Insects are one of the most numerous classes on the planet. How many varieties of these insects surround us!
We tried to collect in our article the most interesting and amazing facts about insects, show them from a side still unknown to you.
1. Attacus Atlas – moth, considered the largest in the world. Sometimes people mistake this midnight beauty for a bird - its size is so large! Just imagine - the wingspan of this giantess reaches 30 centimeters.
2. Flies are flying rockets. Try to catch this buzzing “plane” with your bare hands - you’re unlikely to succeed. Speed ordinary fly- 6.5 km/h, but the horsefly flies almost four times faster - 22.4 km/h. In addition, flies have an amazing reaction: they dodge danger with lightning speed and remain unharmed.
The fly is a jet plane. 3. The flea is a jumping biter. The jump length of this bloodsucking insect is 33 centimeters. If we translate the value in relation to a person, it will be equal to 213 meters! Do you know at least one athlete who can cover such a distance in one jump? That's it - there is no such thing, because people cannot do it, but a flea is as easy as shelling pears.
4. – rapid all-consuming power. There is no other name for locusts other than swallowing, because one individual eats an amount of food equal to its own weight. It is not surprising that after the locusts visit the field, farmers can only humbly wipe away their tears! By the way, one horde of locusts consists of 50 million individuals.
5. Why is it buzzing? Because in one minute she manages to make 11,400 wing flaps. It goes without saying that the air begins to ring from so many tremors!
6. A giant grasshopper, caught on the border of Malaysia and Thailand, broke all records not only in size (its length was 25.5 cm), but also in long jump. One of his leaps was more than 4.5 meters.
7. Bees and wasps are a real chemical laboratory. No, this is not a joke, it’s just that bee venom consists exclusively of acids, but the wasp is a producer of an alkaline poisonous substance.
8. Domestic cockroaches: headless knights. What happens if you deprive a cockroach of its head? Do you think he will die? You didn’t guess: he’ll live like a darling – for two whole weeks! Just some kind of mysticism!
9. Bees vs snakes: who is more poisonous? It turns out - bees. It is estimated that many more people die each year from bee stings than from snake bites.
The spider is an insatiable eater. 11. Dragonflies are considered the fastest among insects. They accelerate to 57 km/h.
The dragonfly is the fastest flyer of insects. 12. If an ordinary forest ant lives for about a year, then in laboratory conditions these insects sometimes live up to 20 years! Maybe scientists are giving them an elixir of longevity?
13. Do you want to know your body temperature? Take a minute and count how many times the insect chirps during this time. Divide the resulting number in half, add 9 and divide by two again.
14. A spider that lives in the Namimb Desert escapes from its enemies by rolling into a hole. He digs these holes for himself. When wasps attack him, he suddenly rushes down the slope of the pit and rolls like a wheel, his speed being 1 m/s.
15. Medicine ants from the genus Dorylus can not only sting, but also heal wounds. Therefore, local residents actively use them in medicine.
16. Alligator beetle from Central America - owner unusual shape heads. Its other name is lantern. Look for yourself - the head is truly non-standard, reminiscent of a crocodile.
There is such an incredible number of different insects in the world that not all of them have been studied so far. In impenetrable forests and jungles, new species are still discovered from time to time, which amaze scientists, and already known ones are sometimes changed under the influence of external environment. Evolutionary processes do not stop; it’s just that over the course of several generations the changes they cause cannot always be tracked.
Facts about insects
- The sizes of their smallest representatives do not exceed 0.2 millimeters in adults.
- The first insects appeared on Earth more than 400 million years ago. They survived all 5 mass extinctions and survived even as countless thousands of other species went extinct.
- Insects serve as the main food for each other and for many birds. Spiders alone annually eat more other insects than the weight of all people living today ().
- Approximately 2/3 of all insects in the world eat only plant foods. The rest are partially or completely predators.
- The most strong insect, and indeed the most powerful living creature in the world, taking into account size and mass, is the ant.
- The taste organs of butterflies are located very unusually. They are on their hind legs.
- The wingspan of tysanium butterflies can exceed 30 centimeters, so from afar they are often confused with birds.
- In total, a little more than 1 million species of insects have now been more or less studied. But a much larger number of them still remain unexplored.
- Among all classes of animals, they are the most numerous.
- Some insects live on all islands and continents without exception. They are even in Antarctica ().
- In many countries, insects are eaten. Especially in Asia, Africa and partly in South America.
- From the point of view of being rich in protein and nutrients, many insects are very useful.
- Many of them are extremely fertile. Common cockroaches, for example, lay up to 2 million eggs per year.
- Bees kill many more people every year than sharks, tigers or bears and wolves. And even more than poisonous snakes.
- The most fast insect in the world is the dragonfly. When flying, it is capable of reaching speeds of up to 55 km/h.
- Some types of moths obtain the moisture they need by drinking the secretions of the lacrimal glands of animals.
- The only insect that can turn its head is the praying mantis ().
- Scientists estimate that there are more than 5 million species of insects on Earth that have not yet been discovered.
- More than a million people die every year from mosquito bites in India alone, because mosquitoes carry a lot of dangerous diseases.
- Experiments have shown that wood-eating termites chew wood almost twice as fast while listening to heavy music like hard rock.
- In one species of spider, the first thing the baby spiders hatch from their eggs after birth is to eat their own mother.
- A headless cockroach can live for another week, or even more.
- The world's largest beetles, titans, grow up to 17 centimeters in length.
- Each dragonfly eye is made up of approximately 20,000 tiny lenses.
- The lifespan of some types of dragonflies does not exceed 1 day.
- Some of these creatures, for example, ticks, are able to go without food for up to 8-9 years. And scorpions can withstand a similar diet for up to 1.5-2 years.
- The diversity of insect species is evidenced by the fact that there are almost as many species of ants on Earth alone as there are all species of birds combined.
- Ants never sleep throughout their lives ().
- The flies are usually all theirs short life carried out near the place where they were born, unless the wind takes them somewhere far away.
- The most dangerous killer insect is the African tsetse fly. Every year it kills tens of thousands of people and countless livestock.
- The world's largest insect is the giant weta, which resembles a grasshopper or cricket. An adult weighs about 70 grams, which is three times more weight an ordinary mouse.
- To produce 1 kg of honey, a bee will need to make an average of 20,000,000 flights from the hive to the flowers and back. It is clear that individual bees simply cannot live that long.
- Many insects have more than two eyes. The above-mentioned bees have, for example, 5. And spiders have even more, but their vision is very poor.
The most interesting facts about insects
A living being with the most big brain in relation to the ant's body.
The weight of insects that all the spiders on Earth eat in a year is greater than the combined weight of all people living on the planet.
Mosquitoes are attracted to the smell of people who have recently eaten bananas.
A dragonfly lives 24 hours.
Termites wear down wood twice as fast under heavy rock.
Scorpions can go without eating anything for almost two years, and ticks can go up to 10 years.
Butterflies taste food using their hind legs. And the color of their wings comes from tiny, overlapping scales that reflect light.
Ants never sleep. There are almost as many species of ants in the world (8,800) as there are species of birds (9,000).
Dragonflies are the fastest flying insects. Their speed reaches 57 km/h.
Aphids develop in adult insect from an egg in 6 days and lives for another 4-5 days.
Grasshopper blood white, blue lobster.
Insects are the first living creatures that appeared on Earth, more than 400 million years ago. Since then, they have survived five massive disasters and have proven to be more resilient than tyrannosaurs.
Every year, more people die from bee stings than from snake bites.
Insects annually devour 25 - 30% of the world's crops.
In the eye of a dragonfly there are more than 20 thousand tiny lenses, forming, like pieces of a mosaic, a multifaceted (faceted) surface.
Analysis of the stomach contents of female mosquitoes caught around settlements 80% of these insects feed on the blood of domestic animals.
One bee colony produces up to 150 kg of honey per summer.
A bee has two stomachs - one for honey, the other for food.
Cross spiders eat their web every morning and then rebuild it again.
Over a lifetime, a bee produces 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.
A female cockroach can lay more than two million eggs in a year. In addition, a cockroach can live for nine days without a head.
There are about 35 thousand. known species spiders and new ones are opening all the time.
Insects are food rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. They are considered a delicacy in Thailand, where fried crickets and locusts are popular.
The largest moth in the world is Attacus Altas. With a wingspan of 30 cm, it is often mistaken for a bird.
In Rus', grasshoppers were called dragonflies.
Every day, bees on our planet fertilize 3 trillion flowers and produce 3,000 tons of honey.
At first glance, it seems that insects do not look very aesthetically pleasing and they cannot be interesting. But, despite the fact that they surround us and we see them every day, we know very little of these amazing creatures and their habitat. The entire planet is filled with insects; they are quite hardy and adapt well to environment. Every year, scientists discover thousands of new species of insects. The following information will be of interest to young children, 7th grade students who are studying this topic in school curriculum, as well as for adults who love nature. We present interesting facts about insects.
Different types
Mosquitoes mainly feed on plant sap, and only females drink blood to obtain protein for the birth of offspring. According to statistics, people with the second and third blood groups, as well as overweight and pregnant women are more often bitten. The eggs are very viable, they are quite resistant to weather conditions. The danger is posed by malaria mosquitoes, which spread a deadly infection. In many countries they are trying to destroy these seemingly pests. But they are also food for many birds, bats, therefore occupy important place nature.
The largest butterfly - Agrippa (Tysalia agrippina) lives in Latin America. The wings reach a span of 30 centimeters. The acetosia butterfly is considered the smallest; it has the smallest wings, only 2 millimeters in span, and lives in Great Britain. A story about butterflies is very interesting for a child; you can talk about these insects for a long time and in a fascinating way, accompanying the story with colorful pictures.
Ants are considered the most ancient of insects; they appeared about 100 million years ago and have remained virtually unchanged since then. They are able to adapt to different terrain and different climates. Ants have a very active lifestyle; they need to put in a lot of effort to feed themselves. Ants can carry loads much heavier than their own weight. Sleeps several hours a day, and sleep lasts about one minute; several hours are gained over dozens of times when this insect stops to sleep.
Poisonous caterpillar Lonomia. Its habitat is tropical forests. It has a bright color, which indicates danger; the spikes on its body contain a lethal dose of poison. Touching her could be fatal.
The cockroach is very tenacious. He can live for several days without his head. These insects began to disappear from houses, the reason for this is European-quality renovations - cockroaches cannot stand the smell of the emulsion that is used to paint the walls.
Desert locusts can eat as much as their own weight in a day. Lives in Africa and Asia. Every day their flocks are destroyed large number harvest.
Interesting information
Interesting facts about insects:
- do not have a skeleton, but beetles have an exoskeleton - an external hard covering that makes the body rigid;
- a tick can live without food for many years, but when it is full, it increases in size tens of times;
- a flea can jump up to 30 centimeters, which is many times its body size.
A bee's venom consists of an acid, while a wasp's venom consists of an alkali. Despite the weakness of bee venom, thousands of people die every year from their stings - death can occur from allergies, a bite to the throat, or an attack by a whole swarm of bees (especially dangerous African bees, they are very aggressive). A newborn bee does not know how to make honey; it is taught by older bees. If the bees feel threatened, they sting, after which the sting is pulled out of their body and they die. When beekeepers smoke bees, they, sensing danger, begin to collect honey under their bellies and take it outside the hive. The abdomen becomes in a position where the sting cannot be used, so the bee cannot sting.
There are Dorylus healing ants, whose bodies contain a substance that heals deep wounds; this property is used in folk medicine.
The dragonfly has dexterous and independent wings, thanks to which it can move in different directions, even back. Vision is designed so that an insect can look 360 degrees. The dragonfly lays its eggs in water; the hatched larvae are predators and can even prey on fish fry. Before reaching mature age A dragonfly molts more than 15 times.
There are billions of insects on earth. Despite the fact that many of them are considered pests, they all occupy their own niche in nature and are beneficial simply by existing.
Insects appeared on our planet long before other animals - about 400 million years before our days. Tiny living creatures are so resilient that they can survive any disaster. Even if humanity destroys itself, it is unlikely that it will be able to exterminate insects from the world.
Butterflies' taste buds are on their hind legs. Some other insects also evaluate the taste of food in this way. Bee sees the world around us not two, but five eyes at once: two are located in front, three on the “top of the head.” But crickets have ears on their front legs. If you have a cricket in your house, you don't really need a thermometer. Count how many times the insect chirped in a minute and divide this number by two. Add nine to the result and divide in half again. You will get the exact air temperature in Celsius. No joke.
1/3 of all insects are not “vegetarians”: they eat their own kind, drink someone’s blood or feed on carrion. But there are still more hunters among them than “waste” lovers.
Insects are very nutritious: they contain proteins, minerals, vitamins and carbohydrates necessary for humans. So if you're lost in the forest and can't find lunch, take a closer look at what's crawling and flying around.
If you cut off the head of a cockroach, it can live for 9 days without it. But the death of one cockroach is just a drop in the ocean. The females of these insects are incredibly fertile: they can produce up to two million eggs annually.
Ants never go to bed and do not know what tiredness is.
Insects are one of the most unstudied animals. Entomologists believe that at least 5,000,000 of their species have not yet been discovered. The writer Vladimir Nabokov, who was fond of entomology and, in particular, butterflies, himself enriched science with several species of winged beauties.
A fly usually does not fly far from the place where it was born. But if it blows strong wind, it can be carried tens of kilometers.
People who see a hummingbird for the first time often mistake it for a large insect. Meanwhile, in the world there is a butterfly so large sizes that she looks like a bird. This is Attacus Altas, active at night.
Insects are unable to turn their heads. All except the praying mantis.
If you've recently eaten a banana, you're much more likely to attract a hungry mosquito than someone who hasn't. Well, bloodsuckers like the smell of people who feasted on bananas...
A scorpion can live without food for two years, and ticks can live for as long as 10! And all this time you can calmly wait in the wings...
If you play some furious music for termites - for example, heavy metal - they will begin to bite into the tree twice as fast.
- Spiders look like insects, but they are not. Arachnids are a separate class of animals.
The female spider of the Amarobia variety is an example of the highest self-sacrifice, because after birth the cubs eagerly eat their own mother... An example for them could be the Theridion sisyphium spiders: after birth they remain with their mother. First they eat what she has prepared for them, then they themselves help get her food. They accompany the parent until her death, and then... they also eat her and go about their business. But the family relationships of the spiders Pandinus imperator are very similar to ours: adult children do not always leave their father’s house. Several generations of the same family can live side by side, tolerate each other and go hunting together.