The fastest insects in the world

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Among the animals, the cheetah can develop the highest speed - up to 130 km per hour! At short distances, he can easily overtake a car. In the water, no one can compete with a sailboat fish, which travels 110 km in one hour. The peregrine falcon, a bird of prey, dives at a speed of 350 km per hour. What are the fastest insects you know? They will be discussed in the article.

Australian dragonfly

In the course of scientific research, entomologists have found out which is the fastest insect on our planet. This is the Australian dragonfly, or Austroflebia costalis. For its large size, it is often called the "southern yoke". In one hour of flight, she overcomes at least 60 km! This achievement is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Some scientists claim that the dragonfly is capable of flying at a speed of 100 km/h, but so far there is no documentary evidence of this theory.

How does the Australian dragonfly fly? It is the fastest insect on earthin one second it makes 100-150 strokes of its wings. When she needs maneuverability in pursuit of prey, she flaps her hind and front wings alternately, and simultaneously to develop super speed. It is known that dragonflies are able to overcome simply huge distances, moving away from home for more than a thousand kilometers.

What other fastest insects live in our world? Read more about them.

Honey bee

Like a dragonfly, a bee can fly at a speed of 60 km per hour. But she often flies with nectar, which weighs as much as one insect. With a full honey ventricle, the worker bee is already flying at a speed of 30-33 km per hour, so it is on the second line of the "Fastest Insects" rating.

But in terms of the distance that a bee is able to overcome, it is far ahead of a dragonfly: to produce only 1 kg of honey, an insect flies at least 450 thousand km, which is about 10 earth's equators!

American cockroach

Periplaneta americana, or the American cockroach, occupies the third position in our ranking. He is the fastest runner among insects. In 1991, it was recorded that this red-haired creature moves at a speed of 5.4 km / h. Not impressive? But if you recalculate cockroach speed in relation to human standards, it turns out that having the height of an average man, Periplaneta americana would move at a speed of 350 km / h! And a cockroach for just onesecond can change the direction of his run 25 times.

This is the fastest land insect and also the most tenacious. A cockroach is able not to eat for a month and not drink for 8-10 days without harming itself, to hold its breath for 45 minutes, but the most amazing thing is that it can live without a head, while dying of hunger! Another amazing fact is that after one mating, the female is able to keep the seed inside herself, later fertilizing herself several more times.

For comparison: a person can withstand up to 500 units of exposure to radiation, other living beings - from 350 to 1500, but the red cockroach can easily withstand 6500 units. This means that after the nuclear war, only cockroaches will remain on Earth…

Rider Beetle

These beetles are distributed almost all over the planet. They have an elongated body 10-40 mm long, only the Manticore genus living in Africa reaches a length of 70 mm. The color can also be different - bright green, spotted, black. Horse beetles are distinguished by large eyes, long antennae, and, most importantly, thin high legs, on which they run very quickly. The actual speed of their movement is 7.5 km / h, so prey rarely escapes these predators. Scientists have calculated that if these fastest insects were the size of a person, then they would easily overcome 300 km in an hour (slightly less than red cockroaches). Also, jumping beetles fly well, developing rather high speed over short distances.

Gidfly

Thisa large fleshy fly with large wings and simply huge eyes ranks fifth among record-breaking insects in terms of speed. She flies very quickly, overcoming 50-55 km in an hour. Horseflies are amazingly hardy, easily adapting even to the most unfavorable living conditions, and besides, they are very voracious - one individual drinks as much blood at a time as 70 mosquitoes can overpower.

Other record holders

This is what the top 5 fastest insects in the world look like. But there are other representatives that move on land or fly through the air very quickly. For example:

• moth hawk moths in flight develop a speed of 45-50 km/h, they are also able to hover motionless over a flower for a long time, sucking nectar out of it with their proboscis;
• hornets cover 25-28 km in an hour;
• water striders run on the surface of the water at a speed of 4 km per hour, while their paws remain completely dry! Another mystery of nature;
• fleas - these nasty insects move by jumping at a speed of 6 km per hour;
• locust - in search of food, overcomes 20 or more km in an hour.

Now you know which are the fastest insects living in the world, what features they differ in.