Gratitude for mother nature is easy when it comes to the sweet, the small, the non-threatening beings…but what about the huge insects and arachnids on this page, many of that are endangered or threatened: How would you really feel facing down a spider the size of a wall clock or an 8-inch-long beetle?
1. Giant Weta
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
New Zealand’s giant weta gets its name from the Maori word for “god of bad looks” — and it’s not hard to see why.
2. Stag Beetle
The 3 inch male stag beetle could be most easily identified by its spiky front antlers also called mandibles — that are a key part of courtship rituals and wrestling matches; you’d have more to fear from the a bit smaller females, though, which don’t have the giant spikes but do have a more fearsome bite.
3. Goliath Beetle
These types of beetles are just one representative of the 30,000-powerful scarab family, which has roamed our planet for 300 million years, and reportedly holds the record for world’s heaviest insect: One topped out at 4.5 inches long and 3.5 ounces.
4. Giant Walking Stick
Female walking sticks in many cases are larger than the males, and have been seen to reach as long as 21 inches when measured from end to end. You will find them almost worldwide, in warm regions and some temperate zones, where they take shelter under plants during the day and feast on leaves at night.
5. Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly
When it comes to insects, butterflies are the sort many find wonderful on a grand level — that is a good thing for the Queen Alexandra Birdwing, because their wingspan can reach as much as one foot across.
6. Titan Beetle
Not only is it huge for a beetle — it’s the most enormous fellow of its species, longhorn beetles, and the longest beetle found so far in the Amazon rainforest — it’s just plain huge, with adults reaching as long as 8 inches in length.
7. Dung Beetle
While bigger animals can carry more weight overall, they can’t carry as much proportional weight; the dung beetle can move items with a mass that’s 1,141 times heavier than itself.
8. Giant Water Bug
It’s not uncommon for water bugs to be mistaken for cockroaches — however at four inches long, the giant water bugs are significantly bigger. These bugs thrive near slow-moving water where they can eat tadpoles and small fish (and survive on crickets when in captivity).
9. Atlas Moth
The Atlas moth, so called with regard to either the mythological Greek giant of the same name or the wing patterns that look like maps, has the biggest wing surface of the moth family (many have more than 62 square inches of wing, though they don’t have the widest wingspan).
10. Goliath Bird-Eating Spider
It’s not harmless if you’re a frog, lizard, small snake, or — yes — baby bird: The toothless spider incapacitates its victim by using the venom in its fangs, and then spits digestive juices onto the prey so that it can “slurp up its meal
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