Interesting fun facts about Insects
Insects are the most successful creates
Insects are members
of a larger group called arthropods. All arthropods have a rigid
exoskeleton, and legs that are jointed (arthropod means
"jointed foot"). In order to
grow, arthropods have to shed their whole exoskeleton all at
once; this is called
"molting." All insects have bodies which are
divided into three sections: the head,
thorax, and abdomen. In some insects these sections are
fused together so they may be
hard to tell apart, and some baby insects (called immature)
do not have all three sections
until they become adults. Nearly all insects have a pair of
antennae on their heads. They
use their antennae to touch and smell the world around them.
Insects have six legs that
are attached to the middle section of the body, the thorax.
Insects are the only
arthropods that have wings, and the wings are always
attached to the thorax, like the
legs.
All insects lay eggs. There are two ways that insects grow:
complete or incomplete
metamorphosis. Insects that have complete metamorphosis have
babies that look very
different from the adults and often eat very different foods
than adults. Butterflies,
beetles, and true flies are some of the groups that have
complete metamorphosis. The
babies are called larvae. Caterpillars and maggots are
examples of insect larvae. Larvae
often have soft exoskeletons that stretch so they can grow
fast, and they go through a
resting stage called a pupa before emerging as an adult.
Insects that have incomplete
metamorphosis have babies that look like small adults with
no wings. They usually eat
the same kind of food as the adults do. Grasshoppers and
cockroaches are two kinds of
insects that have incomplete metamorphosis.
Fun Facts about Insects
Facts About Insects and Bugs
Night butterflies have ears on their wings so they can avoid
bats.
Monarch caterpillars shed their skin four times before they
become a chrysalis, growing over 2700 times their original size.
There may be as many as 3,000 different kinds of insects —
more than all the other animal and plant species combined.
Of the huge numbers of insects, only a tiny amount, one
percent, are harmful to humans. Most insects are harmless or actually
beneficial. For example, without bees to pollinate flowers, plants would not
have a way of reproducing and we wouldn’t have anything to eat!
Locusts can eat their own weight in food in a day. A person
eats his own body weight in about half a year.
The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old
– 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs!
The desert locust is the world’s most destructive insect. It
can eat it’s own weight in food every day. Large swarms can gobble up to 20,000
tons of grain and plants in a day.
The honeybee has to travel an average of 43,000 miles to
collect enough nectar to make a pound of honey!
Out of every 1,000 Mosquitos, one female carries a disease
that could be fatal to humans.
Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
The average housefly lives for one month.
There is only one insect that can turn its head — the
praying mantis.
A slug has four noses.
Some male spiders pluck their cobwebs like a guitar, to
attract female spiders.
A mosquito flaps its wings 500 times a second.
Only male crickets can chirp.
Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day!
About 80% of the Earth’s animals are insects!
The common garden worm has five pairs of hearts.
Dragonflies can fly up to 50 miles per hour.
The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old
– 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs!
The praying mantis is the only insect that can look behind
its shoulders.
One kind of insect called a spittlebug, lays its eggs in a
big nest of saliva bubbles. I guess no predator would look for a meal in there!
A snail can sleep for 3 years straight!
The heaviest insect in the world weights 2.5 ounces.
A cockroach can live for up to 3 weeks without its head!
A butterfly has its taste receptors in its feet!
The mayfly only lives for 8 hours!
The female black widow’s poison is 15 times deadlier than a
rattlesnake’s!
There are worms in Australia that are over 4 Feet Long!
The weight of all the termites in the world outweigh the
weight of all humans 10 to 1!
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