t stop here. There’s a whole world of animal unusual facts just as strange as anything on this list, along with a few vegetables that are actually fruits and the truth behind some persistent Bell Pepper Myths.