Hey, Fedi.
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@ShaulaEvans planthoppers at a certain stage in their life have gears, like legit mechanical gears, for trochanters (hip joints).
@EthanJMooney @ShaulaEvans wait what
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@stevegis_ssg @Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans is that anything like why pigeons are so loud and owls are completely silent?
@WizardOfDocs @Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans
Sort of, I think! Owls need to be silent so they evolved feather-shaping mechanisms that suppress vortex-shedding. Pigeons don't, especially, so with cost and no benefit they didn't get them.
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@stevegis_ssg @Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans is that anything like why pigeons are so loud and owls are completely silent?
@WizardOfDocs @stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans I think moths generally have more straight flight patterns than butterflies for avoidance (visual during the day for butterflies. Twisty tails for moths for sonar confusion instead)
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@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/
@DMakarios @ShaulaEvans speaking of bug spray, some species of birds have learned to rub ants on themselves, using the ants' formic acid to help keep their feathers clean
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@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@mossesandbees @ShaulaEvans and elytra in Minecraft are named for beetle elytra, implying that an update to the End dimension should include giant beetles
That might be too much of a digression, but I really want craftable elytra
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@stevegis_ssg @Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans is that anything like why pigeons are so loud and owls are completely silent?
@WizardOfDocs @stevegis_ssg @Akki @KaraLG84 @ShaulaEvans
I think flies buzz because they flap their wings very quickly, while butterflies flap much slower.
Owls are so quiet because the surface of their feathers is soft. The edge of the feather also. Quiet hunters. -
@inj4n we often call every small arthropod a “bug”, but actually that’s not true. Because taxonomically there is an order of insects that is commonly called true bugs, the order Hemiptera. Some groups that belong to Hemiptera are cicadas or shield bugs (Wanzen in German) for example.
To list the differences between “bugs” would be too much for this post, but when we stick with beetles and flies for example, we can say that beetles have two pairs of wings, of which one is hardened (elytra). Flies on the other hand have one pair of wings and a pair of reduced wings (halteres). This also distinguishes a fly from a bee, which has two pairs of wings.
(Of course, there are many more differences, but as I said, this would be too much to put in a post like this :D) -
@inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans Grace Hopper?! That’s hilarious!
@AdamStuartSmith @inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans I believe it was one of her students, but yeah, finding a grasshopper in your mainframe would be a hell of a bug
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@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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@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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@pikhq @ShaulaEvans so the metaphor of mayflies being ephemeral is just about adolescence?
@WizardOfDocs @ShaulaEvans No, that's the thing that makes it so weird. Their winged adult forms are all also super short-lived.
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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 checked my FediFeed this morning and found a flood of cool posts about insects, instead of the usual doom and news about fascism. I had no idea why all the bug people were out until I scrolled for enough to find your post asking for cool insect facts.
I love this place.
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@ShaulaEvans And another one: an impressive example of moth long-distance navigation capability, and a lovely piece of research to track and analyze their flight strategy.
The navigation strategies of migrating death’s-head hawkmoths rival those of birds.
Death's-head hawk moths are able to fly perfectly, even with crosswinds. Now we finally know how
The creepy moth found in the throats of murder victims in The Silence of the Lambs is helping unlock the mysteries of long-haul migration.
(www.abc.net.au)
@dazzr @ShaulaEvans
They also squeak -
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 my favourite fact is that it's theorised that moths are fluffy to help throw off sonar by bats, and a reliableish way to tell if a moth is male or female is to check its antennae; extra thick antenna mean male!
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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 love the idea of animals evolving wheels, but unfortunately that has not happened yet as far as I know. However there is a bug, "Planthopper", that technically with a little bit of stretching the concept has _gears_.
It doesn't actually convey continuous rotation with them, but it interlocks its legs to get stable movement when launching as I understand it.
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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 This is the coolest bug I've seen recently (article by @grrlscientist
https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2025/10/04/half-male-half-female-spider-discovered-in-thailand-is-new-to-science/ -
@dazzr @ShaulaEvans
They also squeak -
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 As part of my degree, I had to take an entomology course. We were required to use a dichotomous key to identify an insect. My assigned insect was a cockroach. I failed the assignment bc the key said it was a cricket even though I knew it was a cockroach. I made an A minus in that class.
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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 have you asked @futurebird ?
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@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"Sorry I've forgotten the author
@annehargreaves
I read this first in a Robert A. Heinlein novel, but I'm not sure whether he authored it.
@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
