Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@ShaulaEvans

ps:

the latin nomenclature for the crypt-keeper wasp is "Euderus Set"

The ancient Egyptian god Set trapped his brother Osiris in a coffin, then killed him and chopped him up into pieces

[dmakarios@theres.life]

@ShaulaEvans I don't know if stick insects are Officially Bugs or not, but there's a species in Papua New Guinea which sprays when agitated, and the locals use it as an Antibacterial Spray Insect.

Other interesting stick insect facts here: https://deborah.makarios.nz/2019/10/29/the-weird-and-wonderful-stick-insect/

[akki@toot.lgbt]

@ShaulaEvans There is a kind of moth that can feed on human blood like a mosquito https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calyptra_(moth)

[sturmsucht@mastodon.social]

@ShaulaEvans @lavievagabonde 👀

[karalg84@dragonscave.space]

@Akki @stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans Oh they do don't they now you mention it. I remember holding one near my ear when I was little.

[connynasch@mastodon.social]

@stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans I had always wondered about how insects breathe. Thank you for this enlightening explanation. 😊

[akki@toot.lgbt]

@KaraLG84 @stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans They're quieter because everything wants to eat them, I think. Also the size-shape-material of the wings. Fly wings are small and firm, butterflies are more flappy.

[connynasch@mastodon.social]

@afewbugs @ShaulaEvans 😂

[mossesandbees@scicomm.xyz]

@ShaulaEvans rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are not only (one of) the largest family in the animal kingdom, but they use their abdomen to fold their wings under the shortened elytra.
In fact, their wings have distinct folding lines, but it doesn't matter if the left or the the right wing is on top of the other while folding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhU9NhHIYQc

[connynasch@mastodon.social]

@benroyce @ShaulaEvans 😮 I love ghoulish...

[tattooed_mummy@beige.party]

@ShaulaEvans I used to have pet stick insects. They are really fun and I know they can go without food for a week because a baby one escaped, and we thought it was dead and then we found it a week later wandering about the ceiling. when we popped it back in the tank.You've never seen a creature eat leaves so fast.Poor little starving thing.
They are all female, but they lay eggs anyway and have babies. I'm slightly envious.

[anautieatuni@beige.party]

@ShaulaEvans

Strictly “bugs”!

One of, if not THE smallest butterfly in the world is the Sinai Baton Blue (Pseudophilotes sinaicus). The smallest recorded wingspan is 6.25 mm, but the average for the species is 9.5 mm.

It lives in a metapopulation (where there are a few population groups dotted around, but many are ephemeral) in the Saint Katherine Protectorate in Egypt. The total area it lives in is less than 7 km square.

These butterflies have only one host plant, Sinai Thyme. Both butterfly and hostplant are endangered. One of the things that puzzles scientists is how the Sinai thyme hostplant reproduces. Many experiments have been done to try to grow more to help support the butterflies, but they haven’t been successful (yet). The existing plants in the valleys (called wadis) are thought to be extremely old.

[tattooed_mummy@beige.party]

@ShaulaEvans also I have a tattoo of a mantis . Which is not a bug fact, but it's cool, so i'm sharing it anyway.

[stevegis_ssg@mas.to]

@Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans

I don't really know much about butterfly flight, but I'm pretty sure fly flight is entirely based on the shedding of vortices from the wing edges. They make the air very chaotic and somehow (aeronautics is not my field!) get lift from that, and the pulsed vortices make the buzzing sound, as I understand it.

[redrobyn@mastodon.nz]

@ShaulaEvans
I know they aren't insects, but maybe your friend would be interested in the very funky invert that lives round the valley a bit from me. It looks like a caterpillar but is an accomplished ambush predator, shooting out jets of sticky goo to immobilise it's prey. It then injects saliva to dissolve its insides and sucks them out.

Fun fact is that it halted construction of a dual carriageway.

https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/for-the-love-of-velvet-worms/

[rvedotrc@tech.lgbt]

@ShaulaEvans possibly not the help you seek, but anyway: I gave just recently read “Alien Worlds” by Steve Nicholls. It’s a great read and packed full of fascinating insect facts!

[akki@toot.lgbt]

@stevegis_ssg @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans Vaguely related fact, though, moon moths with long tails on their wings are like that because it messes with bat sonar so bats go for the tails more than the bodies and the moths escape

[battyacn@mastodon.social]

@ShaulaEvans How moths avoid bats by using echo-jamming clicks

https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/how-moths-avoid-bats-using-echo-jamming-clicks-4-342160/

[frieke72@mastodon.social]

@ShaulaEvans you follow @thebeeguy yet? Timeline full of Flying bug facts

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@ShaulaEvans

1. The largest ant to ever walk the earth (that we know of) is the extinct species known as "Titanomyrma" The fossilized queens of this species were about the size of hummingbirds.

2. Carpenter ants sleep in a cuddle pile inside of their homes in rotting logs, like puppies.

3. Camponotus rectangularis is a carpenter ant with a wide head and simple black eyes. She gets her second name from her rectangle-shaped thorax.

4. The oldest verified ant queen lived over three decades.