Hey, Fedi.
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Not strictly “bugs”, but if broader entomology is their thing…
CW: spiders
Jumping spiders are some of the most intelligent of all spiders, but sadly their lifespans are shorter than their less intelligent relatives. It is thought that it might be due to the energetic demands of not only jumping but their evolution in developing this intelligence.
Bold jumping spiders (Phidippus audax) are named because of how they will happily (and peacefully) investigate a human if the human offers out a hand or something to explore. Other species are usually more cautious. They also have absolutely stunning iridescent chelicerae. And the white marks on the upper side of some individuals’ abdomens can look like a happy face, like this:
These spiders can also be trained and learn quickly. This is probably due to their style of attacking prey by jumping being very risky, so they use all their eyes, each pair being adapted to take in different information like distance or movement, and calculate how, where and when to jump… and whether it is safe! Some of their prey species use Batesian mimicry - where a harmless species evolved to look like another species that has dangerous defences, without actually evolving the dangerous defences.
These spiders are adorable (this is coming from me, a lifelong arachnophobe), especially when they make hilariously bad errors in their jumps, or turn to look at you when you’re around and talk to them. They’re not always “bold” as their name suggests, but just curious, and can often be very cautious and even get scared by their prey!
Lucas the Spider is a cartoon spider based on jumping spiders and goes a long way to show the cuteness and the trials and tribulations of these smol but impressive spoods.
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.
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@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.@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.
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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.
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.
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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 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.
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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 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!
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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 @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
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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 How moths avoid bats by using echo-jamming clicks
https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/how-moths-avoid-bats-using-echo-jamming-clicks-4-342160/
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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 you follow @thebeeguy yet? Timeline full of Flying bug facts
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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
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.
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Thank you for these cool replies -- I'm so glad I asked!
I'm trying to get to bed so I will reply properly tomorrow.
And my friend is okay -- not in distress, just a full plate at the moment. No cause for alarm. I didn't mean to worry you all! xo 2/n
@ShaulaEvans This thread is a treasure trove. Really great.
My "favorite" beetle is the Bombardier Beetle, who can defend himself by creating a chemical reaction which produces hot (>100°C) and toxic gases. For this purpose he has a dedicated reaction chamber at the back of his body where he brings two chemicals into reaction when threatened. All details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle -
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 Forester moths are red first thing in the morning, but turn green as it warms up: https://entomologize.tumblr.com/post/714237607249379328/fun-fact-green-forester-moths-adscita-statices
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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 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. -
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
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.
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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 Velvet worms of the genus Euperipatoides have complex social behaviour and hunt in packs! They are also seems to have ancestors in the early Cambrian, so pretty ancient Friends!
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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
@afewbugs @ShaulaEvans Literal shits and giggles
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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=HhU9NhHIYQcI am so glad I already knew this, because @mossesandbees taught me at the #39c3
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I am so glad I already knew this, because @mossesandbees taught me at the #39c3
@inj4n @ShaulaEvans guess I’m always excited to tell people about the coolest bugs ever! (Although I love them all :3)
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@inj4n @ShaulaEvans guess I’m always excited to tell people about the coolest bugs ever! (Although I love them all :3)
Well, as we have started: What actually is a bug? And how to I distinguish it, let's say, from a 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
Not probably what you're asking for, but:"Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow."
-- Eric S. Raymond (Linus's law)
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@ShaulaEvans the UK giant willow aphid is the UK's biggest aphid, entirely female and reproduces by parthenogenesis and lives on willow trees in the spring and summer but we still have no idea where they go in winter.
@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!
