Largest wingspan for an insect

The largest insect wingspan was that of Meganeuropsis permiana, a species of dragonfly-like prehistoric insect known as a griffinfly, which lived about 285 million years ago during the early Permian Period. Fossil remains (i.e., impressions of wings) first discovered at Elmo in Kansas, USA, in 1937 indicate that it sported a wingspan of up to 710 mm and a body length of almost 410 mm. In comparison, the largest dragonfly living today, Megaloprepus caeruleata, from Central and South America, has been measured up to 120 mm in total body length and has a wingspan of up to 190 mm.

Griffinflies superficially resembled dragonflies, but exhibited differences in wing venation, and are presently housed in a related but separate taxonomic order, Meganisoptera. Fossils of their bodies and heads are rarer than those of their wings, but sufficient examples have been discovered to show that they did compare closely in overall form to dragonflies, as did their nymphs or juveniles. A closely related griffinfly, M. americana, had slightly larger wings but an overall wingspan (which includes the width of its intervening thorax) that is slightly less than that of M. permiana.