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.

A stick bug¹ 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 specimen² was found by a local villager and handed to Malaysian amateur naturalist³ 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 assessment⁴ 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 bugs⁵ have some of the animal kingdom's cleverestcamouflage. Although some use noxious⁶ sprays or prickly spines⁷ to deter⁸ their predators⁹, generally the bugs assume the shape of sticks and leaves to avoid drawing attention.

"Their main defense¹⁰ is basically hanging around, looking like a twig," Brock said. "It will even sway in the wind."

英国科学家于上周四称，在婆罗洲群岛发现的一种身长超过1英尺的竹节虫为目前世界上最长的昆虫。

据研究人员菲利浦•布拉格称，这个竹节虫标本于1989年被当地的一个村民发现，并被交给了马来西亚籍业余自然科学家陈爵伦拿督。为了纪念陈爵伦，这个标本被命名为“陈氏竹节虫”。布拉格撰写的鉴定报告在本月的《Zootaxa》学术期刊上发表。

伦敦自然历史博物馆的研究员保罗•布洛克称，毫无疑问，这种竹节虫是目前世界上最长的昆虫。意大利自然历史博物馆的昆虫学家马可•戈塔多和盖恩斯维尔市佛罗里达大学的昆虫学家亚伦•T•多塞也对这一鉴定结果表示认可。

“陈氏竹节虫”呈深绿色，外形像一节铅笔粗细的竹子，如果算上枝形腿，它的总长达22英寸（约55厘米）。它的体长为14英寸（约35厘米），比此前的记录保持者、同样来自婆罗洲岛的“富氏竹节虫”长1英寸。

竹节虫是动物王国中的“伪装大师”。它们通常会伪装成树枝或树叶逃避敌害；有时它们也会利用毒气或多刺的节肢来对付天敌。

布洛克说：“竹节虫的主要自卫手段是装成树枝挂在树上，有时甚至还能随风摇摆。”