1. Giant Walking Stick
www.bexar-tx.tamu.edu
Although insects are the smallest animals out there, this one is exception. It is 15 inches long and makes it the longest insect in the world. It can easily break off his own legs in order to escape from predators and his legs regenerate pretty fast. This weird animal can be found on the grass, oaks, grape vines and places like that. Those who don’t want to look for it in such places can buy one and enjoy it as a pet.
2. Hercules Beetle
www.uk.ask.com
Maybe it’s one of the ugliest, but its fame comes from his strength. This insect has so strong shell, that it can support amazing 850 times of its own weight. Fortunately, the Hercules among the insects is vegetarian and is not aggressive, unless he is challenged by other Hercules beetles when fighting for a female. It’s about sic inches long and lives only in South America.
3. Cave Glowworm
www.derick-lisa.blogspot.com
The Cave Glowworms are famous because they make breathtaking cave textures all over New Zealand and attract a lot of tourists. However, they’re not worms at all. They look like mosquitoes, although the larvae are those who make the amazing pictures. It shines from an organ which is equivalent to human kidney, from which it has an ability to produce blue-green light.
4. African Bat Bug
www.greenearthfacts.com
The picture does not suggest the weirdness of this bug, but the behavior of the male is unbelievable. Although the females have formed reproducing organs, the African bat bug stabs her abdomen to inject the sperm directly into the blood. That’s why females have developed “paragenitals” to defend from the aggressive mate. Believe it or not, even some male bugs of this type have developed the same defensive system.
5. Jungle Nymph
www.whozoo.org
The Jungle Nymph, despite its name, has a really strange life cycle. After the 15 months long laying eggs it sheds its skeleton 5 or 6 times and each time it does its called an instar stage. Then, once it is an adult, it will no longer grow any more and will no longer shed its skeleton. Another weird characteristic is female’s aggressiveness. When treatened she tries to knock down the opponent with her legs, while in the same situation the male pretends he’s dead. The jungle nymph can be found in Australia.
6. Twisted Wing Parasite
www.ambericawest.com
This is even weirder life cycle. The twisted wing parasite is a…real parasite. The larva climbs onto a flower and waits for another insect to climb on it. It burrows onto its body, feed with his blood and organs. The female live almost inside the host’s body, it just leave out the reproduction organs. After the laying of the eggs the young seek for their flower and their own host.
7. Bullent Ant
www.flickr.com
No, this insect doesn’t fly like a bullet, but if it bites you then you gonna fill a bullet. One single bite by this ant is so painful that is compared to bullet; hence its name is bullet ant. It can make your time very bad, causing trembling, burning, perspiration, throbbing and sometimes paralysis that last about 24 hours. It lives in rainforests from Nicaragua to Amazon basin.
8. Orchid Mantis
www.psychiccrimefighter.com
The orchid mantis has developed very good way of hunting preys. It looks nice for insect standards, so it when it’s settled onto a flower it is almost invisible due to the beautiful colors and all it has to do is wait for other delicious insects to come along. Now, who said that only humans use their beauty to hunt preys? This “orchid lives in Malaysia and Indonesia.
9. Amazon Tree Ants
www.flickr.com
Animals in Amazon area have to find many ways to hunt, but these are maybe the cleverest ones. They construct traps in which they catch their preys. They build it from tree fibers and wait for the “dinner” to come. When something falls in the trap, they break off the legs of the prey, cut it on several parts and share it with other members of the colony. That allows them to each insects much bigger then them.
10. Goliath Beetles
www.dekvanzclub.in.th
As the name says, this is very large insect. If measured in terms of size, bulk and weight it is the largest in the whole world, actually. Goliathus is native to Africa tropics and the four inches long body doesn’t sound like too much until you see them. Many people enjoy them as pets, feeding them with a dog food although fruits are their favorite in natural habitat.