Hey, Fedi.
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Well, as we have started: What actually is a bug? And how to I distinguish it, let's say, from a fly?
@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) -
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
This isn't a bug fact so much as a bug warm feeling.
Dog day cicadas at the end of a Summer day: https://youtube.com/shorts/mD6h6k2eal4?si=tR_aZ0xqKPc6lNcr
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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 On my houseplants.
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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 really on topic/what you asked for, and since they have an interest in the subject they might well already know the youtube channel. but i recently discovered Privileged Bug Facts and have been loving it
might also be a decent source of facts for yourself to give out perhaps -
This isn't a bug fact so much as a bug warm feeling.
Dog day cicadas at the end of a Summer day: https://youtube.com/shorts/mD6h6k2eal4?si=tR_aZ0xqKPc6lNcr
@ShaulaEvans a better video https://youtu.be/XCSOTbXQ4wY?si=Ino6r_5z9NGlRibA
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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 hello
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@forse Amazing!
@ShaulaEvans @forse And they use their eyes like antlers to fight off other males. They rest on tree roots that hang over streams, so they fight one-on-one battles on these thin roots to control access to mates.
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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 do spiders and spider like critters count as bugs?
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@stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans Something I've wondered for ages now is why do only certain insects buzz? Housefly's can be annoyingly loud whereas butterflies don't make a sound.
@KaraLG84 @stevegis_ssg @ShaulaEvans It has something to do with the frequency of the wing beats. Flies and bees move their wings very rapidly to fly, while butterflies flaps slower and tend to glide more. Some moths like hawk moths also have rapid wing beats, so they buzz quite a bit.
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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 read recently on here that if you put red ants and black ants in a jar they will co-exist quite happily. But if you shake the jar, the black ants will blame the red ants and attack and kill them. Meanwhile the red ants blame the black ants and attack and kill them.
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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 manipulates 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!
