The Weirdest Insects in the World

There are over a million described species of insects, and even more that haven’t been studied. A little research indicates they are all strange in different ways. It was not easy to pick a dozen for this list, but these are all pretty weird.

The Longest Insect.


The Borneo walking stick (Phobaeticus kirbyi) can grow to up to 32 centimeters long, with another 14 centimeters if you measure the legs stretched out! But you might not see one, even if you are in Borneo and looking for them, since they closely resemble the slender tree branches they live on.

The Biggest.

(image source: KVUE)


Goliath beetles (Goliathus) are the largest insects in terms of bulk and weight. They can reach over 4 inches long, which doesn’t sound like much, til you look at the picture. The beetles are native to the African tropics, where they subsist on tree sap and fruit. Goliath beetles can be kept as pets, just feed them dog food (but don’t expect them to come when called).

Strongest animal on earth.


The Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules) is a species of rhinoceros beetle that lives in South America. It can grow to over 6 inches in length (counting its horns), but its claim to fame is its strength. The Hercules beetle can support 850 times its own weight on its shell! This beetles eats only vegetation and is not aggressive, except to other Hercules beetles, when males fight each other over females.

Weird Lifecycle.

(Image credit: Hans Pohl)


The twisted-wing parasite (Strepsiptera) is an order of insects who display a gruesome lifestyle. The larval stage parasite will climb a flower and wait for an insect pollinator (bee or wasp) to come along. They climb aboard the bee, burrow into its body, and change into a second-stage larva. They feed off the blood and organs of the host. An adult male parasite will emerge from the host and search for a mate -a process that takes such little time that he never develops a mouth. The adult female remains in the host’s body for the rest of her life, never growing legs or wings. She mates by pushing only her reproductive organs outside of the bee’s body! Her offspring will emerge and look for new hosts.

Violent Sex.


The gruesome behavior or the male African bat bug (Afrocimex constrictus) is directed at other bat bugs. Instead of copulating via the female’s sex organs, he will stab her abdomen to release sperm directly into her bloodstream. So the females have evolved paragenitals, a “spongy reservoir of immune cells” as a defense against these tactics. But since male bat bugs are not particular when it comes to mating, some male bat bugs have also developed paragenitals to defend themselves against sexual attack!

Bizarre Body Parts.


Seed Beetles have rough sex, too, but in the conventional manner. What is very unconventional is the male seed beetle’s penis (shown in above picture). He can do some damage with that thing. So female seed beetles have developed thicker, more padded reproductive canals over time as self-defense against their paramour.

Trap and Torture.


Tree ants (Allomerus decemarticulatus) in the Amazon contruct elaborate traps for other insects they feed upon. They build these traps from tree fibers reinforced with fungus. When an unsuspecting insect encounters the trap, the ants emerge from hiding underneath and pull the prey’s legs to immobilize them, almost like a torture rack. Then they dismember the victim and carry the parts off to the colony. This method of “drawing and quartering” allows the ants to dine on insects much larger than themselves.

Unstoppable Swarmers.

(image credit: Mehmet Karatay)


Driver ants (Dorylus) or siafu are the masters of the swarm. Dorylus includes several species of army ants, primarily found in Africa. Colonies can contain 20 million ants! When the column is on the march looking for food, people can avoid them just by stepping aside. But there have been cases where invalids have been killed (by asphyxiation) when a column of ants marches through the house. They have been known to kill and eat animals up to the size of small zebras. The soldiers of the colony flank the column. Their bite is so strong and persistant that they are sometimes used to suture wounds; just apply an ant while you hold the wound together and let it bite, then rip the body off. It should hold for a few days. Male driver ants are so much larger than the rest of the colony that they appear to be a different species. Males lead a solitary life until sexual maturity, when they approach the colony for mating. When a male is detected, the workers of the colony tear off his wings and take him to be mated with their queen. You can watch this process on video.

Gruesome Bloodsuckers.
Assassin bugs use a mouth tube to inject toxin into their prey. This toxin acts as an anaesthetic and also liquifies tissues, the easier to suck you dry with. There are thousands of assassin bug species; some eat only other insects and some attack reptiles, birds, and mammals. This assassin bug is turning the tables on a vampire bat. Notice how you can see the blood entering the young insect.



Deadliest of all.

The mosquito (Culicidae) causes the deaths of millions of people every year. They spread yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, West Nile Virus, and malaria from person to person, without being affected by the diseases themselves. They also transmit the debilitating filariasis worm, which can lead to elephantiasis in humans. Mosquitos are nasty business.

The Prettiest (discounting butterflies).

The Orchid mantis (Hymenopus coronatus) is a variety of flower mantis usually found in Malaysia and Indonesia. Doesn’t the mantis pictured look just like an orchid? They hide in the flowers they resemble, waiting for other delicious insects to alight. See a beautiful picture of a pink flower mantis here.

The strangest of all.

The weirdest insect of all is the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera). That may surprise you, but the only reason they don’t seem strange is because we are familiar with them. But think... how many insects produce a delicious food product enjoyed by bees, bears, and people? In addition to honey, bees produce beeswax, honeycombs, royal jelly, and venom. Bees communicate with each other, coordinate colony activities, determine the fate of the next generation, and are master architects, chemists, and engineers. Bees are crucial to food production as they pollinate billions of dollars worth of crops each year. Just don’t step on one barefoot!

The biggest is Titan Beetle up to 6.5 inches (16.7cm)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanus_giganteus

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeintheundergrowth/video.shtml
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
The link on Assassin Bugs ends with this sentence: "Assassin bugs probably have the most painful bites caused by insects." I emphatically agree! One warm night in the summer of 1993 I was laying in bed reading while my baby slept in the next room and my husband was getting ready for bed. Suddenly I felt the most intense, lancinating pain I had ever experienced, on the soft inner flesh of my upper left arm just above the elbow. The pain grew and grew for what seemed like a full minute while I shrieked so loudly my husband came flying out of the bathroom and my son woke up screaming. I jumped out of bed, threw back the covers and laying there was this jet black beetle like insect with a pointy "nose" protruberance. It was at least an inch long. We trapped it with a cup and transferred it to a jar. My husband took it to work the next day because one of his coworker's husbands was an entomologist who immediately i.d.'ed it as an Assassin Bug. As for me, over the course of several days I developed a firm welt about the size of a tennis ball in diameter that was obviously raised up from the surrounding skin. It ached, itched and burned like hell. I went to the doctor who said it was "just" a hyper-reaction to this particular insect's sting, and he sent me home with cortisone cream. After about two weeks it cleared up but I will never, ever forget how intense the pain of that stinger was, second only to the pain of birthing my two babies...

FWIW, we never saw another of those bugs in our house for the remaining 12 years we lived there, nor had anyone I spoke to about it ever seen such a creature in these parts (NW Penna). We figured it had gotten in the house via a small hole in the window screen; at the time, a huge maple tree's limbs extended across the yard and passed directly over that window onto the roof...
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Bears eat honey. Haven't you ever heard of Winnie the Pooh?? That fool can consume a couple jars easy if he's left alone. Plus it's hard not to eat honey while scooping a handful of bee larvae.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Bears do eat honey, they're omnivorous and spend as much time eating honey, berries, etc., as they do fish, carcasses, garbage, sharks, and robots (I know, as I used to work for one, and I asked).
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
@Jon. Keith is right. The article labels wasps as pollinators in the "Weird Lifecycle" section, not the section about bees.

"[the twisted-wing parasite] will climb a flower and wait for an insect pollinator (bee or wasp) to come along."
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
i mean, over a course of 60million years, these insects know how to live,reproduce and of course,devide and conquer, i loved the post on how the millions of army ants took down a larger ant,ripped its wings off,and "imprisoned" it with the queen...poor guy lol
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
This was a great article. I really enjoyed reading and learning more about these insects. I had not heard of most of the insects listed above. I really enjoyed the Orchid mantis. That insect really does look like an orchid.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Very nice... we have a few orchid mantises in our farm as well and they are really cute. We manage to shoot a video of an adult mantis catching a small butterfly, it was a lucky shot.

Cheers
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
So, I was at my friends house and we went in the backyard where her mom was cleaning the pool. By the steps in the water was the biggest, ugliest,bug I have ever seen in my life. We put it in a net and it started moving! Dad dunked it in the pool and after to long, it passed away. We are keeping it in a bug container. Before it faked its death, but then started moving in the water. We aren't sure what it is or if it is still alive. It looks like a giant ant/ scorpian with cricket like form,and color, but it doesn't have wings. So beware of it because we couldn't find out what it was on the internet.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Hi all... I took these pics of this insect which I have no clue what it is... maybe some of you guys could identify it for me... cheers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedude430/
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
TheDude430 that would be a baby mantis in my opinion. You can tell by the front legs and by the fact I have had 3 egg sacs hatch in my house over the years. Just thought you would like to know.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
I think TheDude430 may have an Emesine assassin bug like the one at http://bugguide.net/node/view/293156/bgimage--though one that's probably different from the one that bit FreyaBorealis. TheDude430 might want to post his pictures to http://bugguide.net/node/add/bgimage/6 (he'll need to register first, though doing so is free) to get a more definitive identification.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
33 flatflee yours sounds like a whip scorpion but its a guess. Yay bees are awesome, & their sting helps relieve arthritis. Check your blankets before going to bed!
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Login to comment.
Click here to access all of this post's 51 comments
Email This Post to a Friend
"The Weirdest Insects in the World"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
 
Learn More