The fastest insects in the world

Among the animals the highest speed is able to develop a cheetah - up to 130 km per hour! At short distances, he easily overtakes the car. In the water, no one can compete with a fish with a sailboat that overcomes 110 km in one hour. The predatory bird of the peregrine falcon at a dive rushes at a speed of 350 km per hour. And what do you know about the fastest insects? About them and will be discussed in the article.

Australian dragonfly

In the course of scientific research entomologists found out what is the fastest insect on our planet. This is an Australian dragonfly, or Austrophlebia costalis. For its large dimensions it is often called the "southern rocker". For one hour of flight, it overcomes at least 60 km! This achievement is even recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Some scientists claim that the dragonfly is able to fly at a speed of 100 km / h, but so far no documentary confirmation of this theory there.

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

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

Bee honey

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 bee-worker is already flying at a speed of 30-33 km / h, so she is on the second line of the rating "The fastest insects".

But according to the distance that the bee can overcome, it greatly overtakes the dragonfly: in order to produce only 1 kg of honey, the insect flies at least 450 thousand km, this is about 10 terrestrial equator!

American cockroach

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

This fastest land insect is also the most tenacious. Cockroach can not eat a month and not drink 8-10 days without prejudice to yourself, hold your breath for 45 minutes, but the most surprising is that he can live without a head, while dying of hunger! Another amazing fact is that after one mating the female is able to store the seed inside herself, later fertilizing herself several times.

For comparison: a person can withstand up to 500 units of exposure to radiation, other living beings - from 350 to 1500, but a red cockroach calmly withstands 6500 units. This means that after the atomic war on Earth will be some cockroaches ...

Bug Beetle

These beetles are spread almost all over the planet. They have an elongated body 10-40 mm long, only the genus Manticore, inhabiting Africa, reaches a length of 70 mm. Color can also be different - bright green, spotted, black. Beetles-horses are distinguished by large eyes, long antennae, and most importantly by thin high legs, on which they run very fast. The actual speed of their movement is 7.5 km / h, so the predation of these predators is rarely elusive. Scientists calculated that if these fastest insects were the size of a human, they would easily overcame 300 km in an hour (slightly less than red cockroaches). Also, beetles-horses fly well, developing at a short distance a fairly high speed.

Slepen

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

Other record holders

So it looks like the top 5 fastest insects in the world. But there are other representatives who move by land or fly through the air very quickly. For example:

• Butterflies in flight develop a speed of 45-50 km / h, they are also able for a long time to hang immovably over a flower, proboscis sucking out nectar from it;
• Hornets over an hour overcome 25-28 km;
• Water meters 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 with jumps at a speed of 6 km per hour;
• Locusts - in search of food overcomes for an hour 20 km or more.

Now you know what the fastest insects live in the world, what features they are different.