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 planthoppers at a certain stage in their life have gears, like legit mechanical gears, for trochanters (hip joints).
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@ShaulaEvans not a specific bug fact but i love that nz can vote on bug of the year (closes 16 feb this year). https://bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2026/
@ShaulaEvans oh wait! I do have a fav fact. Cicadas are associated with the atua Rehua. His particular sphere of interest is kindness, enjoyment, entertainment. He is the star Antares, and he has two wives who are the stars Alniyat and Tau Scorpii. In the sky they are at the points of a v- shape. Antares rises in the morning during summer. Cicadas appear in summer. One of the cicadas has three dots on its head in the shape of Rehua and his wives.
Okay, so perhaps more indigenous knowledge than a bug fact.
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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 might be a well known fact among bug people, given the popularity of jumping spiders, but they seem to get REM sleep, which would mean that they dream. Little cute jumping spider dreams.
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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
Follow @markmccaughrean , besides his outstanding career (all over the universe, literally
), I've learn a lot about many different bugs through him.
He tells us so many details, sharing at the same time his awesome bugs photos.
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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 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.
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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 Maybe ZeFrank on youtube (fun facts about ...)
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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 Follow @futurebird (if you don´t already do that)
(do ants count as bugs?) -
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 a bunch of "true bee facts" in my game Hive Time's in-game Beepedia that cite real-world research.
I think my favourite ones are stuff like Loukola, et al observing possible cooperative behaviour in Bumblebees https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.0055
Or Howard, et al's research looking at numeracy in honeybees
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav0961 -
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 a task for @futurebird
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@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
spiders have been found to communicate with each other via drumming
Huntsman spiders (the famously large ones in Australia) do this by holding on with their front two pairs of legs and waving their body to flail the rear two pairs against the ground - or whatever surface they're on. IIUC, this is done as a mating call.
This produces a disconcerting sensation when they're doing that on the inside surface of the plastic bowl you're carrying them outside in.
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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 in New Zealand where we have 27 species of native bees and 1 indigenous bee species, as well as the regular imported variety. I love occasionally finding solitary burrowing bees either coming out of holes in the ground or leaving behind old molts, a bit like snake skins.
More details
https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2021/02/01/new-zealands-native-bees-quiet-lives-of-desperation/ -
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 directly a bug fact, but there's a "Bug Lake" in New York and I drew Bugman Mike* in it... https://wplace.live/?lat=43.772553771896&lng=-74.73049837822268&zoom=13.784198648491882
*by @bestiaexmachina
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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
Earwigs use their pincers for a variety of actions, among those: unfolding their wings. Yes, earwigs can fly.
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@ShaulaEvans Stalk-eyed flies extend their eye stalks by pushing air bubbles inside their heads during molt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph_yMnYB3Co
@forse Amazing!
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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
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 well known but butterflies taste through their feet and crickets have ears on their front legs
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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 Insects rock! Learn how bugs race on the water surface. Here we go:
21.08.2025 ... A new study explains how tiny water bugs use fan-like propellers to zip across streams at speeds up to 120 body lengths per second.
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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
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.
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@ShaulaEvans by bug facts are you being taxonomically strict or is any invertebrate fact ok?
@JubalBarca This is one of those "Is a tomato a vegetable or a fruit" situations, isn't it?
If people would commonly refer to the critter in question as a "bug", that's good enough for me for this purpose.
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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 this is an amazing insect! Made my morning brighter, thanks
