Bugs & Insects Facts for Kids
Creepy-crawly facts about insects and bugs
With honeybee colony losses reaching 30–40% in some countries each year, scientists and beekeepers are in a race to understand and reverse the causes before food production is seriously impacted.
Springtails are tiny soil-dwelling arthropods that escape predators by releasing a forked tail-like appendage (furcula) stored under their body under tension, launching themselves several centimetres into the air.
The goliath beetle of central Africa is the heaviest insect in the world — larvae can weigh up to 100 grams, heavier than a large mouse.
Bees transform nectar into honey by repeatedly passing it between worker bees, adding digestive enzymes, and fanning it with their wings to evaporate water until the sugar concentration exceeds 80%.
Some spiders, like the diving bell spider, live entirely underwater — they trap air bubbles in a silk web to breathe, and the bubble even extracts dissolved oxygen from the water like a gill.
Army ants have no permanent nest — at night the colony forms a temporary camp called a bivouac by linking their bodies together with their legs and jaws, creating a living structure that houses the queen and larvae.
Caddisfly larvae live underwater and build portable protective cases from silk and whatever materials are available — sand grains, pebbles, twigs, or tiny shells, depending on the species.
Every spring, a bumblebee queen that has spent the winter alone underground starts a new colony entirely by herself — she builds the first wax cells, lays eggs, and forages until her first workers emerge.
Stick insect eggs often have a fatty, seed-like attachment called a capitulum, which ants carry underground thinking it is food — the egg is unharmed and hatches in the ant nest in a protected environment.
The giant weta of New Zealand is one of the heaviest insects in the world, weighing up to 70 grams — heavier than a sparrow — and has been called a living relic of prehistoric insect forms.