On Animals

The zebra lives in places where there is very tall grass. The stripes on its body mix well with the shadows of the blades of grass.

Penguins hatch their single egg on their feet. Their legs are very short and they have a special hollow in their feathers into which the egg fits comfortably. In this way, the chick is hatched.

When an octopus is in danger, it squirts out clouds of purple `ink’ which help it to hide and escape! Octopuses have eyes that are very much like human eyes!

The sea –horse is a fish, even though it doesn’t look like one. A sea –horse is covered in a suit of armor. This is a way of protecting itself from its enemies. Baby sea-horses hatch inside a pocket on their father’s belly.

The tallest grasses in the world are the thorny bamboo of India. They can reach a height of 36.50 m 9120 feet). Some grow a meter a day. Some bamboo plants may wait as long as 60 years before they produce flowers. After flowering they die!

Giant squids (sea creatures) have the largest eyes among animals. Each eye measures 40.64 cm (16 inches) across.

Leaves of the giant water lily can grow up to 2.5 m (8feet) across.

The longest sea seaweed is the pacific giant kelp which can grow to over 60 meters long.

The Japanese fungus Mycaena luk-coeli glows in the dark and can be seen as far away as 15m.

On Insects

All two-winged insects are called flies- that include the mosquito too1 the housefly is the one most commonly known to us. There are over 40,000 species of flies.

The feeler of houseflies is organs of smell, not feeling. They can sense smell at great distances.

The light from the firefly produce no heat.

The common garden spider –can lay up to 600 eggs at one time. If you were to take half –a kilo of spider’s thread and string it end to end-it would circle the earth!

The ears of a grasshopper are situated near its knees!

Moths are usually attracted to white flowers. They can see white color well in the dark.

African robber or slaves-making ants force ants of other species to do all the work for them.

Monarch butterflies live in North America and each autumn they fly south 2,000 km to reach warmer places. In spring, they fly all the way back home.

There are more different kinds of beets than there is any other sort of animal.

Dragonflies are the fast flying of all insects, even reaching speeds of over 50 km per hour.

Grasshoppers and crickets have existed on earth since before the dinosaurs.