Wikijunior:Bugs/Crazy Bug Facts

So, before we start this book, let's give you a taste of how cool and weird bugs are. Let's start with these...

• Exploding termites are appropriately named — when they sense attackers, they guard their territory and splatter them with their insides.
• Fairyflies are the smallest insects in the world — just 0.02 centimetres — that's as small as the tip of a needle! And besides being so tiny, they insert their eggs into eggs of other insects, by using their sting. So they're not even flies, but a kind of wasp.
• When it feels attacked, one kind of South African cockroach stands on its head and hisses.
• One kind of caterpillar, the Polyphemus moth caterpillar, can eat over 86,000 times its weight before turning into a moth.
• Scuttle flies can eat shoe polish and paint.
• If you weighed all the insects in the world, they'd be heavier than all other animals put together.

Now it's time to delve deeper into the weird world of barmy bugs and other irksome insects. Have fun!