An Australian beer company had to change the design of its beer bootle because male jewel beetles were mating with the bottle thinking it was a female. This odd behaviour was observed in 1983 by two biologists. npr.org/sections/krulwichβ¦
Dim, the rhinoceros beetle from A Bug's Life (1998), had no known reference in nature until the Megaceras briansaltini was discovered in 2007. This phenomena, of nature mimicking art, was coined the Dim Effect by its discoverer. digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgβ¦
Egyptians' sun god Khepri was scarab-faced because they believed that in the same way as the beetle pushes large balls of dung along the ground, Khepri moved the newly-born sun across the sky en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kheβ¦
In 1963 a VW Beetle donated by the manufacturer became the first car in the Antarctic. It was so good for Antarctic use, being able to withstand temperatures below -50Β°C and winds above 150 km/h, that it was nicknamed "Red Terror" by the users. petrolicious.com/articlesβ¦
Small bugs like ticks hitch rides on larger flying insects in a process called Phoresis. Blister beetle larvae uses Phoresis by emitting fake pheromones to attract a male bee who will then take them for a ride ultimately to a female beeβs nest which they will then parasitize. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoβ¦
There's a beetle whose larvae stage lures frogs to eat them, but then eats the frog instead. They can even eat the frog after the frog ingests and regurgitates them. nationalgeographic.com/scβ¦
James Monaghan who with brother Tom started the Domino's pizza chain with $75 down payment and $500 loan, ended up selling his stake in the company in 1960 to this brother for a Volkswagen Beetle. pizzahalloffame.com/dominβ¦
There's a blind cave beetle, Anophthalmus hitleri, that was named after Adolf Hitler. Its discoverer was given a letter of gratitude from Hitler. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoβ¦
There was a military variant of the VW Beetle called the "KΓΌbelwagen". Despite only being two wheel drive, it outperformed nearly every other vehicle during testing. Due to its flat belly, it would propel itself like a sled if the wheels sank into snow, mud, or sand. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volβ¦
Volkswagen was sued by the Czechoslovakian car maker Tatra before WWII because the KdF-Wagen (the original Beetle) was so similar to the Tatra 97. Porsche was willing to settle but Hitler said he would "would settle the matter." After Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, T97 production was stopped. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatβ¦
Dung Beetles navigate poop-pile getaways using mental "snapshots" of the Milky Way that they take while "dancing" atop their ball of dung npr.org/sections/thetwo-wβ¦
Experimental jet-engined trains were actually a thing back in the 1960s. The Black Beetle reached a speed of 183.68 mph, an American rail speed record that still stands today. youtube.com/watch?v=1m1p1β¦
Disney auditioned cars for the role of Herbie in the 1968 Love Bug film. Disney set up a casting call for cars, including Toyotas, a TVR, Volvos, an MG and a pearl white Volkswagen Beetle. The Beetle was chosen as it was the only one that elicited the crew to reach out and pet it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theβ¦
When the 2014 VW Beetle convertible was introduced, certain markets had the option of the "Beetle" badge being replaced with the local language's slang term for the original Beetle, such as "Vocho", "Fusca" or "Coccinelle". volkswagen-newsroom.com/eβ¦
During one of her Oprah's Favorite Things specials Oprah Winfrey promised every audience member a car. However, as the cars were the yet-unreleased 2012 VW Beetles, the members had to wait until the model reached the market to get their cars. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volβ¦
There is a beetle that lives in Europe called the "cockchafer", and it was once used for food in Europe, and even has had a warship named for it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocβ¦
There is a Beetle that double crosses its predators (frogs) by luring them into attacking him, dodging, cutting their leg muscles and then eating them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoβ¦
The dung beetle is the first known species to navigate using the Milky Way. They orient themselves to the bright stripe of light generated by our galaxy, and move in a line relative to it. They also use the symmetrical pattern of polarized light that appears around the sun. nationalgeographic.com/neβ¦
The movie Beetlejuice as well as the titular character are actually called "Beetle Juice" according to the opening credits. In the end credits as well as in the rest of the film itself, the character is actually called Betelgeuse, but all home releases and marketing are spelled "Beetlejuice." indiewire.com/2013/03/5-tβ¦
Charles Darwin once found two ground beetles and grabbed one in each hand before seeing a "sacred" crucifix beetle (Panagaeus cruxmajor). Afraid to lose it, he put one of the beetles he had between his teeth to grab the crucifix but the beetle spit acid down his throat and he lost them all. mentalfloss.com/article/5β¦
Entomologists and English speakers outside of North America call them Ladybirds not ladybugs. The ladybird beetle is not classified as a true bug. en.wikipedia.org/w/index.β¦
Charles Darwin was an avid beetle collector. One day he found 2 rare beetles and seized one in each hand. He then saw a third one, and thus put one of the beetles he already had into his mouth. It ejected some acid and burnt his tongue, forcing him to spit it out. He lost 2 of the beetles. darwin-online.org.uk/Editβ¦
Australia wanted to control its populations of grey-backed cane and French beetles, so it brought cane toads from the Americas to eat them. But in Australia the cane toad has no predators, so now they have a cane toad problem. Since then, the cane toad has become a problem in over 15 countries. environment.gov.au/biodivβ¦
An African dung beetle, S. zambesianus, uses the polarization of a moonlit sky to orientate itself so that it can move along a straight line. Many creatures use the Sun's light-polarization pattern, but this is the first animal known to use the million-times dimmer polarization of moonlight. nationalgeographic.com/anβ¦
Ferdinand Porsche (The founder of the Porsche luxury car brand) gave up his Czechoslovakian citizenship in order to become an active Nazi Party member in the late 1930s. He then pushed for the utilization of Jewish slaves to mass-produce the then-new Volkswagen Beetle, aka "The People's Car" warhistoryonline.com/war-β¦
There's a kind of beetle named after Stephen Colbert. Colbert had previously asked scientists to name something "cooler than a spider" after him. The scientist that discovered the beetle then named it after Colbert, because "beetles are way cooler than a spider any day". expertsure.com/2009/05/07β¦
Chicago's Field Museum has 10 colonies of flesh-eating beetles, who live and work at the museum cleaning animal bones for display. mentalfloss.com/article/6β¦
Most of us have eaten a lot of insects. Carmine also known as Red no. 4 is one of the most common food dyes and is made from the crushed up shell of the cochineal beetle. businessinsider.com/yoplaβ¦
Hercules Beetles, also known as a rhinoceros beetle, the Hercules beetle is the longest beetle and is the strongest creature on Earth for its size β it can carry 850 times its weight! Thatβs like a person carrying seven elephants! entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatuβ¦
In tropical rainforest ecosystems, dung is a very valuable and limited resource, so instead randomly searching for it on the forest floor, dung beetles actually wait by the anus of the monkey. They grab it as it falls out and actually fall to earth with it. earthtouchnews.com/naturaβ¦
Dung beetles, when placed in a planetarium behave with a sense of direction only under specific constellations. This would indicate that they celestially navigate. time.com/4104980/animal-nβ¦
That in the 1980s a group of scientist found that male Jewel beetles in Australia were mating with discarded beer bottles as they looked like very sexually attractive females; glossy, dimpled and brown. Afterwards, the beer company changed their bottle design. australiangeographic.com.β¦
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