Polish photographer Mirosław Świętek takes extremely close-up photos of insects, impossible until a few years ago.
Using a macro lens — which has evolved to capture the smallest details at the highest quality — Świętek shows magnified bugs that look like creatures from another planet.
Now, we use the word "bug" loosely. All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. To feed, true bugs suck, using a special mouth part called a proboscis, instead of bite. They also undergo an "incomplete metamorphosis," hatching as nymphs instead of larvae.
Water beads on this blue dragon fly because of the liquid's surface tension. The water molecules are more attracted to each other than to the insect's exoskeleton, so they ball up.
Source: University of Arkansas
Moths' wings, like butterflies', contain "dust," or tiny scales made from modified hairs. They help with flight.
Source: Science Focus
Source: Ask Nature
Source: World Dragonfly Association
Most insects, like this dragonfly, see using many small, hexagonal sections in their eyes called ommatidium. Each ommatidium acts independently, like a one-pixel picture. The insect's brain then puts these frames together, creating a blurry, mosaic-version of the world.
The common housefly exhibits the fastest visual response in the animal kingdom. They can track movements up to five times faster than humans, making then near-impossible to swat.
Their quick vision allows them to dodge our hands. A flies' brain can calculate a threat, create an escape plan, and plant its leg in the optimal position for evasion — all within 100 milliseconds. You could say they see in slow-motion.
But flies don't have eyelids. They rub their eyes with their feet to keep them clean — a strange movement you've probably noticed.
Stink bugs smell because their thorax omits a foul goo that tastes just as a awful to predators as it smells to humans.
Source: Animal Planet
Most spiders have eight eyes. The main set (in the middle) can pick out details easily while the peripheral ones watch out for impending danger.
Bees might only have two eyes, but they can recognize and remember human faces — a skill called configural processing.
Source: New York Times