What insects are able to form a raft on the water with their bodies? Detailed answer

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What insects are able to form a raft on the water with their bodies? Detailed answer

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What insects are able to form a raft on the water with their bodies?

If a fire ant falls into water, it will drown in a few hours. However, if many fire ants from one colony are washed into the water, they form a single raft from their bodies - each insect is hooked by its jaws on the limbs of another. This raft does not contain slots, bends well and can stay afloat for weeks.

Authors: Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

How many nostrils do you have?

Four. Two you see and two you don't.

Observations of the breathing process in fish lead to this discovery. Fish get oxygen from the water. Most of them have two pairs of nostrils: the front one for water inlet and a pair of "exhaust pipes" for its release.

Question: if humanity descended from fish, where did the second pair go?

Answer: deep into the head, turning into internal nostrils, called choannae - translated from Greek "chimneys". They connect to the throat and are the very device that allows us to breathe through the nose.

To do this, the internal nostrils need to somehow provide a backflow through the mouth. Incredible, but true: Chinese and Swedish scientists recently discovered a fish called Kenichthys campbelli - a fossil monster that is 395 million years old - demonstrating this process in its middle stage. Two nostril-like openings are clearly visible between the front teeth of the fish.

Fish Kenichthys campbelli is a direct ancestor of amphibians that can breathe both on land and in water. One set of nostrils allowed her to lie in shallow water and absorb food, while the second set protruded from the water - almost like a crocodile.

Similar gaps between teeth can be seen in the early stages of human embryonic development. When these gaps do not grow together, a "wolf's mouth" is obtained. This is how one ancient fish can explain two long-standing riddles of mankind at once.

The latest research, by the way, suggests that we use each of our two outer nostrils to distinguish smells by inhaling different amounts of air through our nostrils and thereby creating a kind of nasal stereo.

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