Interesting facts about insects for children. Insects - interesting facts

There is such an incredible number of different insects in the world that not all of them have been studied so far. In impenetrable forests and jungles, new species are still discovered from time to time, which amaze scientists, and already known ones sometimes change under the influence of the external environment. Evolutionary processes do not stop; it’s just that over the course of several generations the changes they cause cannot always be tracked.

Facts about insects

• The sizes of their smallest representatives do not exceed 0.2 millimeters in adults.
• The first insects appeared on Earth more than 400 million years ago. They survived all 5 mass extinctions and survived even as countless thousands of other species went extinct.
• Insects serve as the main food for each other and for many birds. Spiders alone annually eat more other insects than the weight of all people living today ().
• Approximately 2/3 of all insects in the world eat only plant foods. The rest are partially or completely predators.
• The strongest insect, and indeed the strongest living creature in the world, taking into account size and mass, is the ant.
• The taste organs of butterflies are located very unusually. They are on their hind legs.
• The wingspan of tysanium butterflies can exceed 30 centimeters, so from afar they are often confused with birds.
• In total, a little more than 1 million species of insects have now been more or less studied. But a much larger number of them still remain unexplored.
• Among all classes of animals, they are the most numerous.
• Some insects live on all islands and continents without exception. They are even in Antarctica ().
• In many countries, insects are eaten. Especially in Asia, Africa and partly in South America.
• From the point of view of being rich in protein and nutrients, many insects are very useful.
• Many of them are extremely fertile. Common cockroaches, for example, lay up to 2 million eggs per year.
• Bees kill a lot every year more people than sharks, tigers or bears and wolves. And even more than poisonous snakes.
• The most fast insect in the world is the dragonfly. When flying, it can reach speeds of up to 55 km/h.
• Some types of moths obtain the moisture they need by drinking the secretions of the lacrimal glands of animals.
• The only insect that can turn its head is the praying mantis ().
• Scientists estimate that there are more than 5 million species of insects on Earth that have not yet been discovered.
• More than a million people die every year from mosquito bites in India alone, because mosquitoes carry a lot of dangerous diseases.
• Experiments have shown that wood-eating termites chew wood almost twice as fast while listening to heavy music like hard rock.
• In one species of spider, the first thing the baby spiders hatch from their eggs after birth is to eat their own mother.
• A headless cockroach can live for another week, or even more.
• The world's largest beetles, titans, grow up to 17 centimeters in length.
• Each dragonfly eye is made up of approximately 20,000 tiny lenses.
• The lifespan of some types of dragonflies does not exceed 1 day.
• Some of these creatures, for example, ticks, can go without food for up to 8-9 years. And scorpions can withstand a similar diet for up to 1.5-2 years.
• The diversity of insect species is evidenced by the fact that there are almost as many species of ants on Earth alone as there are all species of birds combined.
• Ants never sleep throughout their lives ().
• The flies are usually all theirs short life carried out near the place where they were born, unless the wind takes them somewhere far away.
• The most dangerous killer insect is the African tsetse fly. Every year it kills tens of thousands of people and countless livestock.
• The world's largest insect is the giant weta, which resembles a grasshopper or cricket. An adult weighs about 70 grams, which is three times the weight of an ordinary mouse.
• To produce 1 kg of honey, a bee will need to make an average of 20,000,000 flights from the hive to the flowers and back. It is clear that individual bees simply cannot live that long.
• Many insects have more than two eyes. The above-mentioned bees have, for example, 5. And spiders have even more, but their vision is very poor.

Insects are a huge class of animals that differ from other living beings in structure, lifestyle, behavior, etc. Whatever aspect of their life people pay attention to, everywhere you can find a lot of interesting facts that capture the imagination of not only children, but also adults.

Biologists believe that representatives of this group are the rightful masters of the Earth, since the number of species of this taxon significantly exceeds all other existing groups. A separate science has been created to study insects - entomology, which is practiced by people who admire the uniqueness and diversity of these interesting creatures.

Origin and distribution

Scientists believe that crustaceans are the older brothers of insects. Genetic analysis shows that it was this group of animals that was the ancestor of all butterflies, ants, beetles, etc. The birth of a new class occurred approximately 400 million years ago, after which their numbers increased at the speed of a snowball. Natural enemies they did not have, and food supplies were not limited by anything, so reproduction and settlement to various corners of the land proceeded with amazing speed.

If modern man found himself in that era, he would have felt like a participant in a science fiction film or an interesting computer game: Huge six-legged creatures, striking in their size, crawled, flew and ran around. The Paleozoic era is unofficially called the “Golden Era of Insects”, since there was no threat of being eaten by birds (birds did not yet exist), mammals (170 million years remained before their appearance), or being crushed by human feet (people would appear only later 398 million years). Freedom and excellent living conditions led to the full flowering of the class.

Prehistoric landscapes were decorated with the appearance of giant mega-insects, striking in the size of their bodies and wings. Soaring through the air were the predecessors of modern dragonflies - meganeuras, which have a fleshy abdomen and a wingspan of about a meter, and eat other ancient mega-insects - dictyonevrids. Dictyonevrids were approximately the same size as pigeons, and their mouth was more like a powerful beak, which did an excellent job of piercing cones in search of seeds.

Modern entomologists were able to study in detail some representatives of the class thanks to a special gift from nature - tree resin, which flowed onto the chitinous shells, enclosing unique material for study inside the amber. Representatives of groups that became extinct many millions of years ago have come to us in such an interesting form.

Small but invulnerable

With the course of evolution, it turned out that large sizes are not so good. Huge animals - dinosaurs - paid for their gigantic dimensions by completely disappearing from the face of the earth, while the development of insects turned in time to the path of reducing their representatives. Asteroid falls, faults earth's crust and volcanic eruptions, continental drift along different parts the world's oceans, major glaciations - it turned out that all the cataclysms are much easier to survive by climbing into a secluded place where you can sit out until better times. Moreover, with a small body, there is no huge need for food that large representatives of the fauna experience, driven by hunger from their shelters.

A striking feature of the class, expressed in adaptability to different conditions, observed today: more than 1 million species various forms occupy all known biological and ecological niches. They can be found in any climate on any continent, even in the harshest regions such as Antarctica. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that in the eternal struggle against insect pests, humanity is not destined to achieve a final victory: a person would rather kill himself than completely destroy creatures that he does not like with such a high potential for survival.

How many are there?

Modern science knows a little more than 1 million species, but even according to the most conservative estimates of entomologists, their number is much larger: from 2-5 million to 8 million. Even optimistic scientists understand that most representatives and species have not yet been encountered by humans and have not been described specialists. Some representatives of their taxonomic groups were observed in a single specimen, and many were observed in a single place on the planet.

Students who intend to become entomologists can expect to make some great discoveries in their lifetime: over seven thousand new discoveries are made by entomology scientists every year. interesting species, never seen by man before. By general rules open group You can assign any name, even your own name, which will immortalize the specialist and be remembered by descendants.

Reasons for rapid evolution

The excellent survival rate of insects is primarily due to their relatively short lifespan and rapid reproduction rate. While mammals manage to somehow adapt to new conditions and not die, insects go through hundreds or thousands of generations, in which all the changes have already occurred and become entrenched, so the offspring are fully adapted and practically indestructible.

In addition, most members of the class have impressive reproduction rates. The cockroach, which is the standard of adaptability, is capable of laying more than 2 million eggs per year, almost all of which will turn into sexually mature individuals. In addition, its low weight and size facilitate its spread throughout the planet on the skin and fur of various animals or with transport. Some small specimens can be picked up by air currents, hurricanes and winds and transported tens and hundreds of kilometers, and sometimes even to neighboring continents. When the wind subsides, they fall down without the risk of breaking on the ground or rocks, which is again facilitated by their low weight. Even an ordinary fly can be carried away by the wind several tens of kilometers from the place where it lived.

Development cycle

The main interesting and distinctive feature these creatures are theirs life cycle. In their development, they go through several stages, during which they look completely different, not only their appearance changes, but also most of the organs and functions of the body. Development occurs in several stages:

• Egg. The female lays an egg, which is inside the shell. Eggs different types They differ in size and shape, are very bright and have unexpectedly complex sculptures, stains, and patterns on the surface. Often this stage falls during a period of unfavorable weather, which in this form is much easier to endure, because the need to look for food disappears.

• Larva. The larva hatches from the egg. Most often, its biological task is to gain weight, so all organs and behavior are determined by the ability to eat often and grow quickly. Some caterpillars can be poisonous, which they signal with their bright “screaming” coloring. This is necessary to protect yourself from numerous enemies: birds or animals vying for a trophy in the form of a caterpillar. They can also be dangerous for humans, causing poor health, and if they touch a whole brood of poisonous caterpillars (for example, in lonomia), even death can occur.

• Doll. After the larva has collected a sufficient amount nutrients, she pupates. The pupa is a formation with a chitinous cover. From the outside it seems that nothing is happening to him, but in fact very interesting processes are taking place inside. The entire body of the larva disintegrates into cells, and then new organs and the body of an adult are formed from them. This change is hidden from the eyes of an outside observer, which is why it arouses such keen interest among all people.

• Imago. The adult stage - imago - is designed by nature specifically to prolong the genus. For this reason, it no longer needs many functions. A striking illustration of this is the absence of the oral apparatus in adult specimens of certain groups, because until the time of finding a partner can be survived on old reserves, “eaten” at the larval stage, and after laying eggs, there is no point in preserving the life of an adult insect.

The life cycle may take different segment time: from one day to several years. The record holder for the longest-living class is the cicada, which goes through all stages of development in 17 years, but the trend towards the disappearance of large and long-lived insects from the face of the earth is getting worse every year.

Nutrition

In the classroom you can meet representatives who use a wide variety of food sources: dead bodies, droppings, rot, seeds, leaves, wood, roots, blood, skin, etc. Typically, larvae and adults eat different foods. Some can even eat substances that are poisonous, such as strychnine.

Many of them are very picky: even mosquitoes, which seem to bite everyone indiscriminately, have special preferences. Most of all, female mosquitoes like the blood of women with blond hair; they are especially attracted by the body odor of a person who has recently eaten a banana. Male mosquitoes do not need blood, so they feed on flower pollen.

An interesting fact: butterflies have cells that sense taste on their paws, so before starting to eat, they tend to “stomp” on the dish. The same mechanism for recognizing tastes is found in house flies, which strive to land on food with all six paws.

Some specimens, on the contrary, are extremely unpretentious in food, and can serve as an example for many on a diet. Ticks can survive without food for 10 years. Of course, they are not active, they sit in one place and wait suitable conditions to satisfy your hunger. 30% of all species are not "vegetarians", they eat more small insects, feed on the blood or tissues of the body of mammals, and eat carrion.

Many insects eat plants, some of them are so persistent in this that agronomists around the world are constantly struggling with these eternally hungry creatures. For specialists working in the field agriculture, it is a well-known fact that these animals eat about 30% of the world's crops. Locusts are especially successful in this, one swarm of which can contain about 50 billion individuals. Migrating locusts, living in the countries of Africa, Australia or Asia, during outbreaks of numbers are capable of devouring not only crops on their way, but destroying people’s homes and furniture, so its invasion is considered a real natural disaster.

Social life

The most interesting area for entomologists is social connections among insects. The most outstanding in this regard are one of the first representatives of the class - ants and their relatives - termites. They are characterized by life in a dwelling built on our own, co-parenting offspring and a clear division of functions within the colony.

All representatives of the colony are divided into castes: reproductive individuals, soldiers, workers, etc. The dwellings built by these animals are distinguished by high technical quality and functionality: they have protective structures, a system for maintaining humidity and air conditioning, etc. Such buildings can reach a height of 9 meters, and drop 10 meters deep into the ground. Sometimes settlements are huge megacities that can compete even with human cities: the largest settlement occupies 6 thousand km.

At first glance, it seems that insects do not look very aesthetically pleasing and they cannot be interesting. But, despite the fact that they surround us and we see them every day, we know very little of these amazing creatures and their habitat. The entire planet is filled with insects; they are quite hardy and adapt well to environment. Every year, scientists discover thousands of new species of insects. The following information will be of interest to young children, 7th grade students who are studying this topic in school curriculum, as well as for adults who love nature. Introducing interesting facts about insects.

Different types

Mosquitoes mainly feed on plant sap, and only females drink blood to obtain protein for the birth of offspring. According to statistics, people with the second and third blood groups, as well as overweight and pregnant women are more often bitten. The eggs are very viable and quite resistant to weather conditions. The danger is posed by malaria mosquitoes, which spread a deadly infection. In many countries they are trying to destroy these seemingly pests. But they are also food for many birds and bats, so they occupy an important place in nature.

The most big butterfly- Agrippa (Tisalia agrippina) lives in Latin America. The wings reach a span of 30 centimeters. The acetosia butterfly is considered the smallest; it has the smallest wings, only 2 millimeters in span, and lives in Great Britain. A story about butterflies is very interesting for a child; you can talk about these insects for a long time and in a fascinating way, accompanying the story with colorful pictures.

Ants are considered the most ancient of insects; they appeared about 100 million years ago and have remained virtually unchanged since then. They are able to adapt to different terrain and different climates. Ants have a very active lifestyle; they need to put in a lot of effort to feed themselves. Ants can carry loads much heavier than their own weight. Sleeps several hours a day, and sleep lasts about one minute; several hours are gained over dozens of times when this insect stops to sleep.

Poisonous caterpillar Lonomia. Its habitat is tropical forests. It has a bright color, which indicates danger; the spikes on its body contain a lethal dose of poison. Touching her could be fatal.

The cockroach is very tenacious. He can live for several days without his head. These insects began to disappear from houses, the reason for this is European-quality renovations - cockroaches cannot stand the smell of the emulsion that is used to paint the walls.

The desert locust can eat as much as its own weight in a day. Lives in Africa and Asia. Every day their swarms destroy large amounts of crops.

Interesting information

Interesting facts about insects:

• do not have a skeleton, but beetles have an exoskeleton - an external hard covering that makes the body rigid;
• a tick can live without food for many years, but when it is full, it increases in size tens of times;
• a flea can jump up to 30 centimeters, which is many times its body size.

A bee's venom consists of an acid, while a wasp's venom consists of an alkali. Despite the weakness of bee venom, thousands of people die every year from their stings - death can occur from allergies, a bite to the throat, or an attack by a whole swarm of bees (African bees are especially dangerous, they are very aggressive). A newborn bee does not know how to make honey; it is taught by older bees. If the bees feel threatened, they sting, after which the sting is pulled out of their body and they die. When beekeepers smoke bees, they, sensing danger, begin to collect honey under their bellies and take it outside the hive. The abdomen becomes in a position where the sting cannot be used, so the bee cannot sting.

There are Dorylus healing ants, whose bodies contain a substance that heals deep wounds; this property is used in folk medicine.

The dragonfly has dexterous and independent wings, thanks to which it can move in different directions, even backwards. Vision is designed so that an insect can look 360 degrees. The dragonfly lays its eggs in water; the hatched larvae are predators and can even prey on fish fry. Before reaching mature age A dragonfly molts more than 15 times.

There are billions of insects on earth. Despite the fact that many of them are considered pests, they all occupy their niche in nature and are beneficial simply by existing.

The most interesting facts about insects

The largest moth in the world is Attacus Altas. With a wingspan of 30 cm, it is often mistaken for a bird
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House flies usually live near the places where they hatched, but it has been discovered that they can travel up to 45 km when exposed to wind.

Tiny stinging insects, midges, flap their wings at an incredible 62,760 times per minute..

On the planet, more than 26 billion insects live in inhabited areas in every square mile. Scientists estimate that there are another 5-10 million species unknown to science

Grasshoppers can jump a distance that is more than 40 times their body length, and a flea can jump a distance that is 130 times its length

About a third of all insects are carnivores and most hunt for food rather than feed on carrion and waste.

Crickets have ears located on their front legs, in addition, you can determine the temperature from crickets: to do this, you need to count the number of chirps per minute, divide by two, then add nine and divide by two again. The result will be the temperature in degrees Celsius

Baby Amarobia spiders eat their mother after birth. Some females begin to devour males during mating. Thus, the deceased father becomes food for his offspring

Insects are food rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. In Thailand they are considered a delicacy, where fried crickets and locusts are popular

Witchetti larvae are best eaten alive. Ten large larvae provide the adult with all the proteins, carbohydrates and fats

Dragonflies are the fastest flying insects. Their speed reaches 57 km/h

There are about 400 thousand known species of beetles. The largest size, the titan beetle, can reach 17 cm.

Bees have five eyes. Three at the top of the head and two at the front. The honey bee flaps its wings 11,400 times per minute, creating a characteristic buzzing sound.

Butterflies taste food using their hind legs. And the color of their wings comes from tiny, overlapping scales that reflect light.

Ants never sleep. There are almost as many species of ants in the world (8,800) as there are species of birds (9,000)

The male earwig has two penises, each longer than the earwig itself. These organs are very fragile and break easily, which is why the insect is born with a spare one.