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| Monday, September 13, 2010 |
| Thursday Thirteen - Insect Trivia |
1. A cockroach can live for about nine days without its head. It could live for its lifetime without head, cockroach actually dies because of not being able to drink water.
2. Dragonflies can fly at speeds up to 30 miles per hour.
3. The color a head louse will be as an adult can depend on the color of the person's hair in which it lives.
4. The cochineal insect, which lives on the prickly pear cactus in the southwestern United States, is an excellent source of natural red dye. The insects are dried and ground into a powder that is cooked to release the maximum amount of color. The powder is then used as a dye for fiber, fabric, and basketry materials. It has also been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in food and cosmetics. Most brands of lipstick and some kinds of fruit drinks are tinted with cochineal extract.
5. In the 1960s, animal behavior researchers studied the effects of various substances on spiders. When spiders were fed flies that had been injected with caffeine, they spun very "nervous" webs. When spiders ate flies injected with LSD, they spun webs with wild, abstract patterns. Spiders that were given sedatives fell asleep before completing their webs.
6. The bombadier beetle defends itself by firing a boiling hot spray from the rear of its abdomen. The spray is formed at the moment of firing by mixing chemicals from two glands in the beetle's abdomen. The spray changes instantly into a gas and is directed away from the beetle. The gas irritates the eyes of the enemy and forms a smoke screen which helps the beetle to escape while the enemy is confused.
7. Termites can’t digest wood, the protozoa in their stomach (they eat them when they are younger) actually are the devourers of the wood.
8. Slugs have 4 noses.
9. A dragonfly’s first six months of life are spent underwater. After this time, it comes out of the water, sheds its outer skin, and starts flying, but if it falls in the water after it has shed its skin, it drowns.
10. A leech can drink up to eight time its weight in blood at one sitting.
11. There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.
12. There are more than 900,000 known species of insects in the world.
13. More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes.
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posted by Nature Mad @ 3:55 PM  |
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| 16 Comments: |
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I'm first! That is just so amazing. I never knew that especially your #1. Yikes!
My T13 is up too.
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Always learning here when I visit! Thanks for sharing!
My TT shares 13 things to do or see in my hometown Velsen / IJmuiden in The Netherlands.
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Fascinating. I had never heard of the bombadier beetle before.
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It's a good thing dragon flies are very manouverable and don't fly into things.
Great list :-)
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Cool list, but the last one just added to my bee/wasp phobia...
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Fascinating facts as always. Happy TT.
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nice list, but a bit creepy. one of the nicer things about my recent move to the southwest was the fewer bugs (at least of the annoying variety like flies and mosquitos) live here. but the roaches here in las vegas are absolutely out of control.
happy TT
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Great info...Im gonna pass this on to my son. I hate bugs!! Happy TT.
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oooooo, I love facts! Happy TT
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Ick. Makes me shudder.. cockroaches..
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It's the first time I've ever felt sorry for cockroaches.
You should write a book: The Tragic, Secret Life of Insects.
It's interesting that we're so instinctively afraid/repelled by our little fellow beings, even though so few of them are harmful.
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That is such a cool list!
my 13 is up
http://momworksathome.blogspot.com
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Interesting list, disgusting sometimes, but interesting
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I'm going to have to see how many of these facts my children know. I will be back often to see what the Nature Fact File has up next.
http://scpepccee.blogspot.com/
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that's the most interesting TT I have ever read!
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The part about the color of head lice was particularly gross. :-)
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I'm first! That is just so amazing. I never knew that especially your #1. Yikes!
My T13 is up too.