Top 10 en­to­mol­o­gy facts

Ladybug. It's a larva of a seven-pointed ladybird. It is very effective in fighting aphids (much more effective than adults), eating up to six hundred a day.

They will grow mushrooms on them. South American Atta ants use leaves to prepare their food. They chew them first and then grow mushrooms on it.

Secretion of aphids. Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the anus of the aphid. Honeydew is then collected by honey bees.

They overheat them. As a hornet enters the hive, a mob of hundreds of honey bees surrounds it in a ball, completely covering it and preventing it from reacting effectively. The bees violently vibrate their flight muscles in much the same way as they do to heat the hive in cold conditions. This raises the temperature in the ball to the critical temperature of 46 °C.

8. All spiders have eight legs (while insects have six). Unlike most arthropods, spiders have no extensor muscles in their limbs and instead extend them by hydraulic pressure.

Moths. Several moth species have evolved to exclusively inhabit moist fur of sloths. It appears that sloths benefit from their relationship with moths because the moths fertilize algae on the sloth, which provides them with nutrients. Some sloths have been recorded carrying more than 120 moths in their fur.

Bed bugs were largely eradicated in the 40s of the last century. However, they have increased in prevalence since 1990s, likely due to pesticide resistance, governmental bans on effective pesticides, and international travel.

Up to 6 years. Queen bee is naturally capable of living up to 6 years. However, in modern beekeeping the replacement of mothers takes place every approximately 2 years.

It depends on the season. During the warm season, the worker bee lives only about 38 days. However, during the winter it may live up to about 6 months.

Around one minute. A typical worker sleeps for only one minute, but up to 250 times a day.