Hey, Fedi.
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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 @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
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@ShaulaEvans woodlice/pillbugs are crustaceans.
They are more closely related to lobsters than anything else you might find in the garden. This is where they get their segmented exoskeleton and 14 legs.@jetlagjen @ShaulaEvans When I was a kid I knew these as "Mr Pills".
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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.
@statsguy @ShaulaEvans The moths are pretty too
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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 Not all dung beetles roll dung balls, in fact most species don't. A majority of dung beetles either live inside or under dung, collecting dung in tunnels or chambers. They shape the dung there into balls or sausage shapes, and lay a single egg inside. The developing larva is sometimes tended to by one or both parents. All its larval and pupal development happens in the nest, and it emerges as an adult.
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Hej @lavievagabonde
I guess this is a call for #CoolBugFacts that you could easily help with. A friend of @ShaulaEvans could be cheered up by telling anything about bugs.
The only thing I could contribute that the term "bug" in computer science is based on an actual bug that had been found by Grace Hopper in the circuitry of one of the first computers ever. But you probably knew that. You'll find a picture on "Bug (engineering)" at wikipedia.
Not a very unknown bug, but the one I knew.
@inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans Grace Hopper?! That’s hilarious!
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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 Hey @emmadavidson your chance to tell them about the small ant-blue butterfly
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@ShaulaEvans Not all dung beetles roll dung balls, in fact most species don't. A majority of dung beetles either live inside or under dung, collecting dung in tunnels or chambers. They shape the dung there into balls or sausage shapes, and lay a single egg inside. The developing larva is sometimes tended to by one or both parents. All its larval and pupal development happens in the nest, and it emerges as an adult.
@ShaulaEvans The ecologist Ilka Hanski once theorised that pre-pyramid Pharaoh tombs, called mastabah, are designed to resemble the nests of tunneling dung beetles. Which were a symbol of rebirth.
The tomb lies in a tunnel chamber, under a rectangular tomb structure. Hanski argued that the structure resembled the dung beetle's nest, tunnel and a dung pat.
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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 Bumble bees live in burrows
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@ShaulaEvans Hey @emmadavidson your chance to tell them about the small ant-blue butterfly
@bananamangodog omg fun! Thank you, will do that right now
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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 have some good bug stories - not so hot on facts.
Eg When I worked at Trading Standards Dept. a member of the public brought in a brand new cricket bat complaining about a noise coming from it. The bat was sealed in a plastic bag and sat next to my desk for several days before being shipped to a Laboratory for testing.
The result was a 7+cm grub from Pakistan that had tunnelled most of the inside of the cricket bat away! -
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 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)
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@bananamangodog omg fun! Thank you, will do that right now
@emmadavidson I knew you'd be up for 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 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. -
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 jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii can reverse its aging process.
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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 there are lady bugs in the ocean. They live in and around tunicates etc.
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@afewbugs @ShaulaEvans that's a fun one.
Most aphids are unusual in reproducing by both parthenogenesis leading to live births *and* sexual reproduction with egg-laying. Eggs is how they typically overwinter. So clearly these giant willow aphids are especially unusual!@jetlagjen @afewbugs @ShaulaEvans I think aphids using parthenogenesis can also have "telescoping generations", i.e., they are born already pregnant.
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@statsguy @ShaulaEvans The moths are pretty too
@annehargreaves @ShaulaEvans Yes they are! Sadly I don't have a photo of any.
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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 here's one I learned yesterday: earwigs are harmless creatures, and they have beautiful wings that fold in super tiny elytra. When they unfold they look like they belong to some kind of unreal cristal butterfly.
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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 Male bees (and wasps, and ants) are _haploid_ and do not have fathers. They are not just the only animals, but the only _eukaryotes_ to evolve reproduction that differs from the normal alternation of haploid/diploid generations. (Reproduction is usually very strongly evolutionarily conserved, for obvious reasons: if a mutation messes it up somehow, there's no chance for it to get sorted out again in future generations, because there won't _be_ any future generations.) So euphemising sex ed as "the birds and the bees" is unhelpful, as "the bees" are literally _the_ worst available model organism for human reproduction.
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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 okay, here are some fun/gross/terrifying bug facts about polycheate worms (which live in the ocean):
1. The Bobbitt Worm is a marine ambush predator that burrows in ocean sediment and then shoots out to grab prey with its mandibles, the force of which sometimes cuts prey in half. It grows up to 3 meters long in extreme cases, although it's only about 25 millimeters in diameter. At least one article I read mentioned toxic bristles, but I wasn't able to find a legitimate source for that and suspect it was sensationalization.
2. The Bearded Fireworm does have toxic bristles (as do other fireworms). They can cause a painful sting that lasts for hours. They're also quite beautiful.
3. The Palolo Worm spawns by growing tail segments filled with sperm or eggs, and then on a specific night tied to the lunar & solar cycles, releasing these segments to float to the surface, where they disintegrate into a frothy mass. They're apparently delicious fried in coconut oil.
In case you want to do your own deep dive (
) on segmented ocean worms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychaete
