insects (Page 6)

?And we’re not talking about the Beatles. For some reason, people like to name newly-discovered species after rock musicians. In LiveScience.com, Jeanna Bryner reports that a new species of beetle has been named after rock star Roy Orbison, because it looks like it’s wearing a tuxedo. Bryner reports that “in 2005, [entomologist Quentin] Wheeler?discovered 65 new species of slime-mold beetle?They named one of the beetles after Darth Vader and others for President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.”
read more

From time to time, on unknowncountry.com, we talk about bugs–both the real kind and the computer kind. We also refer to bacteria as a "bug," and now it’s been discovered that 8-million year old bacteria that was removed from the oldest ice on earth is STILL GROWING. Also, fake bugs are being used to spy on antiwar protesters. Keep reading to find out more!

In New Scientist, Catherine Brahic reports that the fact that this ancient bacteria is still growing means that, as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets, the bacteria that emerges could still be alive?and dangerous. It also means that bacteria that arrived on asteroids could very well have colonized our planet.
read more

We now know that cockroaches are responsible for a common respiratory ailment and that they are resistant to radiation (meaning that if an atomic bomb went off, we’d be gone but the roaches would still be in our kitchen). But did you know that there are 4,500 known species of roach and probably two or three times that many that have not yet been discovered?
read more

One of the most common descriptions from people who have had close encounters is meeting with something that looks like a “giant praying mantis.” Some witnesses believe that these are the same beings known as the Grays, while others who have seen them believe that they are something entirely different. Could they be from the future when, as some scientists speculate, insects will have possibly replaced man with a new intelligent species of insect form? What would it take for bugs to get large enough to develop the complex brains needed to sustain intelligence? Besides evolution, it would take more oxygen.
read more