The world’s freakiest insects

Scientists led by Dr. Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University have discovered three extinct species of big-headed flies that lived in what is modern North America during the early Eocene period, between 52 and 49 million years ago. “Big-headed flies are a group of bizarre insects whose round heads are almost entirely covered by their … Read more Fossil Big-Headed Flies

The Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) is a spider belonging to the tarantula family, Theraphosidae. It is considered to be the second largest spider in the world (by leg-span, it is second to the giant huntsman spider), and it may be the largest by mass. It is also called the Goliath bird-eating spider; the practice of … Read more Goliath Birdeater – Theraphosa blondi LATREILLE, 1804

Fortunately for most of us this terrifying looking critter is only found on New Zealand, tough break Kiwis. The ugly bugger is a giant weta, a kind of huge cricket or grasshopper. The giant wetas are supposed to have come about due to New Zealand’s lack of land mammals, until humans arrived there. A phenomenon … Read more Giant weta – a kind of huge cricket or grasshopper

Two-and-a-half inch monster has jaws longer than its legs… A new species of wasp discovered on the Indonesian island Sulawesi is two-and-a-half inches long, and has jaws so vast that its discoverer admits, ‘I don’t know how it can walk.’ Lynn Kimsey, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, says ‘Its jaws are … Read more “King of Wasps” found in Indonesia