They buzz, hop, and make noises in the night. It is hard to miss the presence of insects. But for most, these creatures cannot compete with things like good food, disease, and global conflict.

Surprisingly, insects play a part in all of those. Scientists are making bug-stuffed cuisine and have found that insects could save us all from super microbes. Most creepy of all, the military has claimed its own insect army for national security.

10 Bugpocalypse

In recent times, media outlets claimed that insects will be extinct within the century. Scientists do not believe such a “bugpocalypse” is possible. When a species is lost, others usually take over its ecological niche.

However, experts agree that insects are being lost at an alarming rate. Worse, the exact causes are unknown. The usual suspects are insecticides, agricultural expansion, and climate change.

Not only are the danger factors complex, but nobody is sure how many insect species there are. An estimated 80 percent have not yet been recorded by taxonomists. There are likely millions.

Although the “bugpocalypse” is not a consideration, researchers have not played down the seriousness of the species being lost. In the next few decades, up to 40 percent of insect species could disappear.^[1]

Nearly every food chain begins with an herbivorous insect, which in turn is eaten by a bigger insect, which is then consumed by birds and small mammals that make the lunch of larger predators. The loss of so many insects would be catastrophic to other species and agriculture.

9 Pseudo-Penises

In 2014, scientists discovered gender benders in Brazil. The females of the genus Neotrogla, a type of insect known as book lice, laid eggs like bug mothers tend to do. However, they also had phallus-type organs. Not just for show, either. During mating, the females used the hooked appendage to keep males from escaping. Ironically, the males had a female-looking pocket for genitalia.

Although other species have females with penis-like structures, none are used for penetration. This makes Neotrogla exceptional. Even more amazing, a related insect genus called Afrotrogla swings the same way.

Although they share a unique trait, there are differences. Afrotrogla lives in southern Africa, not Brazil, and their functional penises look nothing like those of Neotrogla.^[2]

The reason might never be known, but there is a strong clue why they broke the gender mold of nearly all other species. Both live in caves, where nutrients are scarce.

Males risk starvation should they sire babies everywhere as sperm replenishment takes nutrients. However, researchers believe that females do not appreciate this stinginess to share and developed in this manner to actively hunt for sperm packages.

8 Flies For Fido

In 2019, pet food made from flies hit the shelves in the United Kingdom. This was the first time insects featured as chow for dogs and cats in the country. The company responsible, Yora, used the larvae of black soldier flies. The insects were specially farmed by a Dutch protein nutrient company called Protix.

Made with several recipes, the fly food is reportedly tasty and nutritious. The insects account for 40 percent of the protein, which is higher than other bug-based pet food that had already appeared in the United States and Germany.

Other ingredients include potatoes, oats, and what the company calls “natural botanicals.” Yora also claimed that should the kibble really take off, it could help reduce the 20 percent of human-grade meat that pet owners feed their animals. The current manufacturing process of pet food also causes about a quarter of all meat production damage to the environment, something that insect farming does not.^[3]

7 The Smallest Genome

Antarctica’s biggest terrestrial animal is . . . a midge. There are bigger creatures, but they are technically water species. Measuring 0.6 centimeters (0.23 in), the Antarctic midge lives around two years frozen in ice before emerging as a wingless adult that dies within a week.

In the past, the insect’s ability to survive extreme conditions made it a favorite bug to study. After all, its larvae live through deadly dehydration, high ultraviolet exposure, and being frozen solid.

To find out more, a 2014 analysis dug around the insect’s genes. The biggest shock was how tiny the midge’s genome was. A human has 3.2 billion base pairs of nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA). Antarctica’s only true insect has a mere 99 million base pairs. This officially made it the insect world’s smallest genome.^[4]

Mysteriously, all its so-called junk DNA was gone. Once thought to be worthless, junk DNA is crucial in regulating genes. Without it, the midge managed to strip its genome down to a level so basic that nobody had thought it was possible.

6 Bug Bread

Certain bugs are very nutritious but a bit outdated for the modern menu. However, as the global population grows and farming land becomes an issue, the answer could be insect farms that require less space. The problem is selling the idea of eating insects to people who have no desire to buy grasshopper pie.

In 2018, Italian scientists came up with a solution—hide the insects so well that the food appears “normal.” Thus, they baked bread with powdered crickets. While it left no obvious trace of the goobers, there were some drawbacks.

Although highly nutritious, the taste was described as “cat food.” Apart from the flavor fail, the more cricket powder it contained, the less the bread rose. It also lost its chewiness.^[5]

The worst danger was bacterial spores. Scientists are working on eliminating spores that might piggyback on insect powders, like sterilizing them with gamma irradiation. But it might be a tougher challenge to make the bug bread taste or even look appetizing enough for shoppers to be fine with sending their kids to school with insect sandwiches.

5 Bee Cards

A few years ago, Dan Harris from Norwich learned something interesting about bees. Upon discovering that the insects had a fast metabolism responsible for quick fatigue, he recalled how often he and others had encountered exhausted bees on sidewalks. Seeing that such individuals are actually starving, Harris hit upon a novel idea. He was going to make snack packs for hungry bees.

Drawing on the wisdom of his beekeeper uncle and scientist father, Harris spent years developing a card. It had three slots filled with a beekeepers’ sugar formula. The first time Harris tried one of his “Bee Savior” cards on a stricken bee, it worked.

He peeled back the foil covering the slots and placed the card next to the creature. The insect homed in on the formula and fed. When designer Richard Horne’s kids successfully revived a bee with a prototype, he was so impressed that he donated his skills to streamline the card’s design.^[6]

Harris started a nonprofit organization and used crowdfunding to mass-produce the cards, which can fit into anyone’s wallet.

4 Clue To Opalization

In 2018, gem expert Brian Berger trawled the markets of Southeast Asia which are famous for selling fossil-containing amber. Berger found an unusual piece in Indonesia. Mind-blowingly, it held an unknown insect not preserved in amber but in opal, a precious stone.

Opal formation is still not fully understood. Finding a well-preserved insect inside one upended the few theories that supported opalization. Shortly put, this should not have been possible. As far as researchers know, opalization requires a cavity for silica-containing fluid to pour into.

Amber, which traps insects to look exactly like the one found in 2018, is fossilized tree sap. It could suggest that the true way that opals form is similar to amberization.

There is a chance that something unique happened instead—an insect inside amber became opalized. If true, this insect could be among the most ancient ever found as amber takes millions of years to form.^[7]

3 Antibiotic Heroes

Humanity faces a stark problem. There are superbugs that already laugh at our best antibiotics, and this costs thousands of lives every year. Antibiotic resistance recently got charged by an unusual cavalry—microorganisms that live on insects.

Traditionally, soil bacteria were used for antibiotics, but the new line hails specifically from a battlefield most people will never see. Every insect is like a planet for microbes that fight each other nonstop. The poisons they use on each other are basically antibiotics and natural ones to boot.

Tests showed that some of these substances are much stronger against antibiotic-resistant pathogens than anything derived from the soil. The good news is that the exceptional diversity of insects and, by extension, their microbes could offer a vast and long-lasting source of fresh antibiotics.^[8]

The bad news is that it takes years to develop a drug once a promising compound has been found.

2 They Have Interlocking Gears

In 2013, a British scientist was visiting a colleague in Germany when he found an insect in his host’s garden. It was a known species called Issus coleoptratus. In 1957, a feature was found on its hind legs that resembled interlocking gears inside a wristwatch. The discovery ended there.

When a new study looked at the critters from the German garden, it found that the gears were functional. This made the planthopper the first living thing using a design previously found only in the mechanical world.

It took high-speed video to see it in action. As the insect prepares to jump, it meshes the teeth of one leg’s gears with the other. Release happens smoothly, and the creature rockets forward.^[9]

Only the juveniles display the curved strips of up to 12 cogs. Since the youngsters molt several times, they can replace broken teeth. Adults no longer molt, and damaged cogs would jeopardize the insect for life. Instead, the gearless grownups use leg friction to help them jump.

1 Project Insect Allies

The Pentagon’s research wing is called DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Their ideas can get weird sometimes, but in 2018, one project made the scientific community edgy.

The Pentagon views food security as national security. That makes sense. A hungry nation tends to fall apart. However, the latest idea sounded creepy from the start. It proposed using insects to infect crops with viruses. Called “Insect Allies,” the technology aims to deliver what DARPA calls “targeted therapies” to fields during times of trouble.

For example, if drought plagued a region, insects would infect the plants with a genetically modified virus to slow down growth and prevent the loss of crops. Other threats the project aims to circumnavigate include floods, extreme weather, and sabotage.^[10]

Some scientists are not convinced that the project is wholesome. Using diseased insects is a classic bioweapon, and why use them when sprinklers do the same job? Other researchers are not concerned that something shady might be afoot. At least four colleges in the United States accepted funding from DARPA to develop the insect army.

Insects are fascinating creatures. While they’re considered creepy or unsettling by some, they’re among the most diverse and interesting animals, often armed with a wide variety of defence mechanisms, survival tactics, and highly unique appearances.

Most of us are used to house flies and wasps, perhaps the widely recognisable ladybug beetle, but few are aware of just how distinct and strange insects can be. Evolved in incredible ways to ward off predators, source nourishment, and efficiently reproduce, there are myriads of examples we can look at. We’ll be examining ten of these wild adaptations today.

10 Incredible Firsts In The Evolution Of Life On Earth

10 Defensive Odour—Stink Bugs

Starting off with a unique defensive mechanism that many of us may have already observed in some animals; releasing a horrible odour when threatened. Stink bugs are a widely disliked insect, having gained an extremely negative reputation largely attributed to the facts that they’re very common and attempting taking one outside will most likely result in one’s room smelling awful.

Not a unique mechanism, as strange as it is, skunks infamously resort to a similar defence and some other insects have such a mechanism as well. Even so, stink bugs remain a mainstay in our collective experiences, given the fact that there are thousands of species worldwide. Given these facts and that many of the most widespread species are invasive, their defence clearly works fabulously. So fabulously, in fact, that a group of scientists have been working for years on introducing a wasp species that would get rid of the invasive stink bugs supposedly without harming the native wildlife. This group felt extremely lucky when said wasp showed up in the area naturally without any introduction efforts, though the results are unknown.

9 Sexual Cannibalism—Praying Mantis

Another infamous behaviour, the female praying mantis, just like the equally infamous female black widow, will frequently eat their mate after it’s done their job in the reproduction cycle. While it certainly seems cruel and unacceptable to us—and it certainly would be as humans or arguably at any scale—it is an effective survival tactic for these insects and not one done as an act of cruelty.

In studies, roughly half of the males survived mating, though in nature it’s estimated that only between 13 and 28 percent of them actually get eaten. The female half who ate their partners in the study, however, didn’t just get a certainly extremely useful meal to sustain themselves while laying eggs, but also laid a significantly higher amount of eggs to begin with.

In addition to this, it was shown that a large portion of the nutrition gained from eating the male actually went to the offspring rather than the mother. It certainly seems cruel, and it’s certainly a fortunate thing that humans aren’t a species that rely on this behaviour. It may be horrible, but it is an efficient act of survival.

8 Defensive Vomit—Pine Sawfly Larvae

Back to defence mechanisms with one that’s certainly unique, at the very least. Simply and quite grossly put, the larvae of the pine sawfly band together in groups and vomit at their predators to fend them off. If that wasn’t strange enough, apparently some of them don’t even do it but still get the benefits! They gain protection from the group but refuse to actually contribute at all, living as freeloaders.

Males are apparently more likely to avoid contributing than females, growing faster as a result without having to actually work. Some larvae, however, simply stop vomiting because they’ve done it so much. This tactic, while effective, takes a lot out of the insect, weakening them and lowering their chance of survival.

To make things worse, pine sawfly larvae are widely considered a pest. They consume pine needles, heavily damaging the trees in the process.

7 Pit Viper Caterpillar—Hawk Moth

Caterpillars don’t seem too unusual. Most of us learn about them in school, we’re aware that some are venomous to touch, but not many of us think about these larval forms. Colourful and interesting by themselves, caterpillars deserve probably more recognition than they currently have. This is especially true for the hawk moth’s curious looking larva.

The fascinating ability that truly makes these caterpillars stand out from the rest is the fact that they mimic snakes! They can be a variety of colours from brown to green and, when threatened, they’re able to puff up, taking on the shape and overall look of a snake’s head, which many have likened to an extremely dangerous pit viper. While the caterpillar is actually harmless, the disguise is so convincing that it’s an effective survival tactic by itself, able to fool any predatory birds and even humans that may cross paths with this fearsome ‘snake’.

6 Washing Children With Poison—Ants

Everyone’s aware of the hardworking ant, eusocial, part of incredible colonies, cleaning their young using poison—apparently. Behaviour that could be considered personal hygiene is common among insects, though some ordinary ants do a lot in the name of cleanliness. It is, after all, paramount for ants to avoid a disease outbreak, a single one quite possibly wiping an entire nest out.

With this in mind, their solution seems to be the unique technique of sucking poison from their backsides out of their acidopore, and simply drooling it over their young to destroy potentially harmful fungi infecting them, thus preventing it from spreading. Apparently, some opted to simply spray the poison but most felt that licking up their own poison directly from the acidopore and releasing that was a better option. The good news in all of this is that this appears to work wonders; even the fungi that aren’t destroyed are far less likely to spread. Nature is truly amazing, even when it’s a tad unappealing.

5 Glowing Cockroach—Lucihormetica luckae

Cockroaches are a pest, yet also deeply misunderstood. Out of the 4,600 species scientists have discovered so far, only a few actually act as pests, occupying human households. The vast majority do no such thing and simply live in forests. That being said, it’s entirely understandable that people have major problems with the ones that do infest our habitats—they are simply horrible. Even then, we can feel lucky knowing that we perhaps got a better deal than we could’ve. The cockroaches we mostly encounter don’t actually do much besides being a hygiene and potential health hazard, many other species are far more exciting, or perhaps unsettling.

Lucihormetica luckae is, simply put, a cockroach that glows green in the dark, only leaving a dark spot that creepily resembles a face, perhaps a skull. While a glowing cockroach seems easier to kill, and it certainly would be for us, it also seems to be an effect of mimicry. Scientists believe that this strange species mimics the bioluminescent click beetle, a poisonous insect. Yet again, the strangeness seems to work, even if it may seem odd or redundant at first.

4 Sweet ‘Vomit’—Bees

The statement ‘honey is bee vomit’ has become a bit of a viral saying largely in the past decade or so. Whether that’s true depends on one’s definition of vomit—honey does not come from a bee’s stomach but rather a separate ‘honey stomach’. The delicious substance is, however, regurgitated nonetheless.

While we’ve grown accustomed to honey as a staple food item, the reason bees make honey to begin with has fallen by the wayside a little. The sweet, regurgitated substance is, like virtually all things in the animal kingdom, simply for survival. Honey keeps pretty much indefinitely as it’s an unsuitable environment for bacteria. Bees take advantage of this even more than we do. In the cold winter months when flowers are unavailable, bees use their stored honey as a long-lasting food source. Whether it’s ‘bee vomit’ or ‘bee spit’ or not, honeybees and humans alike have found it delicious and deeply useful for a long, long time, and will continue to do so indefinitely.

3 Scorpion Tail Genitals—Scorpion Fly

Seeing a flying insect with a scorpion tail would likely be a scary experience for anyone uninitiated with the aptly named scorpion fly. For those who are aware of this insect, however, the fear just turns into bewilderment and perhaps repulsion. What looks like a clear scorpion tail with a stinger on the end isn’t quite what it seems.

This strange appendage is, interestingly, only present on male scorpion flies. Yes, the ‘scorpion tail’ is in fact a mating display, and, as the male’s claspers, acts similarly to the respective genitalia in other species. Aside from their deeply odd biology, mating for scorpion flies seems to involve the frequent giving of gifts to the female in the form of dead insects scavenged from the ground or spiders’ webs, or, alternatively, simply a decent amount of saliva.

2 Hummingbird Insect—Hummingbird Moth

You may assume hummingbird moths simply mimic hummingbirds. Sure, that would be quite interesting, perhaps visually pleasing, but not exceedingly special. Thankfully, these insects go many steps further. They, incredibly, don’t just have the ability to hover like hummingbirds and even share some visual features with these unrelated birds, they feed and live much the same way as well.

A brilliant and fascinating example of convergent evolution, these unfortunately short-lived moths are relatively rare, and do unfortunately die in the span of months or even weeks. This isn’t a product of this lifestyle, however, just an unfortunate side effect of being a moth. If these animals weren’t wonderful enough already, though, the fact that they’re decently efficient pollinators also adds to their incredible charm. Several species can be found in North America and many others in the Old World, so, if one’s able to see one, it’ll be an experience definitely worth remembering.

1 Exploding—Bombardier Beetle

Finishing off the list not with hummingbird moths’ wonderful charms but something significantly more extreme, bombardier beetles are capable of the impressive survival feat of.. exploding. While they’re small and only live weeks, hopefully not due to this daring technique, they’re truly incredible insects. Armed with the ability to release a burning-hot, foul smelling liquid to kill other insects and drive off small and large predators alike, the bombardier beetle isn’t an animal worth messing with.

This amazing mechanism can send them flying, save their life when swallowed by forcing a predator to spit the insect out, and more. The liquid is powerful enough to incapacitate many animals and cause a nasty burn even on human skin, releasing from the beetle’s body at a boiling 100°C. Bombardier beetles have famously—or infamously—been used as an argument against evolution, but scientists maintain that the beetles evolved incrementally, which is certainly where the evidence points, a fact that only makes these small creatures even more impressive.

10 People Killed By Animals You Wouldn’t Expect

About The Author: Just a curious person with a passion for all things science, history, mysteries, the paranormal, animals, and strange cultural phenomena!