Alaska - Land of the tough ass bugs

[Frostbit]

Alaska’s tough insects provide a lesson in life's resilience



"Unlike birds, Alaska bugs don't migrate. They have to endure subzero temperatures that can beset large areas for months at a time.

But endure they do. Sikes cited one kind of moth can crawl around the North Slope as a caterpillar for seven years before earning its wings.

Some bugs burrow into the ground or huddle with an air pocket around them in snow. "It's warmer under the snow than above it," Sikes observed. Others dehydrate themselves or have developed a protein that works like antifreeze, "strategies" that keep fatal ice crystals from forming in their cells."

[Adam]

"Unlike birds, Alaska bugs don't migrate. Like some birds, they have a wingspan of several feet."


Fixed.

[Frostbit]

"Unlike birds, Alaska bugs don't migrate. Like some birds, they have a wingspan of several feet."


Fixed.

Thought for sure you would jump on this...

"It's often said that if you weighed all the mosquitoes in arctic Alaska it would weigh more than all the caribou," he said. "That's plausible, but I don't think anyone's actually gone out and got the data."

Alaska has about 30 species of mosquitoes and an estimated 8,000 species of land and freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Arthropoda. (The name means "jointed feet"; ocean-going members of the group include king crab.)


I'll have to try to imagine I'm not eating a really tasty bug next time I chow on some King Crab.