The whirly-gig beetles are wary and fast, with an organ to detect the ripples.
The arachnid moths lay their eggs inside other insects along the borders of fields or roads in clusters of white cocoons.
The ribbed pinebore is a longhorn beetle; their antennaes are half the length of their body, and they feed on dead red pine.
Robber flies, with their immobile heads, inject a paralyzing fluid into their prey that they snatch from life in mid-air.
The snowflea's mode of locomotion - strange and odd, with a spiny tail mechanism with hooks, and a protracted tube from the abdomen to enable moisture absorbtion.
The female praying mantis devours the male while they are mating.
The male sometimes continues copulating even after the female has bitten off his head - and part of his upper torso.
Every night, wasps bite into the stem of a plant, lock their mandibles into position, stretch out at right angles to the stem, and, with legs dangling, they fall asleep.
If one places a minute amount of liquor on a scorpion it will instantly go mad, and sting itself to death.
The bombardier beetle, when disturbed, defends itself by emitting a series of explosions, sometimes setting off 4 or 5 reports in succession.
The noises sound like miniature pop-gun blasts, and are accompanied by a cloud of reddish-colored vile smelling fluid.
It is commonly known that ants keep slaves.
Certain species, the so-called "sanguinary ants" in particular, will raid the nests of other ant tribes and kill the queen and then kidnap many of the workers.
The workers are brought back to the captors' hive where they are coerced into performing menial tasks.
And as we discussed last semester, the army ants will leave nothing but your bones.
Perhaps you've encountered some of these insects in your communities, displaying both their predatory and defense characteristics while imbedded within the walls of flesh and passing for what is most commonly recognized as human.
The male sometimes continues copulating even after the female has bitten off his head - and part of his upper torso.
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Killer sting in the tail. See these creepy bugs? Well, humans are worse! I think a lot of this is true & some (like the scorpion) is myth. Certainly ants do keep slaves, praying mantises have downright peculiar mating habits & some insects lay eggs in the (living) bodies of other insects so the larvae will have meat on the hoof when they hatch. Charming! And don't we all know people like that?
As far as I know most of these are true to some extent, though there are always exceptions. The praying mantis one, for instance, is true in some cases, but it's not necessarily the norm. The female will only eat the male if she hasn't had a substantial meal prior to mating. She does this basically because she needs extra protein for the eggs. The bombadier beetle one is very true, so is the one about the slave-making ants. The one about army ants is true if you're a baby or a small animal, but it's not likely that they'd be able to take down an adult person, or that they would even bother to try. The scorpion one I don't know about, but I have heard of scorpions stinging themselves to death so I suppose there could be some truth to it. I've never done much research into that, though. Anyway, I love this song. I'm studying entomology in school right now and I've always loved this kinda stuff so this song definitely increased my liking for Tom Waits quite a bit :)
Devilish...
I LOVE this song! Spookish, eccentric, intriguing... This is why I listen to Tom Waits. :D
I've tried looking up these weird creepy crawlies, but have only turned up a little evidence of these facts in the song being even agknowledged as true (copulating praying mantus' for example). Anyone know if these are just silly madeup facts, or if there are such beastly insects?