Strange Insect Habits Some insects are a lot stranger than we believe. Sometimes they do the oddest things. When we talk about ants, many of us have an image of a tiny creature which is always busy doing something. They may be marching towards food, fighting with the ants and insects which are trying to invade their home or taking care of their leaders. Ants are farmers and they actually grow fungus for food. They tend their crops just like a human farmer might to ensure proper growth. When an ant colony increases to a certain size, as many as 80% of the worker ants are doing nothing because they have been given time off. An ant colony runs more efficiently when this happens. Scientists have said as the colony grows the number of inactive ants increases proportionately. I think most of us have seen fireflies or glow worms as they are sometimes called. It has been reported fireflies in Thailand near the Mekong River do something which seems incredible. Many thousands of them in groups fly around blinking their lights in a synchronized way. They all blink and turn them off at the same time. It is said it starts with a few fireflies who have synchronized and as more come along they join in, in this uncanny behavior. It turns out this is the behavior of male fireflies. It is said there are other places in the world with this also happens. The Hercules beetle is said to be the longest beetle in the world. It size ranges from a little over 1 inch to about 1.7 inches. One thing which sets it apart from all the other insects is the fact it is the strongest insect in the world being able to lift 850 times its weight. They can be found mostly it Mexico and South American countries but also on a few islands. The Hercules larval stage can last up to two years. The larvae live in rotting wood and they feed on it. The insects are nocturnal. The beatles make a huffing sound. If you place a male beetle in the vicinity of a female beetle it will always turn towards her. Scientists have said this suggests some sort of chemical communication through sexual pheromones. The males will fight for a female and cause considerable damage to each other. One of the things the Hercules beetle does during combat is tried to lift his opponent and throw him. Insects make up two thirds of the life on our planet. So far scientists catalogued about 1,500,000 organisms but it is believed the amount could turn out to be closer to something over 9,000,000. Did you know one of the things which attracts mosquitoes is smelly feet and mosquitoes bite more when there is a full moon? Not all mosquitoes bite. The ones that do are females. A mosquito can drink up to three times its weight in blood. There are a lot of different species of mosquitoes, as a matter of fact it is estimated there are over 3,500. West Virginia has the fewest species of mosquito in the United States. One of the problems is the prestigious amount of eggs laid by a female mosquito. She can lay over 300 eggs at a time. Mosquitoes spend the first ten days of their lives in water, that is why it is so important not to have standing water on your property, such as water which has collected in garbage cans, bottles and other places. If the temperature drops below 50° Fahrenheit the mosquito will hibernate. Mosquitoes usually live less than two months. It’s not easy to make honey if you are a honeybee. It takes nectar from over 2,000,000 flowers just to make 1 pound of honey. It also takes long flights by the bees and it has been calculated the 1 pound of honey they made took flights of 90,000 miles. Contrary to what some people believe, honeybees do not make a lot of honey in their lifetime. Each bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in their whole life. One of the mysteries of the honeybee was how can an animal which has a brain the size of a sesame seed learn and remember things, yet honeybees do. The bees routinely make calculations for the most efficient flights and communicate by dance where the food was to the rest of the colony. The worker honeybees are all females and only live about six weeks. A queen honeybee can live up to five years and is the only bee that lays eggs. Aside from the Queen the biggest honeybees are the male honeybees. They don’t work they only mate. A honeybee is the only insect that produces food eaten by humans. It is exhausting to watch a honeybee fly because it beats its wings 11,400 times a minute. Even with the small amount of honey produced by an individual honeybee, a colony can produce up to 220 jars of honey a year. The Red Postman butterfly is found in southern Texas and as far away as some countries in South America. It has learned to fool some predators into thinking it is a different kind of butterfly which is very foul tasting which contributes to its longevity. It feeds on pollen from some of the Lantana camara flowers. The plants they feed on have adapted and they synthesize toxins to deter the butterfly. These toxins contribute to a low survival rate among the larvae for those butterflies which spend a longer time eating the plants. It has been suggested at least some of the butterflies which survive eating the plants could excrete higher levels of poison deterring predators. One of the creepiest of the insects is the Devils Flower Mantis. It’s very big for an insect and the adult has colorful markings. People actually buy these and they are very expensive and hard to maintain. It’s home is mostly in Tanzania but it does exist in other African countries. When the insect is firstborn it is completely black and it is believed this is to deter predators because they think it is an ant. It sits completely still on a plant and has the ability to look like a leaf, but once an insect goes near it, it gets a cruel surprise as its grabbed and munched on. The size of the mantis is almost 4 inches when it is fully grown. It is a giant in the insect world. We may not give much thought to insects unless they are bothering us, but it turns out a lot of them have complex lives also.
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