Amazing Facts and Information about Bees

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Suborder: Apocrita

Superfamily: Apoidea

(unranked): Anthophila

Families:

Andrenidae

Apidae

Colletidae

Dasypodaidae

Halictidae

Megachilidae

Meganomiidae

Melittidae

Stenotritidae

Amazing Facts and Information Bees

• Can see light between wavelengths 300 nm and 650 nm.
• Have chemoreceptors (taste receptors) on their jaws, forelimbs and antennae.
• Worker honey bees have 5,500 lenses ("ommatidia") in each eye.
• Worker honey bees have a ring of iron oxide ("magnetite") in their abdomens that may be used to detect magnetic fields.
• They may use this ability to detect changes in the earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation.
• Can see polarized light.

Read More

Scientific classification and interesting facts about bats

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Infraclass: Eutheria

Super-order: Laurasiatheria

Order: Chiroptera

Family: 18 families

Genus: 180 genera

Species: Around 1100

24 Amazing Facts and Information on Bats

1. Bats are the only mammal that can actually fly and make up the second largest order of mammals in the world.
2. A little brown bat (myotis) can eat up to 1000 mosquitoes in one hour.
3. A mother bat can locate her pup (baby) out of millions in a roost, by tracking down its scent and sound.
4. African heart-nosed bats can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand, from a distance of more than six feet.
5. Agricultural plants like bananas, bread-fruit, mangoes, cashews, dates and figs rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.
6. Bats are extremely clean animals and groom themselves almost on a constant basis.
7. Bats give birth to only one baby in a year, making them one of the slowest reproducing mammals on earth for their size.
8. Bats seldom transmit disease to other animals or even humans.
9. During winter hibernation, Red Bats can withstand body temperatures as low as 23 degrees.
10. Frog eating bats differentiate between edible and poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs.
11. Giant flying foxes, which are native to Indonesia, have a wingspan of nearly six feet.
12. Many species of bats roost together in large groups, known as colonies.
13. Most of the bats have very good eyesight. They also have excellent echolocation skills.
14. Most of these bat species are so small that they would easily fit in the palm of your hand.
15. Some of the bats migrate to warmer climates during the winter, while the others hibernate.
16. Studies have indicated that the Old World fruit bats and flying foxes might have descended from early primates.
17. The bumblebee bat of Thailand is the smallest mammal in the world.
18. The droppings of bats in caves support whole ecosystems of unique organisms, including bacteria.
19. Honduran white bat is completely white in color, with the exception of yellow nose and ears.
20. The tiny woolly bats of West Africa live in the large webs of colonial spiders.
21. Vampire bats are one of the few mammals who risk their own lives to share food with the less fortunate roost-mates.
22. When hibernating, little brown bats can reduce their heart rate to 20 beats per min and even can stop breathing altogether, for 48 min at a stretch.Can detect warmth of an animal from about 16 cm away using its "nose-leaf".
23. Bats can also find food (insects) up to 18 ft. away and get information about the type of insect using their sense of echolocation.
24. Can hear frequencies between 3,000 and 120,000 Hz.

Read More

Types of Ants Species

Types of Ants Species

Army Ants : The queens of the african army ant (driver ant), are the largest ants
in the world. It can be over an inch long

Fire Ants: Fire ants are stinging ants of which there are over 280 species worldwide.

Pharaoh Ants : Up to 300,000 workers with multiple queens will nest in wall and cabinet voids, behind baseboards.

Crazy Ants : Crazy ants get their name from their habit of running about very erratically with no apparent sense of direction.

Weaver Ants : Weaver ants (genus Oecophylla) are known for their communication and nest building behaviour.

Slave Maker Ants : Some ants will raid the colonies of other ants

Jack Jumper Ants : The jack jumper ant, hopper ant or jumper ant is a species of bulldog ant.

Bullet Ants : Paraponera is a genus of ant consisting of a single species, the so-called bullet ant.

Lemon Ants : species of ant that is notable for the creation of Devil's gardens.

Argentine Ant : The Argentine ant is a tiny dark ant native to northern Argentina.

Carpenter Ants : Carpenter ant workers are 1/4 inch long. The queen can be up to 3/4 inch.

Little Black Ants : A very small, black ant closely related to the Pharaoh ant.

Honey Pot Ants : A very small, black ant closely related to the Pharaoh ant.

Yellow Citronella Ants : They are found mostly in New England and the Midwest.

Big Head Ants : Big-headed ants are most often confused with fire ants.

Leaf Cutter Ants : They feed on a specialized fungus that grows only in the underground chambers of the ants nest.

Bulldog Ants : These ant were once found worldwide but is now restricted to Australia.

Gliding Ants : Gliding ants are arboreal ants of several different genera that are able to control the direction.

Atta laevigata: Atta laevigata is one of about a dozen species of leafcutter ants in the genus Atta

Thief Ant: thief ants, get their names because they often raid other ants nests.

Read More