Wings N Things
Two groups of parasitic insects that are wingless
What are lice and fleas?
This arthropod's name translates to "one hundred feet".
What is a centipede?
Insect that was worshipped in Ancient Egypt, symbolizing the sun
What is a sacred scarab?
This order of insect makes up roughly 25% of all described species.
What is Coleoptera? OR What are beetles?
Insects are often fossilized in this hard substance originating from trees.
What is amber?
The wing covering of orthopterans (crickets, grasshoppers, etc.)
What is a tegmina?
This urban myth states that people swallow eight of these in their sleep per year.
What are spiders?
The state insect of Texas
What is the monarch butterfly?
Aphids excrete this substance from the sap they drink, which is then harvested by ants.
What is honeydew?
Insect that got trapped in a computer, becoming the first computer "bug"
What is a moth?
Species that travels across continents, making it the insect with the largest travel distance ever recorded
What is a globe skimmer/wandering glider?
Despite the name, this large South American arachnid rarely feeds on birds. It is also described as tasting like shrimp.
What is the goliath bird-eater?
This insect was famously featured on the promotional posters for the 1991 horror movie The Silence of the Lambs. (It also squeaks when threatened!)
What is the death's-head hawkmoth?
The only insect to live on the open ocean.
What is Halobates? OR What are sea skaters/ocean striders?
Even though this common household pest is named after America, it actually originated from Africa.
What is the American cockroach?
The time period that insects most likely evolved wings
What is the Carboniferous Period? (300-350 mya)
Springtails lack this excretory organ that is found in between the midgut and the hindgut in insects.
What are the Malpighian tubes?
The most famous monument in Enterprise, Alabama
What is the Boll Weevil Monument?
Butterflies are famous for this type of mimicry, where nontoxic species display similar colorations to toxic species.
What is Batesian mimicry?
This species of weevil native to New Zealand is well-known for its especially elongated rostrum (snout), with males having noticeably longer rostrums than females.
What is the New Zealand giraffe weevil? OR What is the pepeke nguturoa?
The secondmost front vein on an insect's wings, right behind the leading vein.
What is the subcostal vein?
The largest known species of spider to have ever existed.
What is Mongolarachne jurassica? OR What is Mongolarachne?
British troops saw a swarm of this insect flying across the English Channel on D-Day during World War II, being interpreted as a good omen.
What is a hummingbird hawkmoth?
This insect belongs to the smallest family in the class Insecta.
What is Mymaridae? OR What are fairyflies?
This chemical is used in beekeeping to defend colonies against wax moths, a serious apicultural pest.
What is PBD (Paradichlorobenzene)?