While a predatory wasp found in China also showed it was a formidable insect and parent by killing spiders to feed its young before using the dead bodies of ants to protect its offspring from predators.

Dr Quentin Wheeler, president of the SUNY-ESF, said: 'The top ten never fails to amaze every year. Each year among the 18,000 or so new species discovered are always so many unexpected ones.

'The last vast unexplored frontier on Earth is the biosphere. We have only begun to explore the astonishing origin, history, and diversity of life.'

Scientists believe there may be up to 10 million species still to be discovered, although some studies have estimated the Earth holds between two million and 8.7 million species of complex life.

This new species of nine-inch female long stick insect was recently discovered in the mountain area in northwest part of Vietnam