Walter Rothschild (of the banking family) had a collection of fleas in tiny costumes, including a bride and groom. So it’s no wonder that insects have so many fans.
Apparently, they’re even better at it than dogs. Talking of rear ends, the water beetle Regimbartia attenuata can escape death even if eaten by a frog - it swims through the stomach and crawls out of the frog’s bottom.īut my favourite fact in the book is that Nato has trained bees to sniff out explosives. Meanwhile, the Hercules moth (wingspan as wide as a dinner plate) has two false eyes on its bottom to confuse would-be predators.
Oh, and it can survive for two weeks after being beheaded.ĭragonflies cope with winds that would bring down the most advanced helicopter aphids can produce young that already contain babies (effectively giving birth to their own grandchildren) and there’s a species of butterfly that has an eye on its penis. The American cockroach can run at 50 body lengths per second, the equivalent of you doing 210 mph. The Dracula ant can snap its jaws shut at 200 mph, the fastest animal movement on Earth. Putting the important ecological stuff to one side for a minute, losing our insects would be a shame simply because they’re amazing. If climate change and loss of habitat combine to de-bug our world, life might get rather tricky. Author Oliver Milman reveals insect numbers are dropping quickly in new book The Insect Crisis (file image)Īs the title of Oliver Milman’s book implies, insect numbers are dropping so quickly that we could be heading for trouble.
0 kommentar(er)
