3 interesting facts from the life of social insects. Interesting facts about insects! Facts about insects

The largest moth in the world is Attacus Altas. With a wingspan of 30 cm, it is often mistaken for a bird
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House flies usually live near the places where they hatched, but it has been discovered that they can travel up to 45 km when exposed to wind.

Tiny stinging insects, midges, flap their wings at an incredible 62,760 times per minute..

On the planet, more than 26 billion insects live in inhabited areas in every square mile. Scientists estimate that there are another 5-10 million species unknown to science

Grasshoppers can jump a distance that is more than 40 times their body length, and a flea can jump a distance that is 130 times its length

About a third of all insects are carnivores and most hunt for food rather than feed on carrion and waste.

Crickets have ears located on their front legs, in addition, you can determine the temperature from crickets: to do this, you need to count the number of chirps per minute, divide by two, then add nine and divide by two again. The result will be the temperature in degrees Celsius

Baby Amarobia spiders eat their mother after birth. Some females begin to devour males even during mating. Thus, the deceased father becomes food for his offspring

Insects are food rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. In Thailand they are considered a delicacy, where fried crickets and locusts are popular

Witchetti larvae are best eaten alive. Ten large larvae provide the adult with all the proteins, carbohydrates and fats

Dragonflies are the fastest flying insects. Their speed reaches 57 km/h

There are about 400 thousand known species of beetles. The largest size, the titan beetle, can reach 17 cm.

Bees have five eyes. Three at the top of the head and two at the front. The honey bee flaps its wings 11,400 times per minute, creating a characteristic buzzing sound.

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)

The male earwig has two penises, each longer than the earwig itself. These organs are very fragile and break easily, which is why the insect is born with a spare one.

So, it would seem, what could be interesting about cockroach insects? But only those who know nothing about the life of these amazing creatures think so. Insects populated the earth earlier than other animal species. You could even say that they were among the first inhabitants of land. The estimated time of their appearance is 435 million years ago. But at the same time they remain the most unstudied animals. Entomologists are confident that there are several million more undiscovered species on Earth. Scientists can give endless interesting facts about insects. This topic is inexhaustible. If you show a little curiosity, you can learn a lot of new things.

Common features

Insects can look very different. But they have common features. Their body is covered with a dense cuticle made of chitin, which forms an exoskeleton. The body consists of three sections: head, thorax and abdomen. The legs are attached to the thoracic region.

Ant "democracy"

Do you think democracy is unique to human society? But no. Ants also sometimes have to hold elections. Actually, anthills can be of two types. Several queens live in the same families, and this arrangement is called polygyny. In others there is only one uterus, this is monogyny. If the queen dies during monogyny, then several individuals can lay claim to the title of new queen. They fight to prove who is more worthy. The rest of the ants do not interfere with them, they follow the “election campaign” and decide who will take the empty throne.

And some more interesting facts about insects (ants). You have, of course, heard that ants are social creatures. But you can’t even imagine how much! If you put one ant in a jar, create all the conditions for life and feed it well, it still won’t live long. He will die of boredom.

It is also believed that all ants are hard workers, but this is not entirely true. Only 80% of the inhabitants of the anthill work constantly. The remaining 20% ​​wander around doing nothing or simply stand still. Moreover, these are not “labor reserves”; parasites will not start work like that, even if half of the workers are removed from the anthill.

You can learn these interesting facts about insects by observing an ordinary anthill. Another observation option is a home ant farm.

Beautiful butterflies

Butterflies can be completely inconspicuous and indescribably beautiful. They flutter easily and naturally over the flower, resembling living petals themselves. Many interesting facts about insects concern butterflies. For example, did you know that these beauties sense taste with their hind legs? This is where their taste buds are located.

The smallest butterflies have a wingspan of no more than 2 mm. And the largest is called Tanzania agrippina; its wingspan reaches almost 30 cm. And if you want to pick up interesting facts about insects for children, then tell them that there are a lot of butterflies and moths in the world. Scientists know more than 165 thousand species of these insects. And most of them are active at night. And the butterfly’s eye consists of faceted elements. It's like thousands of small screens transmitting images. True, these complex eyes distinguish only three colors.

Annoying neighbors - mosquitoes

At night, a mosquito can drive even the calmest person out of patience. These pesky insects have been attacking the world around us for over 100 million years. In our opinion, interesting facts about insects of this species can be listed for a very long time. Here, for example, are some of them. The lifespan of the male is 10-14 days, and the female lives for more than a month. Is it unfair, you say? But no, because the female needs to have time to leave offspring.

All males are vegetarians. Their diet consists only of nectar and water. Only females need blood plasma. It is used when bearing offspring.

Mosquitoes are small and agile; during rain, they can maneuver honey droplets for up to five minutes and remain dry.

Inexperienced travelers are often frightened by stories that mosquitoes can drink all the blood. To debunk this myth, scientists calculated how much blood the female drinks in one bite. So, to completely bleed a person, it would take 1.2 million mosquitoes. In nature, such a concentration of insects is not found anywhere.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches are a headache for many housewives. These annoying, ubiquitous parasites also represent the Insect class. Interesting facts indicate that they have been surviving on Earth for more than 300 million years, while remaining almost unchanged. Found fossils prove that in ancient times cockroaches looked the same as they do today.

Cockroaches are harmful insects. They do not have their own poisons or dangerous substances, but they spread infections on their paws to all surfaces they can reach.

Cockroaches are surprisingly resilient. They can go without food for more than a month, and without water they can last up to ten days. Interestingly, if you tear off a cockroach’s head, it will live the same 10 days and die not from injury, but from dehydration. By the way, this suggests that the cockroach breathes with its whole body, and not through its nose.

If a cockroach falls on its back on a smooth floor, it will die, since it will not be able to turn over on its own. But if a nuclear explosion occurs, the cockroach, unlike humans, will survive. This insect can withstand 6.4 thousand rads.

Natural architects and mathematicians - bees

Interesting facts from the life of insects can be cited by looking at the well-known bees. Let's start with the fact that a honeycomb is a rational and impeccable natural geometric shape of a vessel. The honeycombs are very durable, spacious and require a minimum of material.

The bee flies quite quickly, although it does not hold the speed record. In an hour she covers 24 km. To collect a kilogram of honey, a worker needs to fly almost 322 thousand km.

The bee is constantly accompanied by a buzzing sound. This sound is created by wings that make more than 11 thousand movements per minute. Individuals communicate with each other not by sounds, but by “dancing.”

Another interesting thing is that at birth bees do not know how to make honey. The older insects teach the younger ones this difficult work.

Only females work in the hive. The only purpose of males is mating. Drones cannot defend themselves because they do not have a stinger. Worker bees are not aggressive. They only sting if they feel threatened. When the bee loses its sting, it dies.

Dragonfly

The beautiful dragonfly is a serious hunter. Interestingly, she can follow the chosen prey, set up ambushes, hovering in one place, calculate the trajectory and intercept her prey.

The dragonfly is the most maneuverable insect. She has 4 wings that can move independently of each other. This allows you to maneuver in flight in a fraction of a second. This insect can fly not only forward and sideways, but also backwards.

During migration, some species of dragonflies fly more than 6 thousand km. That's a lot for insects!

Dragonflies have unique eyes that allow them to see almost 360°. This is a real natural masterpiece, which consists of 30 thousand individual facets-ommatia. Dragonfly eyes can see many more colors than human eyes.

Another interesting fact concerns the reproduction of dragonflies. They lay eggs in water. Once hatched, the larvae can live in water for up to two years. Dragonflies molt 17 times before they reach their usual adult appearance.

And a few more interesting facts

Due to their structural features, insects cannot turn their heads. The only species that has access to this action is the praying mantis.

It is not the flying moth, but its larvae that can “snack” on a wool blanket or fur coat. So killing the moth doesn't solve the underlying problem.

The emerald cockroach wasp can control cockroaches. She injects a special substance during the bite, and the cockroach cannot resist the orders of the winged predator.

As you can see, studying little neighbors is very exciting. But scientists have yet to find out the most interesting facts about insects. And they will have enough work for many, many more generations.

They are voracious, hardy and ubiquitous - these are not all the interesting facts about insects. Want to know more? A selection of 15 reliable information from the life of representatives of the largest class of animals on Earth will help you with this.

1. Mosquitoes feed on plant sap and nectar. But some of them suck blood not out of hunger, but to obtain proteins necessary for bearing offspring. Thus, only females are bloodsuckers, and males are absolute vegetarians.
2. Despite the fact that the female mosquito is forced to consume blood, she chooses the “dish” meticulously. Females are bitten by females more often than males, and blondes are preferred to brunettes. Gourmets identify victims by smell: they like overweight people, athletes, pregnant women, people with second and third blood groups.

   

3. One of the reasons for the prevalence of mosquitoes in the environment is the high viability of their eggs.. The offspring of insects do not care about unfavorable conditions. Mosquito eggs can lie in cold, dry soil for up to 3 years, and then come to life when the weather warms and the soil becomes moist.

   

4. The largest representative among Lepidoptera is Agrippa (Tizania). The butterfly, whose wingspan is 30 cm, belongs to the moth family and lives in Latin America. The second record holder in the “largest” category is Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing.

   

5. The smallest butterfly, Acetosea, has a wingspan of only 2 mm.. You can see these nocturnal babies in the UK. The reticuloses that live on the Canary Islands are just a little short of the title of “smallest butterflies.”

   

6. Live to the fullest - this seems to be the life motto of ephemeris or mayfly butterflies. In one day, these insects manage to be born, leave offspring and die. Such butterflies do not need to look for food, since their digestive organs are filled with air.

   

7. The most poisonous spider, according to the compilers of the popular collection of the Guinness Book of Records, is the “Brazilian wanderer”. The insect received its nickname for its excessive activity.

   

8. There are cannibals among spiders. A clear confirmation of this is the black widow, which lives in Eurasia, Australia and Oceania. After mating, the female of this species devours the smaller male, as she spends a lot of energy during the mating season.

   

9. The largest spider on Earth is considered to be the Goliath tarantula (Teraphosa blond). The insect lives in the tropics of Latin America, eating small snakes, mice, frogs and lizards. The size of the body with straightened legs is 25–28 cm.

   

10. Ants are one of the oldest insects on the planet.. Their age is 100–130 million years. It is also interesting that having survived to this day, they have practically not changed in appearance. The reason for this adaptability, according to scientists, lies in the social way of life.
11. Some of the ants not only hunt, but also engage in cattle breeding. Herder ants “graze” scale insects, leafhoppers, aphids, and keep homoptera in “stalls.” The reward for their labors is the sweet excrement of “cattle” that goes into food.

    

12. The main occupation of Amazon ants is wars, during which they capture the pupae of strangers. The captives are then used as slaves. The militants themselves are not able to feed themselves, since they cannot organize their daily life.

    

13. Not only spiders are poisonous, but also caterpillars. The most dangerous butterfly larva is Lonomy, which lives in the American rainforests. She has a calm disposition and inconspicuous coloring, but the spines on the caterpillar’s ​​body contain a strong toxin that acts as an anticoagulant.

    

14. A stunning example of survivability - a cockroach. With his head severed, he can live for weeks. To respond to touch and move, the insect does not need a brain. Instead, the basic reflex functions are performed by clusters of nervous tissue in the body.

    

15. The most voracious insect in the world - the desert locust. This pest, which lives in Asia and Africa, eats as much as it weighs every day. A flock of 50 million individuals per day destroys food that would be enough for 1 thousand people for six months.

    

1. 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.

2. Now there are about 20 thousand species of bees in the world. And to produce 500 g of honey, one bee needs to fly from the hive to the flower and back 10 million times.

3. A female cockroach is capable of laying more than two million eggs in a year. In addition, a cockroach can live for nine days without a head.

4. The weight of insects that all spiders on Earth eat in a year is greater than the combined weight of all people living on the planet.

5. There are about 35 thousand known species of spiders and new ones are being discovered all the time.

6. Snow scorpions contain antifreeze in their blood, which allows them to withstand temperatures down to minus 6 degrees Celsius. However, if you take such a scorpion in your hand, it will die.

7. The male earwig has two penises, each longer than the earwig itself. These organs are very fragile and break easily, which is why the insect is born with a spare one.

8. Ants never sleep. There are almost as many species of ants in the world (8,800) as there are species of birds (9,000).

9. Butterflies taste food using their hind legs. And the color of their wings comes from tiny, overlapping scales that reflect light.

10. Aborigines prepare wood larvae “witchetti” by rolling them in hot ashes. Thus, they taste like an omelette.

11. Bees have five eyes. Three at the top of the head and two at the front. The honey bee flaps its wings at a rate of 11,400 times per minute, creating a characteristic buzzing sound.

12. There are about 400 thousand known species of beetles. The largest size, the titan beetle, can reach 17 cm.

13. Dragonflies are the fastest flying insects. Their speed reaches 57 km/h.

14. Witchetti larvae are best eaten alive. Ten large larvae provide the adult with all the proteins, carbohydrates and fats.

15. Insects are food rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. They are considered a delicacy in Thailand, where fried crickets and locusts are popular.

16. Baby Amarobia spiders eat their mother after birth. Some females begin to devour males even during mating. Thus, the deceased father becomes food for his offspring.

17. Crickets have ears located on their front legs, in addition, you can determine the temperature from crickets: to do this, you need to count the number of chirps per minute, divide by two, then add nine and divide by two again. The result will be the temperature in degrees Celsius.

18. About a third of all insects are carnivores and most hunt for food rather than feed on carrion and waste.

19. Grasshoppers can jump a distance that is more than 40 times the length of their body, and a flea can jump a distance that is 130 times its length.

20. On the planet, more than 26 billion insects live in every square mile of inhabited areas. Scientists estimate that there are another 5–10 million species unknown to science.

21. Tiny stinging insects, midges, flap their wings at an incredible rate of 62,760 times per minute.

23. House flies usually live near the places where they hatched, but it turned out that they can move up to 45 km when exposed to wind.

24. The largest moth in the world is Attacus Altas. With a wingspan of 30 cm, it is often mistaken for a bird.

25. A swarm of desert locusts can consist of 50 billion insects. Since each locust can eat its own weight in food, in a day this swarm eats four times as much food by weight as the entire population of New York City.

We don’t know about you, but somehow we don’t really like various insects: buzzing flies, mosquito bites…. Brrr... This is just terrible. We are generally silent about cockroaches. But despite our hostility, insects sometimes display interesting abilities that any person would envy.

Cockroaches

Probably the least favorite insects in our country are cockroaches. But despite the general hatred towards them, they are the most powerful. When the Americans dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the only insects that survived were cockroaches, although they would still die if exposed to 100,000 units of radon. But the ability to survive in places where it would be fatal for an ordinary person is not the only advantage of these vile creatures. Just recently, scientists discovered that the brains of cockroaches contain 9 antibiotic molecules that protect them from deadly bacteria. After conducting laboratory tests, scientists realized that these nine molecules can help us fight diseases much more powerful than any antibiotics we use for illness. Perhaps very soon, cockroach molecules will help us obtain a cure for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus, a bacterial infection that is more dangerous than E. coli and AIDS.

Fleas

Despite the fact that fleas are harmful to your beloved pets, they have one thing that deserves admiration: they are able to jump up to 150 times their height. For example, if you are 175 centimeters tall and you were a flea, you could jump 263 meters.

Bees

The most intelligent insects in the world are considered to be bees, who can not only communicate with each other (using their “waggle dance”: by moving their bodies, they tell other bees where the best place is to create a colony or locate food), but also know that our planet is round. They take this fact into account when determining the location of the food source. In addition, they can easily calculate the angles simply by reading the data of their waggle dance. They also use the position of the sun, as well as various landmarks and the electromagnetic field of our planet for orientation.

Dragonflies

Unlike many animals, humans have the ability to selectively pay attention. Right now you are demonstrating this ability in order to eliminate various factors that distract you from reading this article. It turns out that in addition to humans and primates, dragonflies also have this ability. If, for example, she sees a swarm of tiny insects, she is able to focus on only one individual. When it comes to catching prey, dragonflies are second to none and have a ninety-seven percent success rate!

Locust

Locusts can be called the best pilots in the insect world. They can fly long distances while expending minimal energy. In addition, during flight, locusts can twist their wings to control the number of beats they make. This helps them maintain a constant flight speed. So that they can easily fly up to eighty kilometers without rest.

Bombardier Beetle

But the best insect with a defensive strategy is the bombardier beetle. He is capable of firing his hot mixture of chemical solution so powerfully that he easily maims his enemies. The temperature of its toxic mixture reaches one hundred degrees Celsius. But the most amazing thing about this beetle is the structure of its body. He shoots a mixture of hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide at his enemies. If not stored properly and mixed properly, these chemicals can literally explode the bombardier beetle. But thanks to the presence of two glands in the abdominal cavity, it separates hydroquinone from hydrogen peroxide and mixes them only in a certain part of its body. The result of this proper mixing is its toxic defense, which inflicts mortal wounds on the bombardier beetle's enemies.

fireflies

We all know about the amazing ability of fireflies to produce their own light. But besides this, humanity can learn from them to use energy efficiently. The nature of fireflies is so amazing that it allows them to use energy without losing most of it to heat. For example, the electric lamps we use at home spend ninety percent of their energy on heat and only 10% on producing light. The firefly's body uses one hundred percent of its energy to produce light. In addition, these amazing insects can communicate with each other using different types of flickering.

Ants

We all know about the industriousness of ants, but besides this, they also have the amazing ability to always find their way home. They do this with the help of various visual cues, and in places where there are none (for example in the desert), they additionally use their super sense of smell. They seem to sense smells in stereo, that is, they can simultaneously distinguish two different smells coming from different places. With the help of this super ability, they create their own scent map and easily find the way to their anthill.

Wasp wasps

Ichneumon wasps get their name from the fact that they can literally turn their prey or prey into “zombies.” They lay their larvae in the bodies of young moth caterpillars. The larvae live inside the caterpillars, feeding on their body fluids. And when the ichneumon wasp larvae are fully formed, they leave the body of their victim and create a cocoon, which is attached to a branch or leaf. In this case, the caterpillar does not leave the cocoon, but remains nearby and acts as a bodyguard, protecting the wasp from various predators.

Dung beetles

Dung beetles made our list of super insects thanks to astronomy and feces. This is because dung beetles lead a disgusting lifestyle: they collect other people's feces and roll them into a ball. They use this ball as a source of food, as a home, or lay their eggs in them. But the amazing thing is that they can roll a ball of dung exactly in a straight line even at night. This happens because they are guided by the stars. Bottom line: Dung beetles are amazing recyclers and incredible astronomers.