30 Days. 30 Bugs. Teaching kids all the YIKES about the Chan’s Megastick…
During June, I will be offering some pretty interesting bugs to you and your kids… bugs that will excite and entertain kids while teaching them. Each and every little word or fun piece of information is a building block to love of learning and literacy.
Come along for the YIKES! It’s gonna be a buggah!
Have you ever seen or heard of an insect that measures 22.3 inches in length? That’s 22.3 inches.
No?
Well, meet the Chan’s Megastick.
Discovered in 2008 in Borneo, the Chan’s Megastick looks like a pencil-thin dark green bamboo shoot and beat its nearest competitor stick-insect, the Phobaeticus kirbyi (14 inches), by 8+ inches. Very little is known about the Chan’s Megastick, but its habitat is assumed to be rainforest canopies. It is named for entomologist/naturalist Datuk Chan Chew Lun, who discovered the specimen.
Insects are measured for length from the front of the head to the tip of the abdomen. The Chan’s Megastick measures 14 inches without its extended legs. YIKES!
The Chan’s Megastick is considered a stick-insect, sometimes called a walking stick, because it resembles a stick. Stick-insects live among twigs, which give them a natural camouflage. They feed on leaves and avoid predators by pretending they’re twigs. Pretty clever. What’s a YIKES! is that some people like to keep stick-insects as pets.
The Chan’s Megastick is kept at the Natural History Museum in London and is described as a “Top 10 New Species.”
Introduce your kids to the Chan’s Megastick. Talk about its great big length and how it has avoided being discovered until very recently. You may wish to research the Chan Megastick’s life cycle, too… discovering how the female Chan Megastick tosses its eggs (which have wing-like flaps on the cases) to help them float and disperse for better survival. YIKES! But’s all very interesting…
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Join me here each day in June for 30 days. 30 Bugs. – a little fun, a little learning and a lotta YIKES!
My dad bought my kids a bug collecting kit and they have been on the hunt. Saturday Wormy disappeared in my kitchen. I’m hoping Wormy was eaten by the dog.
Love this! With a four year old boy this knowledge would come in handy!!
This one is WAY cooler than the daddy long legs! …but equally as creepy!