C. George, age 10, of Springfield, Mass., for her question:

Which is the largest insect in the world?

The different insects outnumber all the various animals in the world. More than Half a million species or kinds of insects have been named. And some experts think That perhaps five million more varieties are waiting to be found and named. We know of several whopping insects, but a still bigger insect may be found next week or  next year.

The world's biggest insects lived and died in the remote past. They were Whopping dragonflies that zoomed through the air more than 200 million years ago. Some of them left fossil prints in layers of buried soil. Their gauzy, outspread wings measured 29 inches from tip to tip.

In the modern world, there is no insect that measures even one foot. However, we do have some startling insects that measure four or five inches in length, and we have one giant that measures six inches  which is half a foot.

These big insects arc bulky beetles of the tropics, and most of them are natives of the new world. The hercules beetle is named for the hero who started the olympic games in ancient Greece. In those ancient days, the ancestors of our hercules beetles were enjoying life in central and South America and in the steamy jungles of the West Indies. Explorers in these regions still hunt for the big beetle, for he is a prize item in any insect collection.

The length of his body is about three and a half inches. But the thorax or Chest section of the hercules beetle is fitted with a curved horn which is far out in Front of his head. This sturdy horn adds another two and a half inches to the length of the beetle, giving him a total length of six inches.     The elephant beetle is another whopping insect. He is only four inches long, but his body is very bulky. The large and heavy fellow may be as big as a man's fist, and yet he can fly. Like all beetles, his front wings form a pair of crisp shields wrapped over his back. His gauzy, flying wings are kept folded under the tough outer wings until needed.     The largest insect of the old world is a beetle called goliath. This giant is four inches long. His shiny, rusty red back is decorated with white, and the marks on his thorax look like a pair of slanting eyes.

The insects outnumber all other animals, and there are more beetles than any Other kind of insect. They are classed in the order Coleoptera, which means the sheathed winged insects. These fellows all hatch from eggs and become grubs which become chrysalises. Finally, they turn into adult winged beetles. All of them have Mouth parts for chewing plants or meaty food. Almost any beetle can bite your finger With his sharp mouth. In fact, the name beetle came from an older word meaning biter.