Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend.
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@inj4n we often call every small arthropod a “bug”, but actually that’s not true. Because taxonomically there is an order of insects that is commonly called true bugs, the order Hemiptera. Some groups that belong to Hemiptera are cicadas or shield bugs (Wanzen in German) for example.
To list the differences between “bugs” would be too much for this post, but when we stick with beetles and flies for example, we can say that beetles have two pairs of wings, of which one is hardened (elytra). Flies on the other hand have one pair of wings and a pair of reduced wings (halteres). This also distinguishes a fly from a bee, which has two pairs of wings.
(Of course, there are many more differences, but as I said, this would be too much to put in a post like this :D)@mossesandbees @inj4n six legs and four wings. Huh. They actually have ten limbs, like lobsters.
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@inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans Grace Hopper?! That’s hilarious!
@AdamStuartSmith @inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans I believe it was one of her students, but yeah, finding a grasshopper in your mainframe would be a hell of a bug
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@ShaulaEvans Incredibly, there is a single group of insects which have a winged instar before adulthood. And strangely enough, it’s the mayflies. They molt into a winged form, which lives for a few minutes to a couple of days, which _then_ molts into the sexually mature adult form.
@pikhq @ShaulaEvans so the metaphor of mayflies being ephemeral is just about adolescence?
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@benroyce Different galls have different concentrations of tannin. @Pepijn used oak marble galls in the photos (named for obvious reasons) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andricus_kollari. Historically though in Europe the best ink was made from imported Aleppo galls from Syria - apparently Jane Austin was very particular about her ink and this was what she used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynips_quercusfolii I can't find the reference in the book right now, but a common name for Aleppo galls was apparently mad apple of Sodom!
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@pikhq @ShaulaEvans so the metaphor of mayflies being ephemeral is just about adolescence?
@WizardOfDocs @ShaulaEvans No, that's the thing that makes it so weird. Their winged adult forms are all also super short-lived.
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Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans I checked my FediFeed this morning and found a flood of cool posts about insects, instead of the usual doom and news about fascism. I had no idea why all the bug people were out until I scrolled for enough to find your post asking for cool insect facts.
I love this place.
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@ShaulaEvans And another one: an impressive example of moth long-distance navigation capability, and a lovely piece of research to track and analyze their flight strategy.
The navigation strategies of migrating death’s-head hawkmoths rival those of birds.
Death's-head hawk moths are able to fly perfectly, even with crosswinds. Now we finally know how
The creepy moth found in the throats of murder victims in The Silence of the Lambs is helping unlock the mysteries of long-haul migration.
(www.abc.net.au)
@dazzr @ShaulaEvans
They also squeak -
Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans my favourite fact is that it's theorised that moths are fluffy to help throw off sonar by bats, and a reliableish way to tell if a moth is male or female is to check its antennae; extra thick antenna mean male!
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Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans I love the idea of animals evolving wheels, but unfortunately that has not happened yet as far as I know. However there is a bug, "Planthopper", that technically with a little bit of stretching the concept has _gears_.
It doesn't actually convey continuous rotation with them, but it interlocks its legs to get stable movement when launching as I understand it.
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Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans This is the coolest bug I've seen recently (article by @grrlscientist
https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2025/10/04/half-male-half-female-spider-discovered-in-thailand-is-new-to-science/ -
@dazzr @ShaulaEvans
They also squeak@Anke @ShaulaEvans Yup.
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Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans As part of my degree, I had to take an entomology course. We were required to use a dichotomous key to identify an insect. My assigned insect was a cockroach. I failed the assignment bc the key said it was a cricket even though I knew it was a cockroach. I made an A minus in that class.
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Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans have you asked @futurebird ?
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@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"Sorry I've forgotten the author
@annehargreaves
I read this first in a Robert A. Heinlein novel, but I'm not sure whether he authored it.
@benroyce @ShaulaEvans -
@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"Sorry I've forgotten the author
@annehargreaves @benroyce @ShaulaEvans
Then there's Ogden Nash's short poem about fleas:
Adam had 'em
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@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"Sorry I've forgotten the author
Close to my recollection...
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em.
Lesser fleas have smaller fleas
And so ad infinitum" -
@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"Sorry I've forgotten the author
@annehargreaves @benroyce @ShaulaEvans
It's a punched up part of "Vermin", by Jonathan Swift. Can't say who is responsible for the rephrasing. https://libquotes.com/jonathan-swift/quote/lby8o4e
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Hey, Fedi. Help me help a friend. (Not financial!)
I have a friend who is all about cool bug facts. They're going through an intense patch in their life, so I would like to send them some bug facts to cheer them up. But this is really their thing, so basic search engine results aren't going to new to them.
If there's a cool bug fact that you genuinely love, could you tell me? I'll save them to share with my friend over time. 1/n
@ShaulaEvans (Haven't read through all the replies, so maybe it has been said before.. )
Mechanical gears used to be thought of as a man made invention, but there is a species of plant hoppers that uses them as part of their jumping technique!
Prof. Malcolm Burrows from Cambridge University explains it in this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8fyUOxD2EA
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@benroyce @ShaulaEvans
"Big fleas have lesser fleas
Upon their backs to bite'em
Lesser fleas have lesser fleas
And so ad infinitem"Sorry I've forgotten the author
@annehargreaves @benroyce @ShaulaEvans
Augustus De Morgan
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@AdamStuartSmith @inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans I believe it was one of her students, but yeah, finding a grasshopper in your mainframe would be a hell of a bug
@WizardOfDocs @inj4n @lavievagabonde @ShaulaEvans It was a moth. But it would have been perfection if Grace Hopper had found a grass hopper.
