Edited by Lianne Lee
Insects are the animals that many of us are afraid of, but did you know they have very impressive and special characteristics? Michelle Trautwein who is an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences says, “each insect is like an alien life form with a detailed life history that often is so bizarre, you couldn’t create it as fiction if you wanted to.”
Firstly, bees are multitalented. We are all aware of the crucial part bees play in ensuring a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables through their pollination. However, that’s not the only fascinating characteristic of bees. They can understand the concept of zero, have the ability to add and subtract. Moreover, they can even be trained to detect land minds better than dogs! There are also some bumblebees that are able to fly at an altitude of 5,500 meters above sea level (which is around the height of Mount Kilimanjaro’s summit), can be taught to play football and remember both good and bad experiences. This suggests that they have a form of consciousness. As you can imagine, all of this work is very exhausting. When a human male eats a Mars bar, he’d burn the energy off in an hour; if a bee of equivalent size ate a Mars bar, it would burn the same energy in a mere 30 seconds.
Secondly, the world is flooded with beetles, there are around 350,000 species and counting. If a horned dung beetle were a human, it would be extremely strong that it would be able to hold up six double-decker buses! Regimbartia attenuata, a type of water beetle, can survive being eaten by a frog by swimming through the frog’s stomach and crawling out of its backside!
Did you already know about any of these facts? There are so many surprising facts about insects out there and we shouldn’t dismiss them as pests or irrelevance.
Bibliography
bee on flowers [Photograph]. (n.d.). green queen. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/world-
bee-day-why-vegans-avoid-honey-other-important-facts-about-natures-pollinators/bee-
on-flowers/
Milman, O. (2022, March 1). Bees can play soccer – 10 little-known facts about insects.
Retrieved March 1, 2022, from
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/01/insect-crisis-book-climate-
bees-moths-roaches-flies-facts
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