3 Press out one part of the hanger, marked A.Following the positions shown in the diagrams,assemble the mobile pieces and tie them to A.

You can make the threads that link the mobile pieces aslong as you like.

Flying insects Creepy-crawlies

Flying insects Creepy-crawlies

How to make yourmobilesYou will need some thread to hang your mobiles.

1 You will find the mobiles inside this book attachedto pages 6 and 7, and pages 10 and 11. Carefully detachthe mobile pages along the perforated edges.

2 Press out all the mobile illustrations, except thepieces marked A, B, C and D. Cut small lengths ofthread. Tie the thread to the mobile pieces by pushingthe ends into the slits and winding them round at leastthree times.

4 Now do the same with the second part of the hanger,marked B. Tie a thread to the top of B.

5 Assemble the hanger by fitting A and B together.Following this diagram, slide A into B through thediagonal slit in B.

6 Press out the ring marked C. Pass the thread fromthe top of B through the centre of it. Press C onto thetop of the hanger until the four points of the X-shapedhole fit into notches cut in the hanger.

7 Press out the hook marked D and attach it to thethread from the top of the hanger. You can use thehook to hang up your mobile.

AM A Z I N G

Water bear or tardigradeUp to 1 mm longWorldwide

The world of creepy-crawlies

IN EVERY HOUSE, garden, field or forest onEarth, there is a world full of activity which

we hardly even notice. In the soil, in the air andin the water, live many kinds of insects, spidersand other minute animals.

There are more different kinds of insectsthan any other animal group. Scientists thinkthere are at least five million kinds, probablymore. There is a fantastic variety of shapes, sizesand colours, but all insects have the same basic

design. Every insect has three pairs of legs and askeleton on the outside of its body. There arethree parts to its body: the head, the thorax,which bears the legs and wings, and theabdomen. An insect breathes through tiny holesin its sides. Many kinds of insects have wings.

Look carefully in a small area of soil and youwill discover hundreds of creepy-crawlies. Notall of them are insects: spiders, which have eightlegs and two body parts, are arachnids; milli-pedes and centipedes have many body parts and

Mini-monsterThe tiny water bearlives inthe thin film of water coveringsome plants. Under amicroscope, we can see the claws

KEY1 Bumblebee2 Red underwing moth3 Cloudless sulphurbutterfly

4 Swallowtail butterfly5 Longhorn beetle6 Centipede7 Camberwell beautycaterpillar

8 Grass spider9 Mole

10 Tachinid fly11 Snail12 Weevil13 Milbert’s

tortoiseshellbutterfly

14 Green darnerdragonfly

15 Mayfly16 Pondskater17 Water stick insect18 Backswimmer19 Great diving beetle20 Millipede21 Slug22 Woodlice23 Green ground beetle24 Snail25 Ants26 Earthworm27 Nematode worm28 Red earth mite29 Pseudoscorpion30 Springtail

Luna moth7.5-11 cmwingspanNorth America

Monarchbutterfly7.5-10 cmwingspanNorth America

Purpleemperorbutterfly6-7.5 cmwingspanEurope, Asia

Hercules mothcaterpillarUp to 17 cm longAustralia, South-east Asia

Rajah Brooke’sbirdwingbutterfly12-18 cm wingspanMalaysia

Morgan’s sphinxhawkmoth10-13.5 cmwingspanAfrica

Beauties of the air

BUTTERFLIES and moths are a groupof insects with scaly wings. Often, the

tiny scales are brightly coloured. In general,most butterflies fly in the day and have finefeelers, or antennae. Moths are mostlynight-flyers; some have feathery antennae.Every butterfly and moth begins life as acaterpillar, hatched out from a tiny egg. Thecaterpillar eats and grows. Then, anchoringitself in a safe place by a silk thread orcocoon, it changes into a hard-cased pupa,inside which the adult takes shape.Birdwing butterflies,from the

rainforests of South-east Asia, are the largestbutterflies of all. Their size and brightcolours do make them appear like birds.However, only the males show off thesebeautiful green, yellow and orange tones.Female birdwings are a dull brown colour.

Tongues and scalesHawkmoths, among the fastest-flying insects, can fly up to 50km/h. They also have the longesttongues in the insect world. Allbutterflies and moths have longtube-like tongues for sucking nectarfrom flowers. This hawkmoth’stongue must be long enough toreach inside a kind of orchid.The purple emperor?swings

appear to be a deep purple colour.In fact, the wings themselves arenot purple at all. The scales on itswings reflect light and give thepurple emperor its colour. If youlook at one from a different angle,the wings appear dark brown.

Magnificent mothsThe luna moth,or NorthAmerican moon moth, gets itsname from the markings on itswings. They look just like crescentmoons. The luna moth’s long wingtails make it easily recognizable.One insect which is difficult to

ignore is the hercules moth.As acaterpillar, it is large, spiky andbrightly coloured. When it becomesan adult, it really is a giant. Itswings are wider than this page!

Incredible journeyThe monarch butterflylives foralmost a year, and during that time makesone truly amazing journey. In latesummer, the butterfly leaves the area inCanada or the Northern USA where ithatched. It flies all the way to Californiaor Mexico to hibernate for the winter.This can be a distance of 3000 kilometres.It spends the winter clinging to a treewith thousands of others; the tree looksas if it is covered by an orange blanket.Then, as spring arrives, the butterfliesstart out on their long journey home.

Warning coloursUnlike many dull, night-flying moths, theburnet moth is brightly coloured. It fliesabout in the daylight and rests out in theopen. However, the burnet moth is in littledanger from attack, because its bright colourswarn predators that it is poisonous.

Flying insects mobile

Burnet moth3.5 cm wingspanEurope, Asia

Hiding from dangerThis side of the Indian leaf butterfly?swings could not be more colourful. However,if the butterfly closed its wings, you would besurprised to see something that looked morelike an old brown leaf. Like other butterflies,the Indian leaf butterfly hides its brightcolours while it is at rest and in danger ofattack by predators. The shape of its wingsand their pattern of veins make the butterflylook like a dead leaf on a branch. The Indianleaf butterfly also has large spots on its wings,called eyespots. To attacking birds, thesemight look like the eyes of a bigger animal,such as a cat or owl.

Indian leafbutterfly12 cm wingspanSouth and East Asia

Amazing sensesThe male cecropia moth,a kind ofsilkmoth, has special feather-like antennae,which provide it with its most importantsense, smell. It can detect a female fromseveral kilometres away! The antennae havemany branches, each with thousands of tinyhairs picking up scents. The moth is providedwith information about possible food sources.A kind of silkmoth has been bred in special

farms in China, India and Japan for centuries.Its caterpillars (‘silk worms’) produce silk tomake cocoons.

Cecropia moth15 cm wingspanNorth America

Super hearingLacewings get their name from the networkof criss-crossing veins in their delicate wings.They have amazing hearing organs in theirwings that allow them to hear the high-pitched squeaks of bats, and so avoid them.

Lacewing1.5 cm longWorldwide

Delicate wingsLike many beetles, the cockchaferbeetle, ormaybug, is an awkward flyer. This is becauseof its pair of hard wing-cases, which it musthold out of the way while it flies. Beetles needthese wing-cases to protect their thin flyingwings when they are crawling on the ground.During flight, cockchafer beetles spread theirantennae into a fan. This helps them to sensein which direction the wind is moving, andalso to detect the scent of food or a mate.

Europeancockchafer2.5 cm long

Memorable markingsPassion vine butterfliesare named forthe plants that they eat while they arecaterpillars. Harmless to the caterpillars, thepassion vine makes the adult butterfliespoisonous to other animals. Often, differentkinds of passion vine butterflies which live inone area all have very similar patterns andcolours. The more alike they look, the saferthey are from birds that recall the taste of one

Working togetherBumblebees live in groups of up to 400bees, called colonies. A colony begins whenthe queen bee finds a place such as an oldvole’s nest, to lay her eggs. The bees whichhatch out are the worker bees. It is their jobto go out and find food—nectar and pollen.

Bumblebee2.5 cm longWorldwide

Acrobats of the airDragonfliescan fly at great speeds, dartfrom one direction to another, hover and evenfly backwards. They have enormous eyes thatallow them to see in almost any direction.They swoop down on their prey in mid-air.Dragonflies are usually found around water,where they lay their eggs. The youngdragonflies feed on tadpoles, minnows orsmall insects. A male dragonfly will oftenmake a stretch of water his own territory.

Broad-bodied darter dragonfly7.5 cm long

Europe

Slow flyersSwallowtailbutterflies have one of theslowest wingbeats of all insects, just five timesa second (other insects can reach speeds ofhundreds of beats per second). Swallowtailbutterfly caterpillars have a very strangedisguise when they first hatch. They are blackwith a white patch in the middle of theirbodies, and look very much like birddroppings. When they are older, they arebrightly coloured, and protect themselves byproducing a strong smell.

Swallowtail10 cm wingspanEurope, Asia,North America

Passion vinebutterfly

7 cm wingspanCentral and

South America

Amazing insects

IN THE WORLD of insects, there is anincredible range of sizes, shapes, colours and

life styles. Pictured on this page are just a fewexamples of this amazing variety.

The male hercules beetleis one of thelongest beetles in the world. About half its lengthis made up of its huge horns which are used tofight other males for mates. Each beetle tries tograb its opponent. Hercules beetles are verystrong, and the fight ends when one beetlemanages to throw the other onto its back.

The tsetse fly,by contrast, is tiny. Thisillustration of its head (right)has been magnifiedmany times. The long mouthpart, which has teethat its tip, is used for piercing skin of animals andsucking up their blood. Tsetse flies may pass on aserious disease, called sleeping sickness, to cattleand humans by biting them, too.

Puff and hissThe hissing cockroachcanmeasure up to eight centimetreslong. Ordinary cockroaches arewell-known to many people andhated because they are pests thatlive in our houses. However, thiscock-roach lives in tropical foreston the island of Madagascar. It hasa very strange way of protectingitself. When threatened, it fills withair to look bigger and then forcesthe air out with a loud hissing

Tree climberThis longhorn beetle?spattern looks like thecostume of a clown called a harlequin. It hasincredibly long ‘horns’, but these are reallyantennae that help it to smell and feel its way atnight. The male also has unusually long legs, whichhe uses to defend the female as she lays her eggsunder the bark of a fig tree. When the eggs hatch,the larvae eat through the wood of the tree, andsometimes kill it.

Leaping to safetyGrasshoppers have very good senses, and, as soon as they spotdanger, they spring to safety. They have very powerful back legswhich they use to make huge jumps. The chirping mating songs ofgrasshoppers are not made with their mouths. Instead, they makesounds by rubbing together a leg and a wing.To make its loud call, the male cricket rubs its wings together. A

female hears it through her ears—actually slits in her front legs.The bush cricket(bottom)lives in the trees. When still, itlooks like a dead leaf, but when disturbed, it launches itself intothe air. As it leaps, it unfolds its wings and reveals colouredeyespots to startle its attacker.

Madagascarhissing cockroach

8 cm long

Tsetse fly5 mm longAfrica

Bush cricket5 cm longSouth America

Elegantgrasshopper7.5 cm longSouthern Africa

Harlequinlonghorn beetle

8 cm longSouth America

Herculesbeetle18 cm longSouth America

Wrestling matchStag beetlesare so-called because of thehuge ‘horns’ of the males. However, these arereally massive jaws. They are used whenfighting other males for territory or females.Before the fight, each stands facing the otherto see which is the largest. Sometimes, thesmaller beetle will decide to give up thechallenge. If this does not happen, the beetleslock jaws and wrestle with one another.

Leg powerMillipedesare well-known for their manypairs of legs—they can have between 40 and400 of them. Their legs are short and strong,enabling them to burrow through soil orvegetation with all their legs moving at once.

Lethal leapersFleascan survive for months without food,and are fantastic jumpers. They can leap over100 times their own length (the equivalent ofyou jumping over St. Paul’s Cathedral!), andaccelerate with more force than a spacerocket. Fleas feed on the blood of largeranimals like rats or dogs. As they bite, theycan pass on diseases from sick animals tohealthy ones, and even to humans. The mostterrible disease was the plague which killedmillions of people in the 14th century.

Sharp-eyed huntersThere are thousands of kinds of jumpingspiderin the world. These tiny spiders donot spin webs, but, as their name suggests,they jump to get from twig to twig, and alsoto catch their prey. Jumping spiders have abetter sense of sight than any other spider.Their eight eyes are able to spot movement inany direction around them. They capturetheir prey by leaping at it with their sharpfangs ready to strike. They often eat moths orflies, but some will attack creatures biggerthan themselves, such as the praying mantis.

Huge jawsTermites live together in vast colonies ofthousands of insects. They even have kingsand queens, served by armies of workers andsoldiers. Soldier termites have the job ofprotecting the termite colony from invasion.Lining up around the workers, they are readyto snap at any attacker. They have massiveheads and huge jaws. Many kinds of soldiertermite have an extra defence against theirworst enemy, the ants. They produce asubstance which drives the ants away, and caneven kill them. However, for all their ferocity,soldier termites are blind, and cannot feedthemselves. They must rely on the workers toprovide them with food.

The farmer’s friendEveryone knows the ladybird,with its redor yellow body, and black spots. These brightcolours are a warning to any hungry animalthat it tastes very bad. If the ladybird sensesdanger, it reacts by oozing a smelly yellowsubstance from its leg-joints. This usuallydrives an attacker away. The ladybird is veryuseful to gardeners and farmers, because itfeeds on tiny pests like aphids that do a lot ofdamage to crops and plants.

Swaying twigsStick insectsare experts at the art ofcamouflage. They sit very still on trees orbushes and blend in so perfectly you cannottell them apart from the twigs they are sittingon—a very good defence against predators.They even sway from side to side in a breeze.

Deadly flowerThe pink, petal-shaped body of the flowermantis blends in perfectly with pinkorchids. The mantis sits very still among thepetals of a flower and waits for anunsuspecting insect to come by. Sometimes,insects even land on the mantis to try tocollect nectar! By the time they discover their

Good parentsShield bugsare so-called because whentheir wings are closed, they look like thecoats-of-arms on a shield. They come in allsorts of colours and patterns, but, as always,their bright colours tell predators that theyare not good to eat. Many kinds of shield bugstay with their eggs until they hatch toprotect them. If attacked, the shield bugsquirts out a terrible-smelling fluid,sometimes farther than 30 centimetres. It is nowonder that shield bugs are often better

Creepy-crawlies mobile

Europeanstag beetle4 cm long

Hawthorn shield bug8-13 mm longTemperateEurope and Asia

Millipede2.5 cm longTemperateworldwide

Stick insect7.5 cm longWorldwide

Flower mantis10 cm long

Africa and Far East

Dog flea2 mm longWorldwide

Jumping spider2.5-15 mm longWorldwide

Ladybird8 mm longTemperateworldwide

Soldier termite8 mm long

Tropical and sub-tropical worldwide

FearlessThe tarantula hawk waspis thesize of a hummingbird. The malewasp is harmless, but the female is adeadly hunter of tarantula spiders.As the spider rears up to strike ather, she stings it. Then she drags thespider into a hole where she lays anegg on it.The giant weta,from an island

off New Zealand, is a cricket-likeinsect. However, it is about fourtimes the size of an ordinarycricket. If threatened, it kicks outwith its long, spiny back legs. Thishuge creature is a protected species.

Savage jawsThe largest species ofcentipedecan grow to belonger than your foot. Itcan run quickly, and it hasmassive jaws with avenomous bite for goodmeasure! Its diet includeslizards and mice.

Harmless pet?The biggest bird-eating spiderscan have aleg span as wide as a dinner plate. Despite theirname, they usually eat beetles, grasshoppers andsmall reptiles. Many species of bird-eating spiderare found in the rainforests of South America.They do not spin webs to catch their prey. Thesespiders chase their victims down, then rear upand strike with their huge fangs. Although theylook fearsome, most species of bird-eatingspider are harmless to humans. In fact, somepeople even keep them as pets!

Goliath beetle11 cm long100 g in weightAfrica

Giant weta10.5 cm longNew Zealand

Bird-eatingspiderLeg span up to28 cmSouth America

Giant Malayancentipede20 cm longSouth-east Asia

Tarantulahawk wasp12 cm wingspanSouth-west USA

Insect giants(pictured at ACTUAL SIZE)

WHENWE THINK of insects, weusually imagine the tiny creatures we

see every day. However, in some tropical areasof the world, there are insects that grow tohuge and spectacular sizes.

The goliath beetleis one of the biggestbeetles in the world, and can weigh as much asa rat. In spite of this huge weight, it can still flyinto the treetops looking for fruit to eat. Atnight, it crawls under leaves to hide fromlizards and other predators.

Potent poisonThe black widow is one of thedeadliest spiders, with poison upto 15 times as powerful as arattlesnake’s. However, it lives indark places and avoids humans.It will usually only bite ifprovoked, but its poison can kill.Like many other spiders, theblack widow spins a web to catchflying insects. The female ofteneats the male after he has matedwith her.

Advancing armyArmy ants march steadilythrough the rainforestundergrowth killing anything intheir path. There can behundreds of thousands of ants inone colony, and they form a packthat can be 10 metres wide.People often flee their homeswhile the ants pass through.

No escapeThe tiger beetleis a fierce predator—both as an adult and a larva. The tigerbeetle larva hides at the top of its burrowand grabs any passing insect in its jaws.The adult beetle chases and catches itsprey out in the open. This greatlymagnified illustration of its head(above)shows its powerful jaws. It isone of the fastest insects on the ground:if it were the same size as a cheetah, itwould beat it easily in a race.The great diving beetleis just as

good at swimming as flying. It lives inponds and streams, and can even breatheunderwater. The beetle grabs its preywith its front legs before eating it. Noteven small fish escape its clutches.

Bad temperThe hornet?syellow and black coloursare well-known and avoided by both otheranimals and people. A number of insectseven try to look like it to avoid being eaten.Hornets sting when their nest is attackedor threatened. The sting is painful forhumans, but deadly to smaller insects.

Europeanpraying mantis7.5 cm long

Black widow1.25 cm longTropicalworldwide

Tiger beetle1.5 cm longWorldwide

Army ant2.5 mm longCentral andSouth America

Great divingbeetle6.5 cm longWorldwide

EuropeanHornet2-4 cm longEurope and Asia

Little killers

THE praying mantisis probably the mostterrifying predator of the insect world. It sits

absolutely still, with its front legs held up as if itwere praying. As its victim approaches, the mantisfollows it with its huge eyes. Then it shoots outits spiny front legs and grabs its prey in a deadlygrip. The female mantis will even attack a malewhile he is mating with her, biting off his headbefore he has time to make his escape.

KINGFISHERAn imprint of Larousse plc

Elsley House, 24-30 Great Titchfield Street,London W1P 7AD

First published by Kingfisher 199710 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Copyright © 1997 Orpheus Books Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrievalsystem or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise,

without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 0 7534 0164 9

Created and produced by Orpheus Books Ltd

Text:Claire AstonIllustrator:David Wright (Kathy Jakeman Illustration)

Consultants:Dr Christopher O’ Toole, Hope Entomological Collections of theUniversity Museum, Oxford

Carol Sheppard, Department of Entomology, Washington State University, USAEditorial and design:Nicholas Harris

Production:Joanna Turner

Printed and bound in Singapore

IndexAant, army 15antennae 4, 6, 9ants 2-3, 11aphids 11arachnids 2

Bbackswimmer 2beetlecockchafer (maybug) 6goliath 12great diving 2, 15harlequin longhorn 8-9hercules 8longhorn 2-3stag 10tiger 15

beetlesflying 6jaws 10, 15longest 8wing-cases 6

bumblebee 2bumblebeescolony 7queen 7worker 7

butterfliesbirdwing 4feeding 4largest 4poisonous 7-8what they are 4

butterflycloudless sulphur 2-3Indian leaf 6Milbert’s tortoiseshell 2-3monarch 5passion vine 7purple emperor 4-5

Rajah Brooke’s birdwing 4swallowtail 2-3, 7

CcaterpillarCamberwell beauty 2-3hercules moth 5passion vine butterfly 7swallowtail butterfly 7

caterpillars 4centipede 2-3, 13giant Malayan 13

cockroach, Madagascarhissing 8

cockroaches 8cocoon 4, 6coloniesbumblebees 7termites 11

cricket, bush 9crickets 9, 12crustaceans 2

Ddragonflies 7dragonflybroad-bodied darter 7green darner 2

Eearthworm 2-3eyespots 6

Fflea, dog 11fleas 11flytachinid 2-3tsetse 8-9

Ggrasshopper, elegant 9grasshoppers 9

Hhornet, European 15

Iinsectsbody parts 2breathing 2fastest-flying 4fastest on the ground 15longest tongues 4slowest flyers 7spreading disease 8, 11

Llacewing 7ladybird 11larvae 9, 15

Mmantisflower 10praying 14

maybug seebeetle,cockchafer

mayfly 2millipede 2-3, 10mite, red earth 2-3mole 2-3mothburnet 6cecropia 6hawkmoth, Morgan’ssphinx 4

hercules 5luna 5North American moon

see moth, lunared underwing 2-3

silk 6mothsfeeding 4what they are 4

Ppests 11plague 11pondskater 2pseudoscorpion 2-3pupa 4

Sshield bug, hawthorn 10silk worm 6sleeping sickness 8slug 2-3snail 2-3spiderbird-eating 13black widow 14grass 2-3jumping 11tarantula 12

spiders 2springtail 2-3stick insect 10stink bugs 10

Ttardigrade (water bear) 2termitessoldier 11worker 11

Wwasp, tarantula hawk 12water bear see tardigradewater stick insect 2weevil 2-3weta, giant 12woodlouse 2-3worm, nematode 2-3