There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth. There are more than 900,000 known species of insects in the world. Scientists discover approximately 7,000 to 10,000 new insect species every year - and it is believe that there are between 1 million and 10 million species yet to be found. Here are a few fascinating trivia about them...
CRICKETS
The symphony of cricket trills, gracing grassy fields in many parts of the world, arises from an all-male orchestra. Each male advertises his presence and prowess by scratching together the of his forewings, which are ridged like tiny washboards. Each stroke creates a single chirp, and the cricket's song consists of a series of chirps called a trill.
You may think that a field may sound full of crickets all calling at once, but the truth is male crickets take their turns. If two males call at the same time, one will fall silent and move a respectful distance away. A female cricket will not respond to just any male cricket, the male must sing a song specific to her species. This discrimination is so specific that a female hybrids prefer the song of identically crossbred males
The male mole crickets is one of the animal kingdom's most imaginative suitors. When calling for a mate he don't just rub his forewings together, to make sure his song is heard, he construct his own kind of stereo amplifier. With his large, flattened fore legs he digs an underground nest with a twin-horned tunnel entrance. Then he sits at the junction of the horns and beams out his hi-fi message for any passing female to hear.
ANTS
Ants detect their food through their five noses, each designed to track a different smell.
Pharaoh ants are a serious nuisance pest in hospitals, rest homes, apartments, hotels, grocery stores and other buildings. They feed on a wide variety of foods including soft drinks, greases, jellies, honey, shortening, peanut butter, fruit juices, baked goods, dead insects and even shoe polish. They also gnaw holes in silk, rayon and rubber goods. In hospitals, these foraging ants have been found in surgical wounds, I.V. solution, sealed packs of sterile dressing, water in flower displays and water pitchers. Pharoah ants mechanically transmit diseases and contaminate sterile materials.
King and queen ants mates in the air, after the deed is done the male ant dies while the queen eats her own wings in preparation for pregnancy and because she would not need them anymore.
TERMITES
Queen termites may live for as many as 50 years, and she is capable of laying egg every 15 seconds. Termites rarely exposed themselves to light, they work for 24 hours without sleep, and a typically infested home may have three to four subterranean termite colony around it with as many as 1 million termites in each collony.
ROACHES
Roaches can live without food for a month, but will only survive a week without water. Some female cockroaches incubate their egg cases in their bodies until they are ready to hatch. These babies stay with their mothers a day or two after they are born. Cockroaches have lived on the Earth for 250 million years, many varieties, found today, look identical to the fossilized record of their ancestors.
Cockroaches have quite a capacity for survival. If the head of one is removed carefully, so as to prevent it from bleeding to death, the cockroach can survive for several weeks. When it dies, it is from starvation.
Biologists have discovered that cockroaches can change course as many as 25 times in one second, making them the most agile animal known.
PRAYING MANTIS
Was named so for it's f
ront legs, these were modified into prey-grasping structures held to the position that reminds some people of praying. When mating the male approaches the female very carefully and after the mating ends the female praying mantis beheads the male and eat him.
SPIDERS
The spider may look like an insect, but it isn't one. It belongs to a group of creatures called arachnids. An insects body is divided into three parts - head, thorax and abdomen - while the body of a spider is divided into two parts, the head and the thorax being joined. There are other physical differences. The closest relative of the spider are the scorpion, mite and tick.
The tarantula can live without food for up to two years.
The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
MOTHS
It's natural for moths to lay their eggs in sunflower seeds. The eggs lay dormant as long as the seeds are stored in a cool dry place. In the summer, seeds get hot and the eggs hatch. A large group of moths are called "micros".
STINK BUG
Stink bugs earn their name for when squashed a very strong odor emits from it's thorax(body). This is to discourage birds and mammals from eating them, some subspecies can cause blisters to the skin.
BEES
Between 20,000 and 60,000 bees live in a single hive. The queen bee lays nearly 1,500 eggs a day and lives for up to 2 years. The drone, whose only job is to mate with the queen, has a lifespan of around 24 days and has no stinger. Worker bees - all sterile females - usually work themelves to death within 40 days, collecting pollen and nectar. Worker bees will fly up to 9 miles (14 km) to find pollen and nectar, flying at speeds as fast as 15 mph (24km/h).
SNAILS
Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that snails can crawl along the edge of a razor without cutting themselves.
Snails sleep a lot. In addition to several months of winter hibernation, they crawl into their shells to get out of the hot sun, which dries them, or heavy rain, which waterlogs them. Desert snails may even doze for three or four years.
CICADAS
C
icadas have their hearing organs in their stomachs, at the base of the abdomen. They are well-known singers, the song is a mating call produced by the males only. Each species has it's own distinctive call and only attracts females of it's own kind, even though rather similar species may co-exist within the same territory. Cicadas are the only insects known to have developed such a specialized and effective means of producing sound.
CENTIPEDES
Centipedes always have an uneven number of pairs of walking legs, varying from 15 to more than 171 pairs. Common house centipedes have 15 pairs of legs.
BUTTERFLIES
Butterflies have a fine powder on their wings that helps them fly. Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees. And they taste with their hind feet.
WATER FLEAS
Female Water Fleas ca
rry their eggs in a broad pouch, much like a backpack. This pouch is located between their carapace and their body. Vernal pool Water Fleas sometimes carry up to 20 eggs. The brood pouch can become so heavy that the Water Flea tips over. She has to swim upside down until the eggs hatch and the young Water Fleas swim away.
CRICKETS
The symphony of cricket trills, gracing grassy fields in many parts of the world, arises from an all-male orchestra. Each male advertises his presence and prowess by scratching together the of his forewings, which are ridged like tiny washboards. Each stroke creates a single chirp, and the cricket's song consists of a series of chirps called a trill.
You may think that a field may sound full of crickets all calling at once, but the truth is male crickets take their turns. If two males call at the same time, one will fall silent and move a respectful distance away. A female cricket will not respond to just any male cricket, the male must sing a song specific to her species. This discrimination is so specific that a female hybrids prefer the song of identically crossbred males
The male mole crickets is one of the animal kingdom's most imaginative suitors. When calling for a mate he don't just rub his forewings together, to make sure his song is heard, he construct his own kind of stereo amplifier. With his large, flattened fore legs he digs an underground nest with a twin-horned tunnel entrance. Then he sits at the junction of the horns and beams out his hi-fi message for any passing female to hear.
ANTS
Ants detect their food through their five noses, each designed to track a different smell.
Pharaoh ants are a serious nuisance pest in hospitals, rest homes, apartments, hotels, grocery stores and other buildings. They feed on a wide variety of foods including soft drinks, greases, jellies, honey, shortening, peanut butter, fruit juices, baked goods, dead insects and even shoe polish. They also gnaw holes in silk, rayon and rubber goods. In hospitals, these foraging ants have been found in surgical wounds, I.V. solution, sealed packs of sterile dressing, water in flower displays and water pitchers. Pharoah ants mechanically transmit diseases and contaminate sterile materials.
King and queen ants mates in the air, after the deed is done the male ant dies while the queen eats her own wings in preparation for pregnancy and because she would not need them anymore.
TERMITES
Queen termites may live for as many as 50 years, and she is capable of laying egg every 15 seconds. Termites rarely exposed themselves to light, they work for 24 hours without sleep, and a typically infested home may have three to four subterranean termite colony around it with as many as 1 million termites in each collony.
ROACHES
Roaches can live without food for a month, but will only survive a week without water. Some female cockroaches incubate their egg cases in their bodies until they are ready to hatch. These babies stay with their mothers a day or two after they are born. Cockroaches have lived on the Earth for 250 million years, many varieties, found today, look identical to the fossilized record of their ancestors.
Cockroaches have quite a capacity for survival. If the head of one is removed carefully, so as to prevent it from bleeding to death, the cockroach can survive for several weeks. When it dies, it is from starvation.
Biologists have discovered that cockroaches can change course as many as 25 times in one second, making them the most agile animal known.
PRAYING MANTIS
Was named so for it's f
ront legs, these were modified into prey-grasping structures held to the position that reminds some people of praying. When mating the male approaches the female very carefully and after the mating ends the female praying mantis beheads the male and eat him.SPIDERS
The spider may look like an insect, but it isn't one. It belongs to a group of creatures called arachnids. An insects body is divided into three parts - head, thorax and abdomen - while the body of a spider is divided into two parts, the head and the thorax being joined. There are other physical differences. The closest relative of the spider are the scorpion, mite and tick.
The tarantula can live without food for up to two years.
The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
MOTHS
It's natural for moths to lay their eggs in sunflower seeds. The eggs lay dormant as long as the seeds are stored in a cool dry place. In the summer, seeds get hot and the eggs hatch. A large group of moths are called "micros".
STINK BUG
Stink bugs earn their name for when squashed a very strong odor emits from it's thorax(body). This is to discourage birds and mammals from eating them, some subspecies can cause blisters to the skin.
BEES
Between 20,000 and 60,000 bees live in a single hive. The queen bee lays nearly 1,500 eggs a day and lives for up to 2 years. The drone, whose only job is to mate with the queen, has a lifespan of around 24 days and has no stinger. Worker bees - all sterile females - usually work themelves to death within 40 days, collecting pollen and nectar. Worker bees will fly up to 9 miles (14 km) to find pollen and nectar, flying at speeds as fast as 15 mph (24km/h).
SNAILS
Snails produce a colorless, sticky discharge that forms a protective carpet under them as they travel along. The discharge is so effective that snails can crawl along the edge of a razor without cutting themselves.
Snails sleep a lot. In addition to several months of winter hibernation, they crawl into their shells to get out of the hot sun, which dries them, or heavy rain, which waterlogs them. Desert snails may even doze for three or four years.
CICADAS
C
icadas have their hearing organs in their stomachs, at the base of the abdomen. They are well-known singers, the song is a mating call produced by the males only. Each species has it's own distinctive call and only attracts females of it's own kind, even though rather similar species may co-exist within the same territory. Cicadas are the only insects known to have developed such a specialized and effective means of producing sound.CENTIPEDES
Centipedes always have an uneven number of pairs of walking legs, varying from 15 to more than 171 pairs. Common house centipedes have 15 pairs of legs.
BUTTERFLIES
Butterflies have a fine powder on their wings that helps them fly. Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees. And they taste with their hind feet.
WATER FLEAS
Female Water Fleas ca
rry their eggs in a broad pouch, much like a backpack. This pouch is located between their carapace and their body. Vernal pool Water Fleas sometimes carry up to 20 eggs. The brood pouch can become so heavy that the Water Flea tips over. She has to swim upside down until the eggs hatch and the young Water Fleas swim away.Do you like this article? Share It!
0 comments to "A BUG'S LIFE"
Visitor Counter
 |
| Provided by website-hit-counters.com . |
Post a Comment