Science Memes

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arthropods (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

There are more kinds of beetles in the world than any other animal.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Wot?

John

Paul

George

Ringo

That’s FOUR. Only four.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I needed a clarification, Wikipedia had your back.

The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal species; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 and 2.1 million total species.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Note that this is described species. Beetles are really easy to preserve and are often super cool. There are likely more species in other orders, but they haven't had as much work done on them. Hymenoptera, for example, with all of the parasitic wasps probably has more species but they can be so freaking small and difficult to work with.

Sorry, I am like a wanna be entomologist who works with akshual entomologists and this is one of the things that triggers them

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I recently heard a tidbit that we think there's less bugs in the air because windshields aren't as dirty. Like, if that's our indicator on such a huge and fundamental part of life on this planet... Less bugs on the windshield. We have no idea

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It's not even very good logic (in my humble, non-expert opinion). There are more cars about, so even if the number of bugs was the same there would be less bugs per car, and that ignores that cars are more aerodynamic and so are probably just killing less bugs anyway!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

The aerodynamic thing is where money is at. I drive a 91 jeep and I still have to use the windo washer at the gas station, cause the wipers are insufficient.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I imagined they used bugs per license plate for that. Since those are fixed size and vertical.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

There's probably still a bit of aerodynamic effect, but yeah that sounds a lot more scientific!