In the world of the six-legged

Photos: Tiit Hunt
Text: Uno Roosileht, Entomology Department
Translation: Liis from forum 
 
Bumblebee.
 
From April 15th until the end of August the defensive strategies of insects, such as camouflage colouring and mimicking of surrounding nature or other insects, can be explored in Eesti Loodusmuuseum, Estonian Museum of Natural History, Lai 29A, Tallinn. The exceptional ability of insects to find protective strategies is amazing. The exhibition shows how perfectly the leaf-imitating leaf insects or the twig-like stick insects blend in with their surroundings. The world’s longest insect belongs to the stick insects. The need to protect themselves from enemies has made harmless insects mimic poisonous or stinging creatures. Species that are active at night or inhabit tree trunks have more discrete, dark colours. The nocturnal insects include the largest beetles in the world, the titan beetle and the atlas beetle. Why are there such eye-catching insects – golden-gleaming – in nature? Actually what is so well visible to a human eye is just a reflection of light from a leaf to animals, particularly to birds. The bird does not see the insect, and misses a nice mouthful. When we study the insects more closely we also learn that while the innocent-looking caterpillar of our peacock butterfly is mildly poisonous, the poison of the tropical peacocks’ caterpillars can be fatal even to humans.
 


 

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