Bugs & Insects Facts for Kids
Creepy-crawly facts about insects and bugs
Honeybees build their combs from perfectly regular hexagonal cells — mathematics shows that hexagons are the most efficient shape for packing the maximum storage space using the minimum amount of wax.
The dobsonfly larva, called a hellgrammite, lives in fast-flowing streams for up to three years and is a fierce predator with powerful pincers — it is also prized by anglers as fishing bait.
Scientists have found that a toxin in the venom of a Brazilian wasp called Polybia paulista selectively kills cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed, by targeting abnormal fat molecules on the cancer cell surface.
The desert locust has caused catastrophic famines throughout recorded history — a swarm of just one square kilometre contains about 40 million locusts capable of eating the same amount of food as 35,000 people.
The great diving beetle carries a bubble of air under its wing covers as an underwater air tank and can replenish it by surfacing momentarily — oxygen from the water also gradually diffuses into the bubble.
New World tarantulas defend themselves by kicking a patch of specialised hairs called urticating hairs off their abdomen with their back legs — these tiny barbed hairs embed in skin or eyes and cause intense itching.
Unlike household cockroaches, wood cockroaches live only in forests under damp bark and logs, and are unable to survive indoors — they are harmless and actually help decompose dead wood.
The wing surface of cicadas is covered in nano-scale spikes that physically rupture the cell membranes of bacteria that land on them — this has inspired anti-bacterial surface coatings for medical equipment.
The curved tips of the atlas moth's wings are patterned to closely resemble the head of a small snake — when the moth flickers its wings and flaps on the ground, predators mistake it for a snake and flee.
Forensic entomologists use the species and developmental stages of insects found on human remains to estimate time of death with precision — different fly and beetle species colonise bodies at predictable stages of decay.