Interesting facts about insects: everything that is hidden from prying eyes. Interesting facts from the life of insects

Insects are the first living creatures that appeared on Earth, more than 400 million years ago. Since then, they have survived five massive cataclysms and have proven to be more tenacious than tyrannosaurs.

Now there are about 20 thousand species of bees in the world. And to produce 500 g of honey, one bee needs to fly 10 million times from the hive to the flower and back.
Bees have five eyes. Three at the top of the head and two in front. The honey bee flaps its wings at a speed of 11,400 times per minute, creating a characteristic buzz.

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.

The weight of insects that all spiders on Earth eat in a year is more than the total weight of all people living on the planet. There are about 35 thousand. known species spiders and new ones are opening all the time.

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

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

Butterflies taste food with their hind legs. And the color of their wings is created by tiny overlapping scales that reflect light.

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2. Scientists believe that from 2 to 8 million species live on Earth.

3. Every year, scientists discover more than 7,000 new species of insects.

4. Representatives of many species of rare insects fell into the hands of researchers only once.

5. Insects appeared about 400 million years ago and survived not only dinosaurs, but also several global cataclysms.

Ant

6. In the natural environment, the life span of an ant is approximately one year. But in the laboratory, these insects live even 4, or even all 7 years, males and 20 years - females.

7. Insects do not have a skeleton - this role is played by an external exoskeleton made of chitin.

8. In Thailand, insects are actively used in cooking.

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

10. On the border of Thailand and Malaysia, a grasshopper was caught, the length of which was 25.5 centimeters. This insect made long jumps of 4.6 meters.

brownie cricket

11. Crickets are very unusual insects. Their ears are located on their front legs.

12. Poison of bees chemical composition is an acid and oc is an alkali.

13. One of the oldest insects on the planet are ants. 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 lifestyle.

14. An interesting creature lives in the African Namib desert- a rolling spider called Carparachneaureoflava. To protect against its main enemies - road wasps - it digs very deep pits, along the slopes of which it rolls like a wheel from attacks. The speed in this case is 1 meter per second, which equals 44 revolutions.

15. The strongest insect is an ant, it is able to lift a weight that exceeds its own many dozens of times.

common mosquito

16. One of the reasons for the prevalence of mosquitoes in environment- Greater viability of their eggs. Unfavorable conditions for the offspring of insects do not care. Mosquito eggs can lie in cold, dry soil for up to 3 years, and then come to life with the onset of heat, when the ground becomes wet.

17. Mosquitoes feed on plant sap and nectar. But some of them suck blood not from a feeling of hunger, but to obtain the proteins necessary for bearing offspring, therefore only females are bloodsuckers, and males are absolute vegetarians.

18. In one jump, a flea is able to jump 33 centimeters. If we translate such an achievement on us, a person would jump as much as 213 meters.

19. An amazing example of vitality is a cockroach. With his head torn off, he can live for weeks. To respond to touch and move, the insect does not need a brain. Instead, basic reflex functions perform accumulations of the nervous tissue of the body.

20. Slightly fall short of the title of "the smallest butterflies" radiculosis, living in the Canary Islands.

desert locust

21. The most voracious insect in the world is the desert locust. This pest, which lives in Asia and Africa, eats as much daily as it weighs.

22. There are butterflies that in one day 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.

Weevil

23. Clothes in wardrobe It is not the adult moth that eats, but its larvae.

24. Some of the ants not only hunt, but also livestock. Ants-cattle breeders "graze" mealybugs, leafhoppers, aphids, contain homoptera in "stalls". The reward for the labors is the sweet excrement of "cattle", going to food.

25. A swarm of locusts can include up to fifty billion individuals.

Maybug in flight

26. Scientists still cannot understand how beetles fly, because according to all the laws of physics and aerodynamics, they should not fly.

27. The wingspan of only 2 millimeters has the smallest butterfly - acetozea. You can see these nocturnal babies in the UK.

28. Most big spider on Earth, the goliath tarantula (theraphosa blond) is considered. Insect lives in the tropics Latin America, eats medium-sized snakes, mice, frogs and lizards. The size of the body of a spider with straightened legs is 25–28 centimeters.

29. Fleas can jump a distance equal to 120-130 lengths of their own body.

30. The main occupation of Amazon ants is wars, during which they capture pupae of strangers. In the future, the captives are used as slaves. The warlike ants themselves are not able to feed themselves, since they cannot organize life.

Caterpillar - butterfly larva - lonomy

31. Not only spiders are poisonous, but also caterpillars. The most dangerous larva butterflies are lonomy living in the American rainforests. She has a calm disposition and nondescript color, but the spikes on the body of the caterpillar contain the strongest toxin that acts as an anticoagulant.

32. The victim of a female mosquito is determined by smell: they like fat people, athletes, pregnant women, owners of the second and third blood groups.

Water beetle

33. Despite the fact that the female mosquito is forced to use the blood, she chooses the “dish” meticulously. Females bite women more often than men, and blondes are preferred to brunettes.

34. Despite their size, flies can fly at speeds of up to 22.4 kilometers per hour. These insects masterfully dodge a deadly fly swatter because they plan well.

35. Butterflies taste with the help of their paws - this is where they have taste buds.

Dragonfly

36. The fastest insect on the planet is the dragonfly, it can reach speeds of almost 60 kilometers per hour.

37. Every year, about a quarter of the world's crop is eaten by insects.

38. Mosquitoes are really capable of drinking all the blood from a person. Another thing is that there should be a lot of mosquitoes, as many as usually do not happen at once in one place.

39. Some species of dragonflies live only about a day.

40. Each eye of a dragonfly consists of about twenty thousand small lenses.

common praying mantis

41. single insect, which can turn its head to the sides - the praying mantis.

42. interesting way hunts are used by gladiator spiders that live in Australia. They weave a web in the shape of a square, holding its ends between their front paws. When the prey is caught in the web, the spider covers it with a web in one quick movement.

ladybug

43. Every year from bee stings more people die than from snakes.

44. Ants of the genus Dorylus are used by the indigenous people of Africa for cuts and for surgical purposes. They heal wounds with their sting.

45. A swarm of 50 million desert locusts destroys food in a day, which would be enough for 1,000 people for six months.

honey bee

46. ​​Buzz honey bee is created due to the very fast flapping of the wings - about 11,400 flaps in one minute.

47. In one day, an entire swarm of 50 billion locusts eats 4 times more food than the inhabitants of the New York metropolis all together.

48. Lantern or alligator beetle lives in Central America. It got its name from unusual shape heads.

49. The body temperature of crickets can be measured in degrees Celsius by their chirping. To do this, count the number of sounds they make per minute, divide this number by two, then add nine and divide by two again.

50. Spiders are known to feed on other insects. And the weight of their victims in one year is more than the weight of all the people who live on the planet.

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 have hatched, but it has been found that under the influence of the wind they can move up to 45 km away.

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

More than 26 billion insects live in habitable areas on the planet in every square mile. Scientists estimate that there are still 5-10 million species unknown to science.

Grasshoppers can jump over 40 times their body length, and fleas up to 130 times their body length.

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

Crickets have ears on their front legs, and you can also determine temperature from crickets by counting the number of chirps per minute, dividing by two, then adding nine, and dividing by two again. The result is the temperature in degrees Celsius.

Amarobia spider babies eat their mother after birth. Some females begin to devour males during mating. Thus the dead father becomes food for his offspring.

Insects are a 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 an adult with all proteins, carbohydrates and fats

Dragonflies are the fastest flying insects. The speed of their movement reaches 57 km / h

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

Bees have five eyes. Three at the top of the head and two in front. The honey bee flaps its wings at a speed of 11400 times per minute, creating a characteristic buzz

Butterflies taste food with their hind legs. And the color of their wings is created by tiny overlapping scales that reflect light.

Ants never sleep. There are almost as many ant species in the world (8800) as there are bird species (9000)

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

Insects appeared on our planet long before other animals - about 400 million years before our days. Tiny living creatures are so hardy that they can survive any cataclysms. Even if humanity destroys itself, it is unlikely that it will succeed in eradicating insects from the world.

Butterfly taste buds are located on the hind legs. This method evaluates the taste of food and some other insects. The bee sees the world not two, but five eyes at once: two are located in front, three are on the “crown”. 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 resulting and divide in half again. Get the exact air temperature in Celsius. No kidding.

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 lovers of "waste".

Insects are very nutritious: they contain proteins, minerals, vitamins and carbohydrates necessary for humans. So if you're lost in the woods and can't get yourself a meal, take a closer look at what's crawling and flying around.

If you cut off the head of a cockroach, he is able to live 9 days without it. But the death of one cockroach individual is just a drop in the ocean. The females of these insects are incredibly prolific: they can produce up to two million eggs annually.

Ants never go to bed and don't know what fatigue is.

Insects are one of the most unexplored 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 types of winged beauties.

The fly usually does not fly far from the place where it was born. But if it blows strong wind, it can be carried for tens of kilometers.

People who see a hummingbird for the first time often mistake it for a large insect. Meanwhile, the world has a butterfly so large sizes that she looks like a bird. This is Attacus Altas leading active image life at night.

Insects are unable to turn their heads. Everything except the praying mantis.

If you've recently eaten a banana, you're much more likely to attract a hungry mosquito than a person who hasn't. Well, bloodsuckers like the smell of people eating bananas ...

A scorpion can live without food for two years, and ticks - as much as 10! And all this time, calmly wait in the wings ...

If you turn on some kind of 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 species is an example of the highest self-sacrifice, because after birth, the cubs eat their own mother with appetite ... They could be cited as an example of Theridion sisyphium spiders: after birth, they remain with their mother. First they eat what she has prepared for them, then they themselves help to get her food. They accompany the parent until her death, and then ... they also eat her and go about their business. But family relationships in spiders, Pandinus imperator is 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.

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 that is still unknown to you.

1. Attacus Atlas is a night butterfly, considered the largest in the world. Sometimes people mistake this midnight beauty for a bird - her size is so great! Just imagine - the wingspan of this giantess reaches 30 centimeters.

2. Flies are rockets. Try to catch that buzzing "plane" with bare hands- You are unlikely to succeed. The speed of an ordinary fly is 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 safe and sound.

3. Flea - jumping wire cutter. The jump length of this bloodsucker insect is 33 centimeters. If you translate the value in relation to a person, then it will be equal to 213 meters! Do you know at least one athlete who can overcome such a distance in one jump? That's right - there is no such thing, because people can’t do it, and a flea is easy.

4. - swift all-devouring power. You can’t name a locust except as a swallow, because one individual eats an amount of food equal to its own weight. It is no wonder that after the locust visits the field, the farmers can only humbly wipe 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 flaps of her wings. It goes without saying that the air begins to ring from so many tremors!

6. The 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 jumps. One of his jumps 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 the producer of an alkaline poisonous substance.

8. House cockroaches: headless knights. What happens if you remove a cockroach's head? Do you think it will die? They didn’t guess: he will live like a pretty one - for two whole weeks! Just some kind of mystic!

9. Bees vs snakes: who is more poisonous? Turns out they are bees. It is estimated that many more people die each year from bee stings than from snake bites.

11. Dragonflies are considered the fastest among insects. They accelerate to 57 km/h.

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 give them an elixir of longevity?

13. Want to know your body temperature? Record a minute and count how many times the insect will chirp 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 its enemies by rolling into a hole. He digs these holes for himself. When it is attacked by wasps, it abruptly rushes from the slope of the pit and rolls like a wheel, while its speed is 1 m / s.

15. Healer 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 - the owner of an unusual head shape. Its other name is a lantern. See for yourself - the head is really non-standard, it resembles a crocodile.