What was the biggest insect on Earth?

A dragonfly that lived about 310 million years ago. The insect had a wingspan of 271/2 inches (69.9 cm)! That’s about the distance from the tip of your nose to the end of your arm. The biggest dragonfly today has a wingspan of less than 5 inches (12.7 cm).

Which is the meanest fly?

A kind of gall midge fly. Gall midge flies are born inside their mother’s body. Once born, they start eating her insides! In about two days they have eaten her whole body. The newborns then crawl out, leaving behind the hard, empty shell of the mother. Talk about rotten kids!

Which flies are like helicopters?

The hoverfly, bee fly, and flower fly. Most flies can only fly forward. But these three can fly forward and backward. They can even hover in place.

Are flies dirty?

Not all of them. Flies that live in dirty surroundings are dirty. A fly may walk around on rotting food, garbage, and other filth. Germs stick to its legs, mouth parts, and hairy body. Its legs alone may have over one million germs! If you see a fly near your sandwich, shoo it away. Flies that touch your food may leave harmful germs behind.

Do flies taste with their tongues?

No—mostly because they don’t have tongues! Flies taste with their feet. First they step on food. If their feet tell them it tastes good, they eat it. But flies can’t eat solid foods. They can only sip liquids. House flies and fruit flies soak up liquids with their mouth parts and then sip the liquid. Or they drop saliva on solid food, changing it into a liquid that they then drink. Sand flies, stable flies, and female mosquitoes have sharp mouth parts. They stab the victim and then sip its blood.

How did army ants get their name?

From the way they march along in huge troops of between 10,000 and 30,000,000 soldiers! Their feet make a loud rustling noise as they walk. Some people find this the scariest animal sound in the world. Army ants also give off a smell like rotting meat. Often they kill and eat other insects, spiders, or larger animals that do not escape in time.

Are ants strong?

You bet. An ant can lift a weight 50 times as heavy as its body. If you were that strong, you could pick up a car weighing nearly 2 tons (2.1 t)! Ants are also very fast walkers. The hotter it is, the faster they walk. Try shading some ants with a piece of cardboard on a hot, sunny day, and watch them slow down.

Do ants have good eyesight?

Most ants can see nearby objects very well. But some are blind. To survive, all ants depend on a good sense of smell. Ants smell with their antennae. Their antennae lead them to food and help them recognize friends and foes. Ants can live without seeing well. But if they lost their sense of smell, they’d die.

How do ants find your lunch in the park?

By smell. An ant finds a crumb you dropped. It carries the crumb back to the nest. As it goes, it presses its abdomen to the ground. This leaves a smell trail. Back in the nest, the ant pokes the other ants. They run out and pick up the scent. By instinct, they follow the trail. Soon there are dozens of ants looking for more lunch crumbs.

Do all bees sting?

No. Only female bees can sting. Also, some kinds of bees have no stingers. Some have stingers but don’t use them. A honeybee has a barbed stinger at the back of its abdomen. Usually the bee keeps it hidden, but it’s ready for use if needed. A honeybee stings when in danger. It plunges the stinger into the victim’s flesh. But as the bee flies away, the barbs hold fast. The stinger pulls out of the bee’s body—and the bee soon dies. Bee stings can be dangerous as well as painful. In the United States alone, about 40 people a year die from bee stings.

Why do honeybees make honey?

To feed the bees in their colony. A large colony of honeybees has up to 80,000 bees. They eat nearly 500 pounds (225 kg) of honey a year. Honeybees collect nectar from flowers and bring it back to the hive, or nest. Other bees place the nectar into six-sided cells, where it changes into honey. The bees eat some honey and feed some to the larvae. They store the rest for winter feeding or for rainy days. The stored honey is what beekeepers collect—and you eat.

How busy is a bee?

Very. A honeybee needs both nectar and pollen to live. To get these foods, the honeybee may visit 500 flowers in a single trip. The insect makes about 15 such trips on a sunny day, covering about 31/2 miles (5.6 km). A bee must collect nectar from about 22 million flowers to make 1 pound (0.5 kg) of honey!

What gives moth and butterfly wings their color?

Tiny, colorful, overlapping scales. Under a microscope they look like shingles on a roof. Some scales are colored red, orange, yellow, brown, black, or white. Others bend and scatter light, so they look blue, silver, violet, or green. The colors may blend in with a background and help hide the butterfly. Or they may stand out and scare enemies away. Often the colors are meant to catch another butterfly’s eye.

How can you tell a moth from a butterfly?

When at rest, a moth spreads its wings out flat to form a triangle. A butterfly holds its wings straight up, like sails on a boat. Moths have feathery antennae without knobs. Butterfly antennae are slender, with knobs at the tips. The bodies of most moths are thicker and furrier than those of butterflies. Moths fly mostly at night, while butterflies like sunlight and fly during the day.

Which insects live in your house?

The flies, mosquitoes, and ants you sometimes see, of course. But also many insects that keep out of sight. The holes in your wool sweater were probably made by moth caterpillars or beetle larvae. Your dog scratches to get rid of tiny fleas. Hidden in your bookcase may be “bookworms,” which are beetle larvae. And those fuzzy creatures you can find inside bad apples are the caterpillars of certain moths.

Do all insects go through metamorphosis?

No. A few, such as silverfish and springtails, simply grow bigger, much as you do. The newborns look just like their parents—except smaller. And from the time they hatch until they become adults, these animals hardly change their form or shape.

When do nymphs grow wings?

The time varies. Grasshopper nymphs take about two months. During this time, the nymphs keep eating, growing, and molting. With each molt, they develop bigger and bigger wings. After about five molts, the nymphs are full grown. Now they have wings, just like their parents do. Most dragonfly nymphs live in the water. Some take up to 5 years and 12 or more molts to become adults. They then crawl up out of the water, on plant stems. Soon they shed their final skin, open their wings, and fly away.

Do all insects pass through four stages?

No. Grasshoppers, crickets, termites, mayflies, cockroaches, dragonflies, and some others go through only three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. This is known as incomplete metamorphosis. The egg stage and adult stage are the same as in complete metamorphosis. Only the nymph stage is different. Nymphs have unformed wings, are smaller than their parents, and are often not the same color. The nymphs gradually grow bigger and develop wings and reproductive organs.

How long does the pupal stage last?

Anywhere from a few days to over a year. The pupae are forming new body parts. Many kinds of insects spend the winter as pupae and emerge as adults in the spring. As adults, the insects are ready to mate and start the whole process all over again: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

What are pupae?

A stage of development when insects are protected by a case, or covering. Most pupae look lifeless, but inside the case many big changes are taking place. The pupae are slowly turning into adult insects. Larvae usually find well-hidden places in which to change into pupae. Beetle pupae can be buried deep in the soil. Most moth pupae are covered by cocoons. They might be hidden under a leaf or behind the bark of a tree. Butterfly pupae, called chrysalides (kruh-SAL-uhdeez), are usually attached to weeds or tree branches. Mud, stones, dead leaves, or rubbish protect some pupae.