INSECT MACRO
To all you who are considering an insect macro, I say, "Bring 'em on!"
Here are a few fascinating macro insights into the world of insects.
1. INSECT NUMBERS:
-Insects outnumber humans on earth by 250,000 to 1.
-There have been more than a million different kinds of insects discovered in the world. Some insect scientists (Entomologists) estimate there are up to 10 million different kinds of insects worldwide.
-Some scientists think that 10% of the animal biomass of the world is ants, and another 10% is composed of termites.
-One in every four animal species on this planet is a beetle.
-Insect species are divided up into about 32 orders, depending on whose taxonomic system you use, of which, the largest is the Beetles, or Coleoptera, with 125 different families and around 500,000 species they are an incredibly diverse group of animals.
2. INSECT ANATOMY:
-The body of an insect has three main parts; the head, thorax and abdomen. All insects have six legs.
-The skeleton of an insect is on the outside of its body. It's called an 'exoskeleton'.
-The eyes of insects are made up of lots of tiny lenses called 'facets'. This sort of eye is called a 'compound eye'. Some insects have 100 facets on each eye. Dragonflies can have up to 28,000.
-Insect blood is normally green, although it can vary in different species. The blood does not need to carry oxygen to its cells, and so it does not contain hemoglobin, which is what makes human blood red in color.
-Insects breathe through tiny holes in their abdomen called 'spiracles'.
-The heart of an insect is like a flexible tube sealed at one end, running along the back.
3. INSECT MATING:
-Copulation in the honey bee usually occurs above ground in flight. At the end of copulation, the drone falls to the ground and dies either in minutes or hours.
-During mating, the smaller Praying Mantis male often jumps on the back of the larger female. Miscalculating the jump may mean the male becomes a meal. If the jump was successful, the pair mate and during copulation the female may turn and devour the males head. The body of the male is capable of completing the mating. When mating is complete the female will finish eating the male.
WEB RESOURCES
//www.uksafari.co.uk/creepycrawlies
//www.earthlife.net/insects
//www.growquest.com/prayingmantis
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