Before You Read: Those Amazing Bugs

Before You Read:
Those Amazing Bugs

If big numbers and variety are the true measures of success, then insects and their relatives are the most successful creatures in the world. Arthropoda, the group to which ants, bees, butterflies, crabs, shrimp, spiders, and ticks belong, includes more than one million different species all by itself. That's three times more species than all other types of animals combined!

What do you know about these wildly successful creatures? With your friends, pick one type of arthropod from those mentioned above or pick another with which you are familiar. Make a list of all the things you know about it. Then click here to read about some amazing bugs!

Did You Know?

In one experiment, a flea was able to jump a distance of 13 inches. That's the same as a human jumping about 700 feet!
The male emperor moth has the most powerful sense of smell in the world. Its antennae can detect a female moth more than 6.5 miles away.
In relation to their size, beetles are the strongest animals in the world. A rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its body weight on its back. That's the same as a 150-pound human carrying about 17 pickup trucks!

Now read about two bugs that look similar but are in fact very different. Being able to recognize how these bugs are alike and how they are different can keep you from suffering a painful bite. Go to Which Is the Bad Bug?