When your stomach starts growling, do you ever yearn for toasted beetles or sauteed grubs? If these culinary options flip your stomach, consider the reality that there are extra than 1,400 edible insect species. Take the insect quiz for greater creepy, crawly insect facts.
Animal and Insects Trivia Flash Cards three freeware for Windows ...
Almost everywhere you look, you may locate one — or dozens — of the six-legged critters known as insects. A wildly various bunch, the classification Insecta includes ants, bees, flies, beetles and much more. These creatures all possess a physique composed of three segments — head, thorax and abdomen — encased in a challenging exoskeleton. All bugs also activity a pair of antenna, compound eyes and three pairs of jointed legs. From that basic physique plan, emerge all sorts of terrific behaviors and abilities, as Live Science reveals here in 20 startling information about insects.
12. Bonus eyes. In addition to the two massive compound eyes on either side of their heads, a quantity of bugs have so-called easy eyes, or ocelli, in between, smack dab on their "foreheads." Many flying insects' ocelli structure a triangle, with two aligned ocelli above a centralized third, looking more like an occult symbol than an independent visual system. The query of the ocelli's function long stymied researchers. Recent studies have reported, however, that the ocelli, at least in dragonflies, seem specialized for detecting light, mainly when distinguishing the horizon, according to scientists writing in a 2007 trouble of the journal Vision Research. As such, dragonflies can quickly differentiate up from down, as it were, and keep their bearings during acrobatic flight maneuvers, a feat of attitude-sensing that may want to work nicely for both piloted and unpiloted aircraft.
What do insects use their simple eyes for? detecting shades detecting mild magnifying images The simple eyes, or ocelli, are located on the head between the compound eyes. The ocelli aren't used for vision, however to discover changes in the intensity of light. Advertisement
9. That's a big bug. The largest insect ever known to have terrorized the skies is Meganeuropsis, or the griffinfly, which was an ancient dragonfly with a wingspan of up to 2.5 toes (0.8 meters). These ancient dragonflies preyed on other insects and small amphibianlike creatures in the course of their reign from about 290 million to 250 million years ago.
4. On every continent . . . but just barely. Although insects can be found with the aid of the buckets just about anywhere on Earth, there may be one continent where they barely have a foothold: Antarctica. In fact, only one true species of insect, a wingless midge called Belgica antarctica, calls the southernmost continent home, according to the Laboratory for Ecophysical Cryobiology at Miami University (Ohio). The tiny fly is only 0.08 to 0.23 inches (0.2 to 0.58 centimeters) long, but it's still the Antarctic's largest terrestrial animal. Amongst this insect's many ingenious adaptations to Antarctic harshness, B. antarctica can withstand the freezing of its bodily fluids and sports a rich, purple-black complexion to soak up as much visible daylight as it can for warmth.
Chitin helps form which part of insect anatomy? wings exoskeleton antennae Instead of internal skeletons, insects have exoskeletons -- tough outer coverings made up of several layers. The most rigid of these layers is composed of chitin, a horny, waterproof substance. Advertisement
13. Fast fly-er. Zoom! Jerry Butler, now an emeritus professor of entomology at the University of Florida, once shot a pellet out of an air rifle to see if a male horsefly of the species Hybomitra hinei wrighti could catch it. The guy-fly did, suggesting it must have flown at about ninety mph (145 km/h), the record for insects, as reported by using Discover Magazine.
Instead of interior skeletons, insects have exoskeletons -- tough outer coverings made up of several layers. The most rigid of these layers is composed of chitin, a horny, waterproof substance.