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Interesting fact:
Male Japanese pufferfish create art in the sand surrounding their nesting site to attract females.

In this part of the Book we learn about a scientific study that resulted in the conclusion that in that certtain sinario Cleaner Wrasse learned at least twice as fast as Chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, and Orangatangs. Why do we think that fish are cold minded and characterless when they are consiouse and have feelings?

I found it interesting that while we think of ourselves as having the largest brain size to our body mass a species of fish called the Elaphantfish has a brain to mass ratio that is equal to ours.

Why might fish be born so small that by the time they are adults they weight 60 million times more while humans only weight 30 times more.

Why might bees use signals to communicate while ants use pheromones?

What benefit would it bring ants to groom their “hairs” and keep clean.

How has our society influenced why we think that insects don’t have personalities or feelings?

Would their be a difference on the effects to a population that have toxins that sicken or toxins that kill?

Ask:
Why might the specific species of fly in which the book refers too in this chapter choose to parasitize the head of the ant when their is more nutrition in the abdomen and thorax.

Visualize:
This is what I think of when the author describes the mites that live in the ears of moths. https://images.app.goo.gl/XzDeEkomRSB...

Vocab:
Exhortation: a way of speaking to someone that encourages them to do something.

Question:
Why is it humane to purchase Mexican jumping beans which are prison for a caterpillar that is stuck in a bean until it dies?

In this section of the book Aristotle (350 BC) describes his observations of butterflies and bees. I am surprised at how accurate his theories about the insects behaviors when entomology wasn’t even a science.

There is a short anecdote about how a unique species of fireflies coordinates its flashes perfectly in unison so that every firefly blinks at the same time. This amazes me that a small non social animal can coordinate so well.

Vocab:
Subterranean: it means occurring under the surface.

Notes:
In this passage it talks about how army ants nest. They build their own community out of their own bodies. The bridges between trees and the platforms where they walked where all interlinked bodies of ants.

In a study some scientists brought together a group of thousands of people and depending on what color of sign they held up the average output was used to control a game of pong. The group also controlled a airplane in the same way and did surprisingly well showing that the more input you get the better the results.

Notes:
In this section of the chapter the author describes the flight patterns of midge flies. He says that they orient themselves overtop of an object on the ground and fly over it and then drift back across it repeatedly. There needs to be between 1 and 8 mph winds for this behavior to occur.

Connection
On page 115 there is a sketch showing the power and the effectiveness of the army ant’s hunting strategies. This reminds me of. The phalanx formation ancient Macedonia used to conquer many countries.

Vocab
Myrmecologist: this means one who studies ants. Basically an ant scientist.

Main Idea
The main Idea for this section is that Hollywood’s movie making about insects has nagatively impacted the reputation they have.

Question
Why has hollywood made so many movies depicting insects as monsters taking over the world.

Connection:
This part of the book describes how insects livings on decaying carrion suffer from overpopulation and lots of competition leading to low rates of survival. This reminds me of how in AP human geography class we learned about when there is overpopulation in impoverished countries the death rate is high because of lack of resources.

Cool fact:
Only Female mosquitos drink blood.
A mosquito will drink per blood meal 2 1/2 times her body weight.
The number one reason deforestation wasn’t moving as fast as a pace as nowadays is the fear of mosquitos.

Favorite Fact:
People breed cockroaches especially for racing and there is a racing competition each spring. One of the races is a three foot strait track where three Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches each pull a miniature john deer tractor to the finish line.

Cool facts:
1. Most deaths associated with bees wasps and ants after a sting occurs are because of a fear induced heart failure.
2. Humans can distinguish up to 570 levels of light intensity but the can only distinguish up to 22 levels of pain.
3. No correlation has been found between the chemical compounds found in the stings of bees, wasps, and ants and how painful the sting is.

Writers strategies.
The author uses humor to make readers interested when he talks about the possibilities for a national insect. For example he jokingly says that some of the candidates for the national insect are the dead bugs in our lights.

Ask

Why does our culture discourage eating insects and make it seem like their disgusting when really insects are more nutritious than plants and many cultures eat insects in a regular basis?

Why might a certain species of animals have the ability to eat a wide variety of plants while others can only eat one or else they will die or be poisoned?