Bugs & Insects Facts for Kids
Creepy-crawly facts about insects and bugs
Many specialist caterpillars have evolved enzymes that neutralise specific plant toxins — monarch caterpillars can eat milkweed containing cardiac glycosides that would kill almost any other animal.
Insects as food (entomophagy) are already eaten by about 2 billion people worldwide and require far less land, water, and feed to produce the same amount of protein as cattle or pigs.
Mites are arachnids, not insects — they have eight legs and are among the most numerous animals on Earth; a single square metre of soil may contain over 100,000 individual mites.
Termite queens are the longest-lived insects known — some tropical species have queens estimated to live for 30 to 50 years, all the while producing thousands of eggs every day.
Research has shown that neonicotinoid pesticides, widely used in agriculture, impair the navigation and memory of bees even at sub-lethal doses, contributing to colony collapse.
Some moth species have wings covered in sound-absorbing scales that deaden the echolocation calls of hunting bats, effectively making the moths acoustically invisible.
Gall wasps inject chemicals or microbes when they lay eggs that reprogramme plant gene expression, causing the plant to grow a nutritious, shelter-providing gall tailored perfectly to the larva's needs.
Surface tension is created by hydrogen bonds between water molecules; water striders exploit this by distributing their weight across water-repelling hairs, creating dimples without breaking the surface.
Ancient insects trapped in tree resin that hardened into amber can be preserved for tens of millions of years with their microscopic features intact, giving palaeontologists extraordinary glimpses of prehistoric life.
Male peacock spiders of Australia have brilliantly coloured, fan-like abdominal flaps which they wave in an elaborate courtship dance — females are highly selective and will eat males who fail to impress.