Golden tortoise beetles, spiny beetles… are insects with a “weird” appearance.
The insect world is extremely rich with many strange things. Arthropods make up 80% of the world’s animal population, so it’s not surprising that they have bizarre species. Let’s find out a few insects with rare beauty to the point of monstrosity according to the Listverse page summary below.
1. Giant water beetle
Giant water bugs (scientific name Kirkaldyia deyrolli) live mainly in East Asia, Australia and the Americas. With a body length of up to 15cm, they are considered one of the largest beetles in the world. The giant water bug has dozens of “spots” on its body that resemble water scabies spots.
Their favorite prey are small fish, amphibians, sometimes snakes, and small turtles. When encountering prey, they release a powerful digestive juice, making the prey’s internal organs turn into a liquid form, easy for digestion. They are one of the most painful insect bites in the world.
2. Killer Bugs
The Reduviidae is an arthropod that has bright yellow spots on all 6 legs and 2 eyes-like spots on its back. Despite their lovely white and yellow spots, as the name suggests, they are a “killer” species.
Reduviidae have a unique hunting technique. They often trap themselves in spider traps, pulling on webs, pretending to be trapped prey.
When spiders approach, they release a poison enough to numb their prey. That venom is also a digestive juice, turning the spider into a liquid, making it easier for the killer bugs to eat.
After digesting the prey, they will use the corpse of the prey to put on their body, forming a kind of armor that makes the enemy bewildered and confused. This killer insect has quite a few prey in the wild and they even attack bats.
3. Golden Tortoise Beetle
As introduced last time , the golden tortoise beetle has the same shape as the Snitch ball in Harry Potter, the scientific name is Charidotella sexpunctata, residing in the Northeastern United States.
However, they also have the ability to change color causing the outer shell to become transparent, revealing the black body with red dotted below.
Once the beetles are isolated from their natural habitat, they quickly lose their color and turn muddy brown.
This phenomenon is explained by the texture of their outer shell, the shell of the golden tortoise beetle is covered with a liquid layer of dew on the leaves, which makes it easy to give the illusion that this insect is yellow.
The beetle larvae have a dark shell with many sharp spines, their unique feature is the ability to molt to increase size. They will create a shell of their own waste to protect themselves against predators in the wild. When disturbed, they will flip open their shields to attack predators.
4. Tiger beetle
The tiger beetle may at first glance look like an orange wing, but its coloration is fluid and has a beautiful “shell” like the color in lacquer works.
The scientific name of the tiger beetle is Cicindela hudsoni, they are native to Australia. In terms of body size, they are considered the fastest animals on the planet.
Beetles reach speeds of up to 9km/h or 2.5m/s, if they were the size of a human, this speed would be about 772km/h. At top speed, the beetle temporarily loses sight so it has to run for short distances when hunting.
They are ferocious predatory insects, with inbuilt weapons being fast movement speed and strong jaws, it easily captures and destroys prey.
The beetle larvae possess deadly venom and have a habit of burying themselves in the ground. When small prey passes, the larvae suddenly rush out of hiding, holding onto the prey with huge jaws. The prey is dragged into the burrow and eaten.
5. Thorn beetles
The spiny beetle is also scientifically known as Umbonia crassicornis. Their name comes from the part of the body that surrounds the neck with the shape of a thorn. This feature will help them camouflage themselves as spikes on trees to fend off predators.
The beetles use their beaks to dig deep into the trunk and eat the sap inside. They live mainly in Florida, Central America and the northern part of South America. The maximum length of the spiny beetle is about 10mm.