Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you.

retrosponge@kind.social

@ShaulaEvans I DEARLY wish I could help with this, but if I do know any cool obscure bug facts, they have unfortunately immediately left my head upon reading this.

So I have boosted this. I hope you wind up with many facts. I hope your friend is doing better soon.

stevegis_ssg@mas.to

@ShaulaEvans

Oh man I am an Insect Professional.

I don't know their level, though. Do they know that insects don't have lungs? They don't use their "blood" for gas exchange (which is why it's not technically referred to as blood but we say "hemolymph"), but instead the tracheal system completely penetrates the body, bringing oxygen directly to all the tissues with a system of microscopic air-filled tubes. The main branches are a couple cells around, the finer branches just one cell around …

slothrop@chaos.social

@ShaulaEvans I have no cool bug facts myself, but I’m boosting.

Best wishes to your friend!

stevegis_ssg@mas.to

@ShaulaEvans

… and then the very tips are formed from little membrane sacs inside the cells (the technical term is "vesicles") that line up and fuse together to make incredibly fine tubes that fill with air. Oxygen-starved tissues send out a signal that nearby tracheal cells respond to by growing more of these tube-tips in their direction.

stevegis_ssg@mas.to

@ShaulaEvans

More? I got lots of these.

geekyteakitty@kind.social

@ShaulaEvans requesting the help of ant aficionado @futurebird

garthderby@mstdn.party

@ShaulaEvans
The Palo Verde beetle aka Dragon Lady emerges from underground just before the monsoon rains begin. An awesome and frightening sight, it is rather harmless despite its size. Once it emerges, it eats nothing and drinks nothing, but only searches for love. Having mated, it lays eggs beneath trees and bushes and while the grubs feed on the roots, the beetles become a tasty treat for scavengers.

growfediverse@dillyofapickle.com

@ShaulaEvans how about these:

- domestic honeybees have specialized roles at the hive entrance, easiest to see with a slow motion camera. The entrance operates a bit like an airport. There's a bee who frisks incoming bees to confirm that they belong, a bee who sniffs incoming bees like one of those drug dogs to verify pheramone signature, an air traffic control bee who watches inbound and outbound bees, a security bee who leaps into action upon signal from the other bees to kick out intruders and imposters.

- bees have also been shown in studies to possibly be able to: do math, recognize faces, experience ptsd, and play

- the spongy moth was introduced to the US by a guy who was hoping to corner a new silk market, but he lost control of the caterpillars and they became an extremely invasive species there, oops

- not bugs obviously but they might still find this cool: spiders have been found to communicate with each other via drumming

teadrinker@aus.social

@ShaulaEvans I don't have any cool facts but will a picture of some baby praying mantises do?

jubalbarca@scholar.social

@ShaulaEvans by bug facts are you being taxonomically strict or is any invertebrate fact ok?

ethanjmooney@theforkiverse.com

@ShaulaEvans planthoppers at a certain stage in their life have gears, like legit mechanical gears, for trochanters (hip joints).

exlibrarykris@cloudisland.nz

@ShaulaEvans oh wait! I do have a fav fact. Cicadas are associated with the atua Rehua. His particular sphere of interest is kindness, enjoyment, entertainment. He is the star Antares, and he has two wives who are the stars Alniyat and Tau Scorpii. In the sky they are at the points of a v- shape. Antares rises in the morning during summer. Cicadas appear in summer. One of the cicadas has three dots on its head in the shape of Rehua and his wives.

Okay, so perhaps more indigenous knowledge than a bug fact.

macberg@mastodon.online

@ShaulaEvans This might be a well known fact among bug people, given the popularity of jumping spiders, but they seem to get REM sleep, which would mean that they dream. Little cute jumping spider dreams.

hadon@mastodon.social

@ShaulaEvans

Follow @markmccaughrean , besides his outstanding career (all over the universe, literally ), I've learn a lot about many different bugs through him.
He tells us so many details, sharing at the same time his awesome bugs photos.

stevenlawsonphotography@mastoart.social

@ShaulaEvans The Scorpion fly has a tail that looks exactly like the stinger of a scorpion but there is no sting in this tail - only two claspers for use when mating.

foo__@mastodon.social

@ShaulaEvans Maybe ZeFrank on youtube (fun facts about ...)

thijs_goverde@mastodon.nl

@ShaulaEvans Follow @futurebird (if you don´t already do that)
(do ants count as bugs?)

cheeseness@mastodon.social

@ShaulaEvans I have a bunch of "true bee facts" in my game Hive Time's in-game Beepedia that cite real-world research.

I think my favourite ones are stuff like Loukola, et al observing possible cooperative behaviour in Bumblebees https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.0055

Or Howard, et al's research looking at numeracy in honeybees
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aav0961

oblomov@sociale.network

@ShaulaEvans this is a task for @futurebird

kats@chaosfem.tw

@growfediverse @ShaulaEvans

spiders have been found to communicate with each other via drumming

Huntsman spiders (the famously large ones in Australia) do this by holding on with their front two pairs of legs and waving their body to flail the rear two pairs against the ground - or whatever surface they're on. IIUC, this is done as a mating call.

This produces a disconcerting sensation when they're doing that on the inside surface of the plastic bowl you're carrying them outside in.

Abspeckgeflüster – Forum für Menschen mit Gewicht(ung)

Hey, Fedi. I have a favour to ask you.