This Is The Largest Known Insect of All Time, With a Wingspan of 2.5 ft (75 cm)

Griffinflies flew the skies of our planet for some 20+ million years during the Late Carboniferous and Late Permian periods around 317-247 million years ago, achieving a worldwide distribution. Their genus was fairly diverse, with new species regularly being described by scientists. Not all of them were so large though – some were within the size range of modern dragonflies. Others, however, were truly gigantic, even by dragonfly standards.

Meganeura monyi was the first griffinfly to be described, based on a single fossil wing about 12 inches long. It had an estimated wingspan of about 27 inches (about 68,5 cm) and was the largest insect known at the time of its description in 1895. In 1939, however, Frank Carpenter described Meganeuropsis permiana, based on an incomplete, but large, wing that was discovered in two parts. Carpenter estimated the wingspan of the newly found species to be 29 inches (almost 75 cm). Several years later, he described another new species of griffenfly, Meganeuropsis americana, with a wingspan similar to that of M. permiana. Today, specialists consider the two species of Meganeuopsis to be the same and stick with the name M. permiana. It is this species that holds the record as the largest known insect to have ever lived.