digg

Join DiggAbout

Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
Check out the most popular Elections 2008 content on Digg.

Pictures: The Weirdest Insects in the World

neatorama.com — There are over a million described species of insects, and even more that haven ’t been studied. A little research indicates they are all strange in different ways. It was not easy to pick a dozen for this list, but these are all pretty weird.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • weirdralph, on 10/10/2007, -1/+31Man, the stuff you can learn these days. Kinda makes you wonder, though: who was the first person to figure out that you could use an ant head to suture a wound?
    • antdude, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9Mel Gibson's Apocalypto movie had a scene of this.
    • Zarokima, on 10/10/2007, -3/+29And who was the first person to eat an egg and what the bloody ***** were they thinking? "Hey, an oval-shaped thing just dropped out of that chicken's butt. I think I'll eat it."
      Or milk: "I'm gonna go squeeze those dangly things and drink what comes out."
      • Mononuclear, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9As for eggs good question. For milk it's pretty easy. Every mammal baby you see seems to be drinking from those dangley things. Humans feed their own young with them. It doesn't take a genius to make the connection between human breast milk and the milk from other animals.
        • quaxon, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7yea, but humans are the only ones to drink the milk of a different species.
        • quaxon, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1oops double post
        • Supurcell, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Humans are the only species to do a lot of things. Drinking the milk of other animals has more to do with domestication than anything else. Wild animals need that milk for their young. They wouldn't let another animal sneak a drink from their breast.

          Besides, there are cases of dogs nursing litters of kittens.
    • metateck, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Everybody knows it was MacGyver
  • silverchrysalis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+27bees are full of awesomeness
  • Drexus, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10I don't care what you think of me... but I needed a large roll of newspaper to watch those images!
  • sfpfc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+33I developed a bunch of new phobias
    • gr0ss, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Same here :(. Have you ever seen the video of the Centipede eating the mouse? That makes me never want to step foot in south america.
    • yfguitarist, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I'm not even going to click on the images. Insects freak me out something special :`(
    • nebel, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I can watch brain surgery on the Discovery Channel while eating spaghetti and meatballs, but the second I see millions of ants I will be damned if I will watch that.
  • Cloned, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13Dugg for mentioning bees producing royal jelly, that was a great episode of Futurama.
    • longbow486, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I'm not allowed to sing, Court Order.
  • presidentjapan, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2Assassin bugs? Dude, I'm so lovin' this list.
  • inf0, on 10/10/2007, -7/+0neat as they are, they all die on the web...

    dead link, yo


  • SiNN4R, on 10/10/2007, -5/+4Goliath beatle would make an awesome pet. I could feed it rats.
    • Woah_G!, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6Didn't you RTFA?
      "Goliath beatles subsist on tree sap and fruit. "
      • SiNN4R, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3Yes I read the article it doesn't mean I can't train it to eat small rodents.
      • rc19189, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0i could ask the same of you, as the article clearly also states these beetles can be kept as pets, and fed dog food.
    • cyroxos, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2it only eats plants...
  • EvanVolm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2The African bat bug is my new hero.
  • vinecrawler, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4about the prettiest...

    Lets just say I agree to disagree
  • sethosayher, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9I've always loved looking at bugs because they're just so alien looking...but don't ask me to touch one, lest I scream like a girl and run out of the room.
  • zyklon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I never really thought all that much about bees. In the movie Wargames, Stephen Falken says "Nature always starts over. It will start over again with another species, with the bees probably". So very true. Bees individually might not seem too coordinated or smart, but I'll be damned if their hive mind doesn't impress the hell out of me.
    • johnnysaucepn, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Hive mind? Wait, what? Are you trying to claim that bees are telepathically connected?
  • gubin09, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Thanks... now I won't be able to sleep tonight
  • kivimaki, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7The info is awesome, but sometimes those pictures just make my skin crawl.
  • Humptydank, on 10/10/2007, -0/+21And they didn't even include the Bombardier beetle, which mixes chemicals in its bum to create a mini-explosion of boiling-hot toxic chemicals. This happens with real force, you can hear a loud popping sound and it can even hurt you if you're close to one. Cool video here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpwabaBPg0
    • Humptydank, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17Sorry to reply to my own post, but I posted before watching the whole video through. Right at the end they take a big "intelligent design" dump on the whole subject. Not my intent to spread that word, my apologies.
    • dyreschlock, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15it's a trap! that awesome bug video turned into sunday school!
    • FadieZ, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Lol..the Koran? I wasn't expecting that
    • rayinsight, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I started smelling something fishy the moment it was said, "the entire mechanism has to work perfectly at a single go with all its parts functioning perfectly" .... the cherry on the cake was ofcourse the final lines...
  • casual7y, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5i think i need a shower...
    • yfguitarist, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Just try not to imagine creepy-crawlies working their way up your leg to make friends with your bum-hole when you close your eyes...
  • cactus476, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3I hate it when people say that the mosquito is the deadliest insect. The mosquito itself is pretty harmless, it's just the fact that you may come in contact with tainted blood when being bitten.
    • Wacer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They are still bad even if you take out their disease spreading. They leave welts on the body and they itch. Some people are allergic to them therefore making bites turn into sores.
  • thenewmadmax, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1i do believe im getting the digg effect..
  • Onicen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1In other predatory bugs, see a giant water bug: http://www.osel.cz/_popisky/s_1165921344.jpg http://static-p.arttoday.com/thw/thw14/PH/Corel.71 ...

    Also see antlion larvae: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CWkfAyfBDHE (crappy video, I know, sorry).
  • semisweetchild, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Mirror please?
  • pendrachken, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Wow, forget the Goliath beatle for a pet, I think it would be awesome to have one of those flower mantis things for a pet.
  • datagod, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2I found a pretty weird bug on my woodpile, watching me chop wood:http://cookingwithsql.com/index.php?option=com_con ...

    Turns out it was a cicada with very cool "pupils"...I got the strangest feeling that it was some sort of puppy...
  • LemurHorde, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Take a big red beetle, and stretch out its neck until it looks like a black bendy straw kinked in the middle and you get... the really weird giraffe weevil
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5 ...
    • LemurHorde, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2what is with digg and long links? I'll try this one
      http://www.loe.org/thisweek/050211weevil.jpg
      • LemurHorde, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Sorry for the post chain, but I don't know where else to ask. I can understand why digg would truncate links in order to visually save space, but why would the developers make it so they lose their functionality? Is this some mistake that will eventually be fixed or was it done for a reason?
  • dageekster29, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Too bad they did not discuss the walking sticks self defense spray or how on the two lined male will stay on the female till death, Dung Beatles are cool too I had them back in the 90's in Saudi Arabia.
  • datagod, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1(sorry for the double post...I my first URL got truncated)

    http://cookingwithsql.com/index.php?option=com_con ...

    I found a pretty weird bug on my woodpile, watching me chop wood. Turns out it was a cicada with very cool "pupils"...I got the strangest feeling that it was some sort of puppy...
  • zachshmack, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19"The Hercules beetle can support 850 times its own weight on its shell!"
    That would've been a fun thing to scientifically measure. "848...849...850...8--SPLAT. 850!"
  • thienz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1http://www.duggmirror.com
  • barl0w, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Wow - most are gross, deadly or plain weird, except the last. I have a few that I keep in my hive here:
    Pure 100% natural honey: http://flickr.com/photos/barl0w/1238186587
  • Slyer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I'm just ***** thankful I was born a mammal.
  • sathias, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"Males lead a solitary life until sexual maturity, when they approach the colony for mating. When a male is detected, the workers of the colony tear off his wings and take him to be mated with their queen."

    Death by snoo-snoo!!
  • scecilio, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12"The Hercules beetle is said to be the strongest creature on earth for its size, able to carry 850 times its own body weight ... the larva growing up to 4.5 inches (110 mm) in length and weighing up to 120 grams." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_beetle)

    According to google, "1 gram = 0.00220462262 pounds"

    120 grams x 850 = 102000 gram carry weight capacity
    102000 grams x 0.00220462262 = 224.8715072 lbs

    Theoretically I should be able to ride that beetle.
    • benroy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1i was thinking about doing all that research myself. obviously you just have more motivation than i. must be the pot.
    • mastastealth, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Maybe you can step on it without killing it?
  • shithappens87, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0i hope that Kevin and Alex read this on Diggnation cuas only they can make this truly interesting.
  • benroy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1yeah...but are the good eats?
  • krets, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That made me extremely glad that I'm not an African bat bug.
    "Instead of copulating via the female’s sex organs, he will stab her abdomen to release sperm directly into her bloodstream... ...But since male bat bugs are not particular when it comes to mating, some male bat bugs have also developed paragenitals to defend themselves against sexual attack!"
  • blacknred0, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1damn, those are really weird animals
  • zendegany, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Great article, just one thing. Bears don’t eat honey, they eat bee larvae.
  • shenfrancisco, on 10/18/2007, -0/+0Insects are just near our life...[PIC]
    http://www.linkinn.com/_Quiet_they_are_here_wallpa ...
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.