A museum housing 700,000 species of insects and believed to be the largest of its kind in China, opened to visitors recently in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The museum has an exhibition hall and 13 laboratories, covering a floor space of 4,500 square meters. The insects on display were collected by Prof. Zhou Rao, a noted insect expert both in China and abroad, and his students over the past 60 years.

Statistics show there are one million species of insects in the world.

"It is of great academic value to study the role of insects in maintaining ecological balance, promoting agricultural and forest development and medical science," said Prof. Zhou of the Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science.