Table Of Contents m i t h s o n i a n
Everything you
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BUGS
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THIS EDITION
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Previously published in 2007 as Buzz
to public education, national service, and scholarship
This abridged American edition, 2015
in the arts, sciences, and history.
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CONTENTS
4 Introduction 44 A silkworm’s story
6 Arthropod 46 Locust plague
8 How many legs? 48 Who’s for dinner?
10 Meet the family 50 All work and no play
12 Who rules the world? 52 Army ants
14 How arthropods conquered 54 Who is in the hive?
the world…
56 How did this produce
16 What is an insect? this honey?
18 Wings & things 58 Skyscraper
20 Upside down 60 Spot the fake
22 What’s inside an insect? 62 Arachnophobia
24 Eye see things 64 A spider’s web
26 The hunger bug 66 Webmasters
28 Now you see me... 68 Centipede or millipede?
30 What makes a beetle 70 Danger! Chemical warfare
a beetle?
72 Friend or foe?
32 Glow-in-the-dark
74 What is the deadliest
34 Growing up
animal in the world?
36 Who’s the daddy?
76 Record breakers
38 Once in a blue moon
78 Glossary and
40 Butterfly or moth? Index
42 Meet the monarchs 80 Credits
400 million years ago
(or thereabouts), the
insects millipedes
ancient ancestors of today’s , , and
spiders
were at home on land rather than among life in the sea.
FIRST ANIMALS
They were the to walk
399 million years
on land. Another were
humans
to pass before arrived. If all the world’s
disappear
humans and all other large animals were to ,
the creepy-crawlies that share our planet would get on with life
tiny
without a second thought.
4
collapse
they
But if disappeared, our world would .
f lowers
With no bees and bugs to pollinate , crops would
starve
NO
fail and we would . With beetles and flies
recycle dung
to our waste, dead bodies and would pile
crawl
up all over the place. The creatures that around our
little
creep buzz
gardens, across our ceilings, and around
important
MORE
our lives are than . They are
essential world
. Without them, the would
nasty
be a very place indeed.
5
ARTHROPOD
= jointed foot
“ ”
Black widow
, ,
spider
and other
group
make up a of animals
Arthropods can
known as THE .
also have…
•two brains (one for seeing
The word arthropodd means
and one for eating)
•blood that looks green
, •ears on their knees
•tasters on their feet
and that’s what all these •a life span of just
a few weeks to well
over a hundred years
have:
•bodies as small as a grain
of salt or as big as a shark
made of (… fortunately that one
tiny legs
is extinct!)
struts
little with
joints.
Ladybug
6
important their bodies
The most feature that all arthropods share is this:
are inside out
. Most big animals, such as cats and dogs and human beings,
have a skeleton on the inside. An arthropod has hard skin that is like
a skeleton on the outside. Like a suit of armor, the external skeleton
exoskeleton
(or ) is made of stiff plates linked together. Between the
plates are flexible joints that let the body move.
exoskeleton
The is the secret of the arthropod’s success because
it holds all the animal’s organs and keeps its insides from drying out.
In addition, all sorts of different structures have evolved—from claws and
jaws to wings and stings. But there’s a catch! External skeletons cannot
grow with the body, so arthropods have to shed them and
bigger
make new ones to grow .
Hoverfly
Suit of armor Flower beetle
7
Long legs, short legs, fat legs, thin legs, hairy legs, smooth legs, prickly legs, soft legs, strong
HOW M A N Y
Weevil
6 legs
Probably an insect.
Crane fly lanInds eacntsim aarels tohne Emaorstht .s uMccoests shfualv e
six legs, a pair of antennae
(feelers) at the front, two pairs
of wings, and a body divided
into three segments: a head,
8 legs
a thorax (chest), and an
Probably an arachnid.
abdomen (belly).
Spiders, scorpions, ticks, and
mites are all arachnids. Unlike insects,
arachnids never have wings or antennae,
and their bodies are divided into only two
segments. Most of them are flesh eaters.
Ta rantula
8
