35 Bug Facts That Make the Tiny World Feel Huge

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1Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

When grasshoppers experience an increase in serotonin, a common brain chemical, they go through metamorphosis in 2 to 3 hours and become locusts.


2. Hero ants live in cliffs/high places and latch onto intruders of the colony. They then fling themselves off the cliff, taking the intruder with them.


3. Some butterflies can be half male and half female, with one colorful wing and one plain wing.


4. There are "heater bees" who keep their body temperatures 10 degrees hotter than other bees in the colony to keep the hive warm. They also can vary the temperature around developing pupae to determine what kind of honey bee they will become: either forager bees or "housekeeper" bees.


5. The Tiger beetle can run so fast it can go blind, having to stop whilst chasing prey so that their sight can 'catch up.'


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6Mosquito Hawks

Mosquito Hawks

The Cranefly, also known as Mosquito Hawks, don't actually eat mosquitoes despite popular belief.


7. There is a species of ant whose head has evolved into a "door" that can block the entrance to its nest.


8. Dragonflies breathe through gills in their rectum, and can rapidly propel themselves by suddenly expelling water through the anus.


9. Some insects like the Pea aphid can explode themselves to frighten or kill enemies. They have been observed doing this after being eaten.


10. Praying mantises rarely eat their mates in the wild. It primarily happens in captivity under stressful conditions.


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11Crickets

Crickets

Crickets have twice the amount of protein ounce for ounce than beef, and three times the amount of iron.


12. There is a good mosquito named Toxorhyncite a.k.a Elephant mosquito. Toxorhynchite larvae eat the larvae of other mosquitos and when they grow up they eat fruit, not human blood.


13. Ants do not have traffic jams because they don't have egos, don't mind collisions, and are very disciplined in crowded pathways.


14. Maculinea rebeli is a species of parasitic butterfly whose larvae can mimic ant larvae (so that worker ants will feed them) and queen ants (to get extra attention). Researchers once observed that when these fake larvae were attacked by the queen ants, ant workers saved the butterflies and attacked their queens.


15. A queen bee will continue to mate until she has collected more than 70 million sperms from multiple males.


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16Braconid wasp

Braconid wasp

Instead of venom, the Braconid wasp produces an immune-suppressing virus which paves the way for its parasitic larvae. This adaptation is the result of a 100-million-year-old virus which altered the wasp's DNA leading to the formation of an organ whose sole purpose is to assemble the virus.


17. The Sahara desert ant is able to form a direct route back to its nest after foraging by adding and subtracting the vectors of its path in its head, thereby creating a short and distinct return path.


18. A study showed male crickets fought more violently, and upon winning, were more jubilant (like a touchdown dance) when other crickets were in the audience.


19. The developing daughter of a pregnant aphid will already be pregnant with another daughter inside her. This is termed telescoping generations.


20. A bug found Malaysia which is aptly named Assassin bug wears its victim’s bodies as armor.


21Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster

When a species of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) was kept in complete darkness for 57 years (1400 generations), they started showing genetic alterations that occur as a result of environmental conditions.


22. Mosquitoes can survive being hit by a raindrop, even though a drop of water is 50 times their body weight. It is similar to a human being hit by a bus. This is the “highest ever recorded acceleration that animals have survived.”


23. Ants cannot be seriously injured from impact with the ground after being dropped from any height, because they don't have enough mass.


24. In the Amazon, the butterflies will drink the tears of turtles to provide necessary sodium in their diet.


25. Africanized bee, which are also known as killer bees, are breed hybrids that accidentally escaped lab quarantine and since have spread throughout the Americas.

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