Really Weird Insects

The giant walking stick (North Americas largest insect) is one of more than 2,500 closely related species (some looks like sticks, some look like leaves) and it is the longest of all the walking sticks. The adult female, with outstretched forelegs, spans over 15 inches, the male is much shorter and thinnerThe walking stick's legs can break off easily in a predator's mouth, allowing the insect to escape and young walking sticks
are able to regenerate legs that they have lost.

Giant walking sticks are found on grape vines, grasses, oaks in New Mexico, Indiana, north to Iowa, Indiana, east to Louisiana, and Kentucky.

Many people enjoy having these giant arthropos as pets!

photo source: http://www.extremescience.com/images/walking-stick.jpg

Bullet ants have a retractable syringe-like lance on their abdominal tip from which they inject a potent nerve toxin. This toxin is said to be as potent and painful as being shot by a bullet, hence the name. Acording to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, the sting is described as the most painful of all insect stings, causing waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain, tremblings, nausea, perspiration, and sometimes paralysis that continues unabated for up to 24 hours.

The bullet ant nests in underground colonies containing many tunnels and chambers and can be found in Atlantic coastal lowland rainforests from Nicaragua southward to the Amazon basin. Workers are 18-25 mm (up to 1 inch) in size. Queens are only slightly larger than workers (modified for egg production), while mature colonies (those producing reproductive forms or winged males and virgin queens) are small and at most contain a few thousand ants. Workers show a size-based division of labor, with smaller ants remaining in the nest as nursemaids and larger workers serving as nest guards and foragers.

Despite the fact that multiple stings from the bullet ant can lead to death, some indigenous people use bullet ant stings as part of their initiation rites to manhood The medicine man of teh tribe first renders the ants unconscious by submerging them in a natural chloroform and then hundreds of them are woven into a glove made out of leaves (which resembles a large oven mitt), stinger facing inward. A boy then slips the glove onto his hand and has to keep it there for a full ten minutes without showing any signs of pain. When finished, the boy's hand swells up and becomes temporarily paralyzed. He may shake uncontrollably for days after the rite has passed. To fully complete the initiation, boys must go through the ordeal a total of 20 times over the course of several months or even years!

photo source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3175/2720413145_c4393d4cea.jpg

The twisted-wing parasite (Strepsiptera) is an order of insects who display a gruesome lifestyle. The larval stage parasite will climb a flower and wait for an insect pollinator (bee or wasp) to come along. They climb aboard the bee, burrow into its body, and change into a second-stage larva. They feed off the blood and organs of the host. An adult male parasite will emerge from the host and search for a mate -a process that takes such little time that he never develops a mouth. The adult female remains in the host's body for the rest of her life, never growing legs or wings. She mates by pushing only her reproductive organs outside of the bee's body! Her offspring will emerge and look for new hosts.

 

photo source: http://pharyngula.org/images/strepsipteran_male.jpg

The cave weta is a nocturnal, omnivorous insect found throughtout caves and other dark places throughout New Zealand.



Although they look terrifying, It turns out that they are actually harmless, deaf and probably more scared of you than you are of them.

The cave weta is one of 70 different species of weta found in new Zealand, 16 of which are threatened or endangered. This large insect has the physical appearance between a cockroach and a cricket with large legs. They are grouped in the family with cave crickets, camel crickets and sand treaders.

The cave weta is unique among weta species in that it can jump great distances and have extremely long legs. Its body is dwarfed by its incredibly long antennae. All told, the length of body plus legs and antennae can be 350 mm. Like crickets, the weta has ears on its knee caps. The female weta will lay between 200 and 300 eggs in one sitting. These eggs hatch 3-5 months later. The Cave Weta can live up to seven years.

photo source: http://www.ryanphotographic.com/images/JPEGS/Gymnoplectron%20edwardsi%20Cave%20weta.jpg

None of the world's glow-worms are true worms. In New Zealand and Australia, glow-worms are the larvae (maggots) of a special kind of fly known as a fungus gnat. They look like mosquitoes, and most feed on mushrooms and other fungi. However, a small group of fungus gnats are carnivores, and the worm-like larvae of these species use their glowing lights to attract small flying insects into a snare of sticky threads. One species, Arachnocampa luminosa, shown here is found throughout New Zealand.

The glow-worm's tail-light shines from an organ which is the equivalent of a human kidney. All insects have this organ but the glow-worm has a unique ability to produce a blue-green light from it. The chemical reaction that produces the light consumes a lot of oxygen. An airbag surrounds the light organ, providing it with oxygen and acting as a silvery reflector to concentrate the light.

Hundreds of these glowing sticky threaded larvae hang side by side on the roofs of caves throughout New Zealand. Their glowing lights resemble a stary nights sky and tourists from around the world take cave tours in order to see them.

photo source: http://clickmejs.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/glow_worms.jpg

The jungle nymph, native to Australia, is a fascinating sight to behold. It's long body measures well over 6 inches and it has a nasty looking array of thorny spikes on its body, which is bright neon green in color. The spines can be a half inch long, and stand straight upright. On the head are twelve spines in rows of three, while two rows are on the very top of the head. The long antennae, (ove 3 inches in length) also has row of spines on it.

Jungle Nymphs have a wide and flat body that looks like a leaf if seen from a distance. They are bordered in brown or tan, at the edge of each body segment. The female is much larger than the male and is a more lime green colour. The male is winged and can fly, however the female has stubby, rounded wings and is unable to take flight. Their legs are very broad and sturdy and are also covered in spines.

The Jungle Nymph has an interseting life cycle. They lay eggs on trees which are about ¼ inch in size. The eggs may take up to a year, sometimes even as long as 15 months to go into the nymph stage. During this time, it will shed its skeleton 5 or 6 times and each time it does its called an instar stage. Then, once it is an adult, it will no longer gorw any more and will no longer shed its skeleton.

Males take about twelve months to become adults while female nymph sticks will wait until they are about 16 or 18 months old before they are ready to mate.

The females are very aggressive. When threatened, they will hiss and attempt to thrash the aggressor with her legs. The male is the only insect which will play possum, or that is, fall down and pretend to be dead to evade the predator. They will also sometimes pinch to defend themselves.

Jungle nymphs are herbivorous and enjoy branches, leaves and flowers of all sorts.

photo source:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malaysian.giant.jungle.nymph.arp.jpg