It took months of test, a grueling process that settled the question once and for all. The strongest insect in the world is Onthophagus taurus, a species of horned dung beetle. The beetle can 1,141 times its own body weight. This is the same as if a 150 pound person were to life 6 double-decker buses. These beetles don’t carry balls of dung, instead they bury cow dung. There are two types, a horned version and non horned version. The horned version fight with each to determine if they should mate or not, while the non horned waits for its opportunity and sneaks in to mate.
The scientists tied a piece of cotton to the beetles in order to determine the strength. Once the beetle got into the tunnel, they would pull on the string. They also varied how well they fed the beetle. When they fed the horned beetles well, they got much stronger than the poorly fed horned beetle. When they fed the non horned beetle well, they grew much larger testes, didn’t get much stronger, than the poorly fed non horned beetles. They said this happened due to genes.
A woman going from Mexico into Texas was stopped at the border. When it came time to declare what she had, she declared a piece of jewelry, a beetle that was covered in gold and blue jewelry, with a safety-pin in it and a gold chain. It was being worn as a brooch on her sweater. One thing though, the beetle was living. The woman didn’t have the right paperwork filled out, so the beetle was confiscated, and taken for further inspection. In Mexico, wearing beetles as jewelry has long been popular. Now it has developed into wearing live beetles, a new fad that has seemingly caught on. Actually, it has been said that Jackie Kennedy got one of these with emeralds on it.
The problem that has arisen is that the women didn’t properly declare the insect. When coming into a country, one must declare pests in any form (living, pets, and so on) on a PPQ form 526. This form is for the importation or exportation of pests. Due to her not doing that, the insect was taken. Another problem that has arisen is animal rights activists have flocked to this story. They are outraged that a woman would do this to a live beetle. They went to the newspapers in Texas to complain about this treatment of the beetle. Regardless of what is said, this practice of wearing beetles as jewerly is rampant in Mexico, and it makes one wonder if that fad will catch on in the U.S.
MyFoxD.com reported earlier this month about beetles that are putting many homes and people at risk. Homeowners in California that have a house located on the Chesapeake Bay cliffs are in a bit of a pickle. An endangered beetle is rapidly eroding the cliffs, making the homes in danger of sliding into the bay. Check out the news story below.
It took months of test, a grueling process that settled the question once and for all. The strongest insect in the world is Onthophagus taurus, a species of horned dung beetle. The beetle can 1,141 times its own body weight. This is the same as if a 150 pound person were to life 6 double-decker buses. These beetles don’t carry balls of dung, instead they bury cow dung. There are two types, a horned version and non horned version. The horned version fight with each to determine if they should mate or not, while the non horned waits for its opportunity and sneaks in to mate.
A woman going from Mexico into Texas was stopped at the border. When it came time to declare what she had, she declared a piece of jewelry, a 