General Discussion

Fact: Giraffe Weevil is the bestest boy. I don't really know much about bugs, but this is something I am absolutely certain about. [img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Giraffe_Weevil%2C_Andasibe%2C_Madagascar.jpg/220px-Giraffe_Weevil%2C_Andasibe%2C_Madagascar.jpg[/img]

wasps can remember human faces :)

Juvenile planthoppers have gears in their hind legs! They're the only known animals with this sort of structure, and they use them to synchronize the legs for jumping. Their legs are oriented laterally, so any delay between the two would skew their trajectory to the left or right. Here's an article from the Smithsonian if you wanna learn more.

EDIT: Turns out leafhoppers and planthoppers are two different things! My bad. Also, while doing further research, I found out that actually all juvenile planthoppers have gears, and the only reason I. coleoptratus is mentioned in every article covering them is because that's the species that was used in the study that discovered what the gears were for.

I love bug facts! Here are a few (with explanations included for some things in case anyone reading through it is confused by the scientific terms):

- 2024 will have two cicada broods emerge nearby each other (but not significantly overlapping) in the eastern United States, one from a species with a 13-year cycle and the other with a 17-year cycle.

- There is a species of treehopper (insect that hops and sucks plant juices) that has an unusual structure on its head, resembling a stalk with round, hairy knobs branching off of it and a long, thin spike coming off of the back end of the structure. The purpose of this structure is unknown, but it’s thought to be used to confuse predators.

- Some planthopper (similar to treehoppers, but not the same thing and not especially close taxonomically) nymphs (flightless young) secrete waxy filaments from their rear ends, which stay attached there and look like fluffy tails made of sparkly fibers.

- “Bug” (or “true bug”) is a scientific classification used to refer to insects of the Hemiptera order, which includes stinkbugs, assassin bugs, pond skaters, and every single bug I provided a fact about above! I decided to take “bug facts” literally for the fun of it, haha…

However, here is a bonus fact about a different, very large insect order!

- There are roughly 400,000 known species of beetles, making up about 40% of all known insect species and 25% of all known animal species in total. Beetles can be distinguished from other similar-looking insects by their hard wing cases, or elytra, which protect the delicate wings underneath.

(i referenced a lot of this off of wikipedia)

you know mantidflies. just. them in general .
not related to mantises but closeley related to lacewings and antlions which are on its own kind of nuts, their front pair of limbs isnt actually used for walking unlike mantises and thus lacks the foot, the eyes look ridiculous in the best way

OH YaEH another one
earwigs are possibly actually named for their wings being shaped like ears. their wings are unique with a cool folding mechanism, they fold and unfold like a fan and thus need unique venation and stuff and actually i remembered i had a tweet bookmarked with more cool earwig facts

another fact, ants are highly intelligent insects with complex social structure and hierarchies, and colonies have wars and steal from other colonies

im sure you already know this but the fact caterpillars literally dissolve themselves and rebuild their body to become moths/butterflies and retain their memories is crazy! regeneration is fascinating

Black Crazy Ants are nomadic and can have multiple queens in one colony. the result is that, whenever they migrate, a lot of ants will be carrying eggs to their new lair!
if a Fire Ant colony is too small to make much of an impact, it can hide underground and wait for a long time before re-emerging as a much stronger force.
pitcher plants might have an intoxicating effect on their prey; ants that drink the nectar and then fall in don't seem to send any distress signal, even though they probably still could for the first few seconds after falling.

shoutouts to AntsCanada on youtube! I learned all these things from watching their giant rainforest vivarium project series.

The smallest living insect in the world is a parasitoid wasp called Dicopomorpha echmepterygis. The males are around 200 micrometers long, which makes them even smaller than some kinds of amoeba. Being so tiny, their brain functions are limited by their size, and they are also blind. You can see a picture here comparing it to other tiny organisms, really cool stuff :].