5 interesting facts about animals from around the world. Second part

1. The number of insects in the world – it is believed that there are between 2 and 4 million insects in the world, although this final number is constantly changing. Scientists have so far managed to group about a million insects. However, it is difficult for scientists to define each individual species. There is no other species on Earth (from the entire animal kingdom) that comes close to insects in terms of number of species. The only way to get an approximate number of insects is to count them on a certain area of fertile, soft and moist land. So it can be said that there are between 500 and 2000 insects on one km². Based on this estimate, it is considered that there are about 4 million insects in the world. Many existing species are visible to the human eye using a microscope. There are 2 common features (which apply to most insects) that the body consists of 3 parts and that most of them have 6 legs.
2. Locust infestation is also described in the Bible – people considered such infestations to be “God’s punishment” like floods, fires and the like. A large infestation of locusts is known from 1874 to 1876 (when the western parts of the United States of America suffered enormous damage). Many scientists have investigated locust infestations that would come in swarms and then disappear and reappear. Certain species (which cause havoc) experience 2 phases or 2 periods in one season. These stages are individual and social, that is, common life. This diversity manifests itself mostly in color, shape, structure and behavior. Grasshoppers are extremely lazy if they are in the solitary (single life) phase, which is the normal lifestyle of a grasshopper. The color corresponds to the environment in which they live. Locusts are yellow and black with a highly developed drive if they are in the group life phase. Then they are restless and lively and even get an increased body temperature. There are other extreme opposite differences. If locusts in the phase of solitary life are nevertheless forced to join together (for reasons unknown to humans), then individuals prone to a social lifestyle are born. Such grasshoppers are restless and irritable and start wandering around early. Soon other locusts join them and then infestations are created ready to “conquer” entire regions and wreak havoc on many crops.
3. Spiders live all over the world – in forests, meadows, pastures, mountains (even on Mount Everest), in deserts, swamps, in basements. All but two species of spiders have venom glands (although this does not mean that all venom glands can harm humans). Spiders have control over poisonous glands that they use on exceptional occasions. A spider that spins a web (to catch a victim in it) is not used with an orthrow. But a spider that searches for food by hunting prey (or hides in flowers and stalks a victim) defeats insects with its teeth and kills its victims with poison. All spiders use venom for defensive purposes. Very few species of spiders are dangerous for humans (the most famous is the “black widow”). It has a body of 1.5 cm, with a shiny black color on the upper part, while the belly supports the color of the plant on which it rests and hides in anticipation of prey. A spider bite can cause more pain. Some dangerous species live in Australia. The most famous is the huge hairy spider “deadly tarantula”, and even the “banana spider” has not yet killed a single human. At the site of the bite, they cause severe pain. Most spiders are no more dangerous than wasps or hornets. Many do not bite even if held by a human except the black widow. The spider creates a web by creating silk threads in one of its own stomach glands (this gland is at the top of the spider’s stomach and the silk thread comes out by passing through many small openings). It finally comes out as a liquid that turns into thread as soon as it comes into contact with air. There are several types of silky threads depending on the type of spider, but there are also several types of webs, even nets woven under water.
4. The scorpion is present only in the American federal state of Arizona (looking at the entire state) – The Arizona scorpion is a relative of a species that lives exclusively in Mexico. This species can kill a person within an hour. Scorpios are relatives of spiders, they have 4 legs for movement and one pair of pincers for catching prey. They have a long, thin and spiny tail that ends in a very pointed stinger (connected to a gland that secretes venom). The scorpion keeps the tail bent in an arc above the body during movement. The tail bends over the head if it grabs the prey and stabs the victim’s body with its stinger. The poison can kill or paralyze insects, spiders and other animals that the scorpion feeds on. Scorpions attack mostly at night – During the day they are hidden in dark places, under stones, in roots or in dark parts of buildings. Older scorpions live and move independently. Scorpions live in warmer regions. Cubs are born alive and hang on their mother’s back. Cubs leave their mother after a few days and live independently. There are hundreds of species of scorpions whose size is between 1.5 cm and 18 cm. The largest specimens are in tropical regions.
5. Pharaoh ants used to live only in Egypt – ants live in wonderful and extraordinary communities (which can have hundreds of thousands of members but also only 12 members). Ants build dwellings under the ground, in the forest, on a high hill, but also in the interior of a small acorn. The common field ant with a small and black body lives everywhere in the world. He builds hiding places under the hills, even though most of the members live below the ground. In each family- type community there is one or more queens. Their only duty is to lay eggs and expand the number of members of that community. Worker ants take care of the queen (who clean, wash and feed the eggs as soon as they hatch). Another species is the pharaoh ant, which once lived only in Egypt, although today it is present all over the world. These are ants that live in objects, buildings, cracks, in walls. They eat all food and homes are very difficult to “clean” of this type of ants. The so-called “Amazon ant” belongs to the group of kidnapper ants, and is known as the “slave owner ant”. Workers of this species live as soldiers in the community. They feed and protect young ants and find other ants that they force to work for them. That’s why they attack the anthill of black ants, kill all who oppose and carry away the larvae. And when the black ants hatch from the larvae, they also become slaves of the Amazon ants. An interesting type of ant is the “mushroom breeder”. Members of this community of ants bite off the leaves in the form of circles, which they take to anthills, split and sow with mushrooms. Each genus plants a favorite type of mushroom, and later the entire colony of ants lives by feeding on these mushrooms.

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