World’s largest aquatic insect discovered

IT can’t get scarier than this — a bug large enough to cover your face! That’s how big is the world’s largest flying aquatic insect, with huge, nightmarish pincers discovered in China’s Sichuan province.

According to the Insect Museum of West China, local villagers in the outskirts of Chengdu handed over ‘weird insects that resemble giant dragonflies with long teeth’ earlier this month.

This weird bug has 8.3-inch wingspans and ‘giant snake-like fangs.’ Interestingly, the insect has also beaten out the previous record holder for largest aquatic insect — the South American helicopter damselfly, which had a wingspan of 7.5 inches.

The bug is large enough to cover the face of a human adult, this scary-looking insect is also known among entomologists as an indicator of water quality.

The giant dobsonfly makes its home in bodies of clean water and is highly sensitive to any changes in the water’s pH as well as the presence of trace elements of pollutants. If the water is slightly contaminated, the giant dobsonfly will move on to seek cleaner waters.

The barber who shaves stars’ faces on people’s heads

ARE you an avid fan of some celebrity? Try a unique style from an American barber Rob Ferrell who is offering customers a range of unique and hair-raising designs at his salon.

Ferrell, who runs a shop in San Antonio, has proved he’s one cool cutter by transforming customers’ barnets into the faces of celebrities by using little more than a pair of clippers, a traditional metal razor and some eyeliner pencils to craft his amazing designs.

From Nelson Mandela and Marilyn Monroe to Cristian Ronaldo and even Edward Scissorhands himself, Rob’s incredibly detailed portraits are instantly recognisable. People flock to his barber shop from all over the country requesting custom designs. And during the Fifa World Cup, his popularity soared again with clients requesting football and player-themed images. So are you interested?

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FINDING Lego pieces on the beach is like finding a treasure for Lego fans but for the marine life it’s a catastrophe. A container filled with millions of Lego pieces fell into the sea off Cornwall in 1997. But instead of remaining at the bottom of the ocean, they are still washing up on Cornish beaches even today.

The container ship Tokio Express was hit by a wave described by its captain as a “once in a 100-year phenomenon”, tilting the ship 60 degrees one way, then 40 degrees back.

As a result, 62 containers were lost overboard about 20 miles off Land’s End — and one of them was filled with nearly 4.8m pieces of Lego, bound for New York. A quirk of fate meant many of the Lego items were nautical-themed, so locals and tourists alike started finding miniature cutlasses, flippers, spear guns, seagrass and scuba gear as well as dragons and the daisies.

American oceanographer Curtis Ebbsmeyer has tracked the Lego since it was lost. He warned: “If Lego is on land then it is fun. If it’s on the ocean it’s deadly, a poison for birds. If you lose one container with five million pieces of Lego in it, that is a catastrophe for wildlife.”

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CAT owners will find it a bliss as Louis Denyer believes he can actually talk to the cats and solve their problem just by talking them.

The self-proclaimed ‘cat man’ from Lytham St Anne’s, England, says he has picked up his unusual skills while watching documentaries: “I will make myself vulnerable, before I slowly blink at a cat.

“Nine times out of ten, they will blink back. That is them telling me that they’re willing to trust me.”

Now Denyer has set up a feline behaviourist business tackling problem pets. He said: “I’m in it to save cats’ lives, that’s the whole point of why I’m doing it.”

Denyer is adamant to educate cat owners to spend a little time with their kitty and solve most of their behavioural problems like toilet training, aggression and noise.