TODAY’S FACT:
Dragonflies and damselflies have exceptionally acute vision. They can posess anywhere from 11 to 30 types of opsin (photo-receptive eye cells), while humans only posess 3 types, limiting our sight to that of red, green, and blue.
LAST UPDATED 26 July 2020, 17:47:08
Odonates have a mental chronometry (reaction time) of a mere 30 milliseconds, compared to the human visual chronometry of 400 milliseconds. Humans see about 60 images per second, whilst these insects see about 200 images per second.
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Insects are the most diverse class of animals and make up over half of all known living organisms. Around 10 000 000 extant species are estimated to exist.
Some species of insect, like butterflies and moths for example, use what is known as the ZW sex-determination system as apposed to the typical XY system found within most animals. The differences of the ZW system are that the sex of the offspring is determined by the ovum, rather than the sperm, and males are homogametic (ZZ) while females are heterogametic (ZW).
An insect's heart rate can vary greatly, ranging from 30-200 BPM! It usually drops to around 30 BPM when resting and/or hibernating, and rises to around 200 BPM when under intense physical stress.
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