Hey, Fedi.
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans The first computer bug was an actual bug
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans I mostly love other kinds of animals, but this one is really interesting for me as a mathematician
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans Another bug related fact is New Zealand's competition to be elected as #NZBugOfTheYear!
Voting is done online so probably determined by humans but I guess New Zealand Entomological Society are open to any votes that meet their criteria.
️ 
🪲 🪰 🪳 🦗
https://bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/2026-bug-of-the-year-nominees/ -
Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans BUG FACT: at least a few times a year I see a cool beetle, go "wow!!! Cool beetle!!!", grab it and let it walk all over my hands and arms for several minutes, and then realize I forgot what blister beetles look like yet again
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans
Some leaf beetles produce toxins which they can secrete through glands on their back....other leaf beetles feed on poisonous plants, "collect" the toxins and secrete them (sometimes chemically modified).
... and *some* leaf beetle larvae keep the toxins of the plants inside their digestive tract making their feces toxic. Their anus is at a position where they shit on their own back producing a protective "fecal mask". No shit.
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@ShaulaEvans The Scorpion fly has a tail that looks exactly like the stinger of a scorpion but there is no sting in this tail - only two claspers for use when mating.
@StevenLawsonPhotography @ShaulaEvans Male scorpion flies offer a piece of prey (smaller insects) to the females. The females feed on it while mating takes place.
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@ShaulaEvans oh please tell your friend about the Australian small ant-blue butterfly!
Fun facts:
1. Critically endangered in Victoria but still breeds in Canberra including near my house in the suburbs.
2. The female is more colourful than the male.
3. Has a symbiotic relationship with coconut ants who build nests in dead wood. The butterfly lays eggs next to ant nests. The ants take the eggs inside and feed the larvae. When the caterpillar is big enough it then makes food for the ants. Then it crawls out of the nest, makes its cocoon, and becomes a butterfly.
4. To protect the butterfly, we must protect the ant. To protect the ant, we must leave dead eucalyptus and acacia wood on the ground instead of tidying up our reserves or building houses on them.@emmadavidson @ShaulaEvans oh wow we also have a blue butterfly symbiotic with ants in the UK! It never occurred to me that this sort of relationship could be happening with species across the world! https://www.dorsetbutterflies.com/species/chalkhill-blue/
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I'm not sure if millipedes count, but if so:
In Japan there exists a species that lives in 8-year cycles, similar to cicadas. And when all the milipedes emerge at once they even stop trains. -
Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans Probably already knows about this, but it's always good for chuckle:
The Tarantula Hawk is neither a tarantula, nor a hawk. It's a wasp. It's the only wasp who's venom does no tissue damage. It's attacks the nervous system and paralyzes it's prey: the tarantula. The venom's action is so specific that it does not kill the spider, but renders it helpless. The wasp drags the spider to a prepared nest where she lays eggs inside the spiders body. When the the eggs hatch, the larvae use the living spider for food, being careful to avoid vital organs, keeping the spider alive as long as possible.The sting is harmless to humans, although it's known as the most painful sting of any insect. According Matt Simon, of Absurd Creature of the Week: "There are some vivid descriptions of people getting stung by these things,” says invertebrate biologist Ben Hutchins of Texas Parks and Wildlife, “and their recommendation was to just lie down and start screaming, because few if any people could maintain verbal and physical coordination after getting stung by one of these things. You're likely to just run off and hurt yourself. So just lie down and start yelling."
Oh, and these lovely ladies are big!
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans
Dragonflies spend far more of their life under water in their larval stage. The nymphs have an extending, spear like mandible to capture prey. They also have jet propulsion! -
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.
@futurebird @ShaulaEvans
Ants are so incredibly cool that other arthropods just want to be like them: "ant mimicry" is a treasure chest full of amazing bug facts.My favourite: in order to look more similar to ants, some jumping spiders walk on their six hind legs, the remaining front legs lifted to the side of their head to resemble ant antennae.
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@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.
@Akki @KaraLG84 @stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans surely it's because fly wings beat really fast and butterflies' are much slower?
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@jetlagjen @ShaulaEvans When I was a kid I knew these as "Mr Pills".
@annehargreaves @jetlagjen @ShaulaEvans there are so many names for pill bugs in the English-speaking world (cannot speak to other languages on this)
Monkeypeas was the one where I grew up (SE England)
They also come in orangey/ginger variants!
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@ShaulaEvans Honey bee larvae grow in closed cells in the hive, and because they don't want to get that dirty by pooping all over it they have no anuses. After metamorphosis into their adult form they fly out of the hive, see the sun and the world for the first time and respond by taking a massive dump
this seems like a very sensible ay to view life to me.
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans Harvestmen* (Order: Opiliones) is a type of arachnid that has been around for more than 400 million years and they are one of the oldest known land-based arthropods that are still extant today.
(*To prevent or add to the confusion: in the US they are called daddy long legs, which is what we call crane flies in the Tipula genus here in the UK)
This paper includes images of the fossil of one that is 305Myr old: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1458
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@ShaulaEvans Harvestmen* (Order: Opiliones) is a type of arachnid that has been around for more than 400 million years and they are one of the oldest known land-based arthropods that are still extant today.
(*To prevent or add to the confusion: in the US they are called daddy long legs, which is what we call crane flies in the Tipula genus here in the UK)
This paper includes images of the fossil of one that is 305Myr old: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1458
@ShaulaEvans (Strictly speaking, not a bug but the colloquial use of the word covers it)
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there is the gall wasp, a parasite of oak trees
it manipulates the oak to make galls, growths that its larvae eat and grow in
but there is a parasite, of this parasite
tiny and trippy looking
its larvae consume the gall wasp larvae, and when it is ready to leave, it convinces its host to chew almost out of the gall, just the tip of its head exposed, then the parasite of the parasite chews through the head, and emerges
the crypt-keeper wasp
ghoulish
@benroyce More fun facts about oak galls: they have highly nutritious tissue in the centre for the little wasp grub to feed on, but the outer layer is very rich in tannins (the bitter chemicals in tea) to discourage anything from eating them and the wasp within and these tannins can be used to tan leather or to make ink by mixing with a source of iron. @Pepijn has a sires of posts on the process here https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/112327794886191452
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Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans
I’m currently reading this book “Endemic” by James Harding-Morris which is all about endemic species found only in UK.It’s fascinating and contains lots of info about little UK critters like the Celtic wood louse which was discovered in Wales, but now is being found in other parts of the country. It’s tiny and looks white but is actually translucent and has no eyes.
I would recommend the book to anybody who has even a modest interest in wildlife.
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@benroyce More fun facts about oak galls: they have highly nutritious tissue in the centre for the little wasp grub to feed on, but the outer layer is very rich in tannins (the bitter chemicals in tea) to discourage anything from eating them and the wasp within and these tannins can be used to tan leather or to make ink by mixing with a source of iron. @Pepijn has a sires of posts on the process here https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/112327794886191452
@benroyce Different galls have different concentrations of tannin. @Pepijn used oak marble galls in the photos (named for obvious reasons) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andricus_kollari. Historically though in Europe the best ink was made from imported Aleppo galls from Syria - apparently Jane Austin was very particular about her ink and this was what she used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynips_quercusfolii I can't find the reference in the book right now, but a common name for Aleppo galls was apparently mad apple of Sodom!
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@ShaulaEvans Maybe not as cool as some of the other responses you're getting but one bug I genuinely love is the cinnabar moth.
They lay their eggs on the ragwort plant, which then turn into really beautiful stripy caterpillars. The caterpillars can completely destroy the foliage of a whole plant.
Many people consider ragwort to be a weed (it can be toxic to horses) and pull it up, but I always let any in my garden grow.
