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In this undated picture made available Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008 by Britain's Natural History Museum, a giant stick insect named Phobaeticus chani, meaning 'Chan's megastick.' is seen.
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A stick bug from the island of Borneo measuring well over a foot in length has been identified by researchers as the world's longest insect, British scientists said Thursday.
The specimen was found by a local villager and handed to Malaysian amateur naturalist Datuk Chan Chew Lun in 1989, according to Philip Bragg, who formally identified the insect in this month's issue of peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. The insect was named Phobaeticus chani, or "Chan's megastick," in Chan's honor.
Paul Brock, a scientific associate of the Natural History Museum in London unconnected to the insect's discovery said there was no doubt it was the longest still in existence. That assessment was also confirmed by Marco Gottardo, an entomologist at Italy's Natural History Museum and Aaron T. Dossey, a researcher at the University of Florida in Gainesville who studies the insects.
Looking like a pencil-thin shoot of bamboo, the dull-green insect measures about 22 inches, if its twig-like legs are counted. Its body length is 14 inches, beating the previous record held by Phobaeticus kirbyi, also from Borneo, by about an inch.
Stick bugs have some of the animal kingdom's cleverestcamouflage. Although some use noxious sprays or prickly spines to deter their predators, generally the bugs assume the shape of sticks and leaves to avoid drawing attention.
"Their main defense is basically hanging around, looking like a twig," Brock said. "It will even sway in the wind."
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(Agencies)
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英國科學家于上周四稱，在婆羅洲群島發(fā)現(xiàn)的一種身長超過1英尺的竹節(jié)蟲為目前世界上最長的昆蟲。
據(jù)研究人員菲利浦?布拉格稱，這個竹節(jié)蟲標本于1989年被當?shù)氐囊粋€村民發(fā)現(xiàn)，并被交給了馬來西亞籍業(yè)余自然科學家陳爵倫拿督。為了紀念陳爵倫，這個標本被命名為“陳氏竹節(jié)蟲”。布拉格撰寫的鑒定報告在本月的《Zootaxa》學術期刊上發(fā)表。
倫敦自然歷史博物館的研究員保羅?布洛克稱，毫無疑問，這種竹節(jié)蟲是目前世界上最長的昆蟲。意大利自然歷史博物館的昆蟲學家馬可?戈塔多和蓋恩斯維爾市佛羅里達大學的昆蟲學家亞倫?T?多塞也對這一鑒定結(jié)果表示認可。
“陳氏竹節(jié)蟲”呈深綠色，外形像一節(jié)鉛筆粗細的竹子，如果算上枝形腿，它的總長達22英寸（約55厘米）。它的體長為14英寸（約35厘米），比此前的記錄保持者、同樣來自婆羅洲島的“富氏竹節(jié)蟲”長1英寸。
竹節(jié)蟲是動物王國中的“偽裝大師”。它們通常會偽裝成樹枝或樹葉逃避敵害；有時它們也會利用毒氣或多刺的節(jié)肢來對付天敵。
布洛克說：“竹節(jié)蟲的主要自衛(wèi)手段是裝成樹枝掛在樹上，有時甚至還能隨風搖擺。”
（實習生瞿漫 英語點津姍姍編輯）
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