CONTENTS Extraordinary Insects Great Survivors Working Together Fearsome Larvae Borers and Battlers Incredible Hulks Leaf Lookalikes Cool Camouflage Glowing in the Dark Beetle Defenses Big Builders Record-Breaking Insects Amazing Insect Feats Glossary Index 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 31 32
EXTRAORDINARY INSECTS We humans may think we rule the planet but insects are pretty powerful too For a start they outnumber us There are roughly ten quintillion 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects alive at any one time from more than 900,000 species And they’re far older than us going back nearly 400 million years long before the dinosaur age They’re about 120 million years older than the flowering plants too In other words flowering plants evolved to survive alongside existing insects not the other way around 6 6
Some insects live alone but others such as ants bees and termites form complex societies working together to build structures gather food nurse their young and defeat enemies Modern insects have developed in some amazing ways resulting in their exceptional beauty camouflage engineering skills weapons defenses and sneaky survival tricks They also affect humanity in ways that are both welcome and unwelcome But the great thing about them is that you have an entire insect zoo in your home and yard Go take a look 7
