Do Dragonflies Bite: Interesting Bug Facts
Have you ever asked yourself, Do dragonflies bite? Or maybe you’ve wondered if there is any insect which can hold its own around a tarantula? There are a lot of “bugs” and animals on this earth, but would you believe that about 95 percent of all animals are insects? Many of us fail to appreciate the truly unique skills that many insects have, or the physical traits that enable their very survival. We are going to take a glance into the world of bugs with the following interesting bug facts (as well as answer the question in the title, do dragonflies bite?).
Impressive Traits
Ever wondered why cockroaches are so hard to get rid of? It may have something to do with the fact that one female can produce over two million babies in just one year! It is believed that the male cicada is the loudest insect around, but a flea can jump over 130 times its body height. The dragonfly is the fastest known insect on earth and was clocked maintaining a flight speed around 36 miles per hour with bursts of speed around 60 miles per hour. The Tanzanian parasitic wasp is the smallest insect known to man at the mere size of a fly’s eyeball. An ant can lift up to fifty times its own weight and pull about thirty times its weight.
Mosquitoes are one of the most deadly insects to humans in terms of numbers killed, as an estimated two million deaths occur each year due to the transmission of diseases through mosquito bites. The rhinoceros beetle can lift around 850 times its own weight, winning it the title of the strongest insect in the world. A cricket’s legs contain ears. The praying mantis can rotate its head 360 degrees and has only one ear. The black widow spider’s poison is more venomous than a rattlesnake’s, which makes it the most poisonous spider. A cockroach can live nine days without its head before it dies of dehydration. Monarch butterflies are extremely light—it takes about a hundred of them to weight one ounce. Houseflies can taste with their feet. The sting of a tarantula wasp can paralyze a tarantula, where it then lays its eggs inside the spider.
See Related: Dragonfly Symbolism
Strength in Numbers
Insects eat about 33 percent of the world’s crops, which is understandable as just ten square feet of country land holds more insects than there are humans on the entire planet. One out of every four animals is a beetle. In fact, beetles are the largest order of insects with about 300,000 different species. The typical bed is thought to possess about three million dust mites! The largest colony of insect ever found was of the Argentine ants. The average bee hive contains between 20,000 and 60,000 bees, and it takes about ten stings per pound of body weight to kill a human.
Large Bugs
The largest insect in body size to weight ratio is the goliath beetle, but the giant walking stick is the longest averaging at just over a foot in length with the largest recorded one being 22 inches long. The atlas moth is about as large as a bat with a wingspan around a foot. The Asian hornet is the largest species of wasp in the world. They are larger than an acorn and can kill about 40 average bees within a minute. Queen Alexandra’s birdwing is the largest butterfly with a wingspan over a foot wide. The Amazonian giant centipede is about a foot in length and it munches on large frogs, birds, tarantulas, and bats!
And finally, to answer the question of do dragonflies bite: no, they do not! Even the largest dragonfly can only attempt to bite human flesh, however it cannot pierce it!
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