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What's Biting the Flea?
Scratch, scratch scratch goes your pet dog or cat. Behind the ears, on his body. He whips about trying to chew up his tail. What’s eating him? You part the hair and feel around. It’s a flea! Fleas are parasitic insects that suck the blood of birds and mammals. There are over 2,400 flea species worldwide classified under the order Siphonaptera. They are tiny wingless insects like the lice in our hair, either black or reddish brown....
Spiders and their Magical Web
Most of us have come across cobwebs that accumulate in our walls, and ceilings when we dust our homes. The webs are under tables, cellars, and sometimes across branches and leaves at the park. All these cobwebs are the work of spiders. Spider webs are fine silken threads. Originally spiders spun silk to protect their eggs and to line their nests. But later they adapted to use this silk to weave a web and trap their prey....
The Truth About Bats
Bats are among the world’s least appreciated and most endangered animals, thanks to centuries of myth and superstition. Contrary to common misconceptions, bats are not blind, they are not rodents and they won’t get tangled in your hair. The truth is that bats are mong the most gentle and beneficial animals on earth. A bat is a winged mammal with the ability to fly. It’s ability to maintain sustained flight, unique among mammals, results from the modification of hand-like forelimbs into wings....
Chimp Traits
Do you think chimps are chumps? If the answer is yes, then you are in for a surprise – because chimps or chimpanzees are actually very, very intelligent. Chimpanzees are the most intelligent of the ape family. It was known that chimpanzees use tools intelligently to obtain food. They use rocks to crack open nuts or use sticks to dig the earth for choice insects and termites. Once a chimpanzee learns a certain method he/she teaches it on to all the other chimps in the area....
It's a Beetle's World
Have you ever had winged visitors to your room on a rainy day, that are black, shiny and button-like, and which fall to the ground with a distinct tapping sound? You might also be familiar with those cute-looking insects with bright orange bodies dotted with black, called Ladybirds, hovering over flowers and tender leaves. There also might have been times when an unlucky one splats on your windshield or gets crunched underfoot. Well, these are all different kinds of BEETLES — creatures that can be called evolution’s biggest success story....
Do Some Animals Farm?
We all live the way we do in villages and cities because a long, long time ago, the early humans gave up hunting for farming. They domesticated plant species by cultivation, ploughed the land and harvested the grain. That was the beginning of civilisation as we understand it. But, do you know that certain ant species were actually farming fungus years before humans learnt how to farm? For many millions of years, ants belonging to the attines group were farming and cultivating fungi in their anthill nests....
Microbes begin Deforestation
May 19: The conifer trees on the hills of Himachal Pradesh may soon become history. No, they are not being cut by humans. This time, it is the turn of microbes to go on a rampage. Insects, fungi and various kinds of insects are eating into the deodar, pine and kail trees of Chopal and the stretch that lies between Sundernagar and Jhenjheli, Suket division in Mandi and at Bharari and Mashobra in Shimla. The trees are drying up due to this....
Paris is Bugged by Termites!
Recently Parisians have been facing quite a bit of trouble; bookshop owners live in mortal terror of their precious books disintegrating, while owners of wooden houses are constantly worrying that their homes might collapse into a pile of rubble. Strangely enough, the cause of all this problem is really teeny. In fact the culprit that has most of Paris, France, upset is able to squeeze through an opening as small as 1/32 of an inch! Not so terrifying after all, but then these creatures live in gigantic colonies – consisting of more than a million members and love munching on wood and paper....
Excerpts From 'The Wonderful World of Insects'
What is an Insect? An insect is quite different from you and me. It has a body that is divided into three parts: the head, the middle which is called the thorax and the abdomen which is usually the largest part of the body. Did you know that many insects can see in more than one direction without turning their heads? This is because they have compound eyes. Compound eyes are made up of lots of cone-shaped units packed close together....
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