Monday, May 12, 2008

World's heaviest insects


The first species of insect that could be called a beetle appeared on earth over 300 million years ago. And they've been here ever since, increasing their numbers, evolving into countless different varieties, and adapting to climates in almost every environment possible. Of all the billions of insects on earth those belonging to the beetle family are the most numerous of any other species. By sheer numbers alone, beetles have won the title of The Most Successful Form of Life. Beetles inhabit every corner of the globe in all kinds of weather. You could say that we're living on the planet of the beetles.

The Goliath beetle belongs to the scarab family, which contains more than 30,000 species. Not insects - species of insects. That's just 30,000 different types of scarab beetles. There are hundreds of thousands of living beetles of each type, and there are many more types of scarab beetles that have yet to be discovered. The numbers just boggle the mind.



No comments: