Nature Trivia #3

* Worms don’t have eyes, but they can feel light through their skin.

* The smallest living things are called microbes. One cup of soil may contain more living creatures than there are people on the whole planet.

* There are more than 700,000 different types of insects.

* Spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, and spiders have eight. Most insects have wings. Spiders do not.

* Toads live up to 40 years. Toads chew their food, such as worms, with their eyeball muscles. That’s why they close their eyes when eating.

* Moths and butterflies have a fine powder on their wings that helps them fly. Never pick up but- terflies by their wings.

* A common shrew eats three times its own weight in insects every day.

* A shooting star is not a star at all. It is a meteor, which is actually a bit of dust traveling through space at a very high rate of speed. When it hits Earth’s atmosphere, it gets so hot it glows! That trail of glowing dust is what we call a shooting star.

* The word "photography" is based on Greek words meaning "write with light."

* Bees have no hearing. Mosquitoes are attracted to blue more than any other color.

* You could fit 20 newborn opossums into one tablespoon.

* An octopus has three hearts.

* An elephant has 40,000 muscles in its trunk.

* Fish and snakes can not blink, which makes it extremely difficult to flirt.

* The tarantula can live without food for up to two years. But then don’t be standing in front of the refrigerator.

* Woodpeckers have unique physiology, including a skull that contains cushioning tissues to protect the bird brain when it is chiseling into trees and a kick-stand tail that doubles as a shock absorber.

* Many birds shut their wings periodically while flying to conserve energy and open them again to prevent crash landings.

* Ducks and geese beat their wings constantly during flight.

• With neither a brilliant plumage nor a melodic song to set it apart from other birds, the crow might seem to have been dealt a low blow. But animal behaviorists have long believed that the crow has at least one thing in its favor. It is among the most intelligent birds in the world, with some species so advanced that they make and store their own tools to extract food from hard-to-reach sources, such as holes in trees.

• Antler flies spend their lives within the same few square meters, feeding and mating during the day on a moose or a deer antler, sleeping at night in nearby vegetation.

• The barred owl is so called because of the marks that look like bars across its breast.

• The northern shrike is not a raptor, but it always wanted to be.

• Female Water Fleas carry their eggs in a brood pouch, much like a backpack. This pouch is located between their carapace and their body. Vernal pool Water Fleas sometimes carry up to 20 eggs. The brood pouch can become so heavy that the Water Flea tips over. She has to swim upside down until the eggs hatch and the young Water Fleas swim away.

• In winter Red-winged Blackbirds join noisy foraging (hunting and feeding) flocks of 500 to over 5000 birds of several species: Brewer’s Blackbirds, Tricolor Blackbirds, Starlings and Brown-headed Cowbirds.