Hey, Fedi.
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@AnAutieAtUni @ShaulaEvans As it happens, I was pointing to a tiny, delicate green-and-white jumping spider (most likely Epeus sp.) on a wooden railing just a few hours ago, and before I finished saying "look at this spider", it had hopped up on my finger, cool as you like. And after several seconds, I tapped lightly on the railing, and it hopped off again. Lovely.
@amenonsen @ShaulaEvans
Aww so sweet! 🥰 -
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 it’s not “exactly” a bug… but the wonderful bizarre world of the “sea sheep” is something VERY fascinating! They “repurpose” chloroplasts from their food to make food in their tentacles (and it’s a bizarre system too) they also “self decapitate” their heads from their bodies if they need to preserve themselves from disease etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costasiella_kuroshimae
https://www.livescience.com/decapitated-sea-slugs-regrow-entire-body.html -
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 There are some butterflies that give off pheromones that mimic Queen ant larvae and the ants will find them and keep them in their nests…
Some “pantry bugs” (a beetle larvae) can survive on arsenic and eat through lead.
We have a millipede in the northern states (us) that gives off cyanide gas when disturbed… I remember picking one up (with gloves and keeping it away from my face) but even at arms length my eyes were stinging! -
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 cicada cocoons are dormant for a prime number of years before the insects emerge. Different broods have seven, eleven, or thirteen year cycles.
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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 into insects in general but I saw a new thing recently, In the tropical jungles at night, moths drink salty tears from the eyes of sleeping birds in the same way you see butterflies drink the salt from alligators/crocodiles tears.
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@afewbugs @ShaulaEvans Kind of like meconium?
@gretchen actually yeah
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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
Fruit fly sperm is longer than fruit flies. -
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
Here is a web comic which includes insect images and insect facts. It's about people.
Pia and the Little Tiny Things
Pia has just moved to the country side, and there are many Little Tiny Things to discover!
(www.littletinythings.com)
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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.
@stevegis_ssg
I know one thing about butterfly flight - their characteristic "all over the place" flight style, where they fly like they're drunk, is a protective measure against predators. They could fly straight if they wanted to.
@Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans -
@ShaulaEvans how about these:
- domestic honeybees have specialized roles at the hive entrance, easiest to see with a slow motion camera. The entrance operates a bit like an airport. There's a bee who frisks incoming bees to confirm that they belong, a bee who sniffs incoming bees like one of those drug dogs to verify pheramone signature, an air traffic control bee who watches inbound and outbound bees, a security bee who leaps into action upon signal from the other bees to kick out intruders and imposters.
- bees have also been shown in studies to possibly be able to: do math, recognize faces, experience ptsd, and play
- the spongy moth was introduced to the US by a guy who was hoping to corner a new silk market, but he lost control of the caterpillars and they became an extremely invasive species there, oops
- not bugs obviously but they might still find this cool: spiders have been found to communicate with each other via drumming
@growfediverse
Additional bonus spider fact: some spider-eating spiders can mimic other spider's drumming patterns to confuse or lure them to their deaths.
@ShaulaEvans -
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 did see a program that showed a spider (I know, not a bug) that hung around when it's babies hatched for them to eat her and so provide a good start in life for them. -
@ShaulaEvans @SteveJB okay, but it says "the sting is harmless to humans" and then claims it hurts so bad that if you don't immediately lie down and just scream you might hurt yourself trying to cope with the pain. What does harmless mean again?
@sillyCoelophysis@hachyderm.io @ShaulaEvans@zirk.us @SteveJB@beige.party
stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself
Just like how siblings are harmless. -
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 Incredibly, there is a single group of insects which have a winged instar before adulthood. And strangely enough, it’s the mayflies. They molt into a winged form, which lives for a few minutes to a couple of days, which _then_ molts into the sexually mature adult form.
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@statsguy @robtherunt @ShaulaEvans handkerchief that was tied around his neck and tied it on to the ragwort stem and then went home for his supper, whistling a tune and feeling very pleased with himself. But the next morning when he came back with a spade to dig up the treasure he couldn't believe his eyes - every plant in the field was covered in orange and black striped caterpillars and he couldn't spot his handkerchief, and so the clever pixie kept his treasure.
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@noodlemaz @annehargreaves @jetlagjen @ShaulaEvans In my part of the US, we call them roly-polies.
@hydropsyche @noodlemaz @annehargreaves @jetlagjen @ShaulaEvans these are “sowbugs" where I grew up (So. California). They're usually gray.
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@ShaulaEvans @SteveJB okay, but it says "the sting is harmless to humans" and then claims it hurts so bad that if you don't immediately lie down and just scream you might hurt yourself trying to cope with the pain. What does harmless mean again?
@sillyCoelophysis Ah yes. The long disputed difference between hurt and harm.
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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
Behold the life cycle of male fig wasps. They pupate inside the fig and then mate with an unhatched female. Their next order of business is to burrow a hole to the outside world, which the female wasps can use once they too hatch and pupate. The males of many species of have no wings, and quickly die outside the fig. Thus female fig wasps are hatched ready-fertilized, ready to find another fig to continue the cycle.
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Earwigs use their pincers for a variety of actions, among those: unfolding their wings. Yes, earwigs can fly.
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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 @futurebird is our ant fact champion
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@ShaulaEvans @futurebird is our ant fact champion
Whenever I hear the phrase "ant fact" or "bug fact" I have to share this music video:
