Getting Buggy About BUGS

Do bugs creep you out -- or fascinate you? Below are some interesting links we found that will either make your skin crawl, or will make you more curious about these little (and not so little) creatures. Here's a little bug music, from Bill Nye The Science Guy, to get you started (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqVqOq8wGkY).

Which weighs more, all the bugs in America, or all the people in America? At http://coolbugstuff.com/facts.php you can learn that if you weigh all the people in America, they would weigh less than 1/50th of the total weight of all the insects, earthworms and spiders in the US! But that's not all. You also learn that fossilized scorpions still glow under ultraviolet light after 300 million years, and that a cockroach head will live and respond for at least 12 hours after it has been cut off. Yikes. (Note: there are links on this site selling bug-related items.)

Is a bug actually an insect? Visit http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/main/geninfo/entomo.html and you'll learn that the term 'bug' is rather underfined. 'Insect' is more technical, referring to an organism that has three body parts and six legs. They also usually have wings and antennae. A spider is a bug, but not an insect, for example. Also see http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4628.

Anyone for some chocolate covered crickets? At http://wilderdom.com/games/descriptions/EatingBugs.html you'll learn that 'entomophagy' is the practice of eating bugs for nutrition. Yep. You read it right! Not only will you learn how to prepare some recipes that include bugs, but you'll also learn that bugs are lower in fat and higher in protien than beef, lamb, pork or chicken. Yum!

Is there really such a thing as a computer bug? There sure is. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug it says that the first 'computer bug' was discovered in 1947 at Harvard University's Computer Laboratory's Mark II computer, One day, programmers found a moth trapped in a relay -- coining the term 'bug'. The poor creature was carefully removed and taped into the log book, and the rest is history.

What is the largest insect? According to http://ask.yahoo.com/20011220,html, the heaviest insect on record was a pregnant Giant Weta (Deinacrida heteracantha), a rare New Zeland species that weighed in at 71 grams (over 2 ounces). There are also some African beetles that grow to be the size of a large mouse.

What'is the smallest insect? At http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/text01/smallest.html, you can visit the University of Florida book of insect records and learn that Fairyflies are the smallesst flying insect. They are actually tiny wasps that are just 0.139 mm in length, smaller than a single-celled paramecium, or a grain of sand.

Hey Teachers! This column is available as an 8 1/2 x 11-inch handout, in PDF form.

LittleClickers.com (this page and the associated web site) is sponsored by Computer Explorers. Neither Children's Technology Review (publisher of LittleClickers) or Computer Explorers has any vested interest in any of the sites listed on this page. Librarians and teachers are permitted to copy this page for non-profit use. To report a bad link, please contact contact us, or call 908-284-0404 (9 - 3 PM, EST). These links were selected by Warren Buckleitner. Disclaimer, Terms of Use, and Copyright © 2008 Children's Technology Review All rights reserved.