Amaze your friends
Fun Facts
True facts, tested on grown-ups. Warning: may cause loud "WHOA!" sounds.
Tiny super-lifters
An ant can lift many times its own body weight. If you were that strong, you could carry a car over your head.
Ears in weird places
Grasshoppers hear with their bellies, crickets with their knees, and some moths have "ears" on their wings.
Living life rafts
When Florida floods, fire ants grab onto each other and float as a raft made entirely of ants — for weeks if they have to.
Backward flyers
Dragonflies fly forward, backward, sideways and upside down — and they catch about 95% of the prey they chase.
Cold light
A firefly's glow makes almost no heat — it's one of the most efficient lights in the world. Light bulbs are jealous.
Planet of beetles
Around 1 in 4 known animal species on Earth is a beetle — over 350,000 kinds named so far, with more found every year.
A spoonful of work
One honey bee makes only about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life. A jar of honey is the work of thousands of bees.
Thousands of eyes
A dragonfly's giant eyes have up to 30,000 tiny lenses each. It can see almost all the way around its head at once.
Super jumpers
Grasshoppers can jump about 20 times their body length. For you, that's leaping over a school bus — from a standstill.
Stronger than steel
For its weight, spider silk is stronger than steel. Florida's golden silk orb-weavers spin webs wider than your arms can stretch.
Summer loudspeakers
Cicadas are among the loudest insects on Earth — a full chorus can be as loud as a lawn mower. That's Florida's summer soundtrack.
Insects rule
Scientists think there are about 10 quintillion insects alive right now — that's more than a billion insects for every single person.
Want more? Every card in the Insect Atlas hides one more curious fact — and the Resources page leads to thousands.