
Two enormous black-and-white false eye spots on the pronotum mimic vertebrate predator eyes — birds approach, see the eyes, flinch, and abandon the attack.

Two enormous black-and-white false eye spots on the pronotum mimic vertebrate predator eyes — birds approach, see the eyes, flinch, and abandon the attack.

Bed bug saliva contains both an anticoagulant and a mild anesthetic — most people don't feel the bite while it's happening.

Only male blue morphos are blue — females are typically brown with white spots.

Female botflies have been documented hijacking at least 40 different species of biting insects — not just mosquitoes.

The violin-shaped marking on the cephalothorax gives the brown recluse its other common name: fiddleback spider.

Over 1,000 'brown recluse bite' diagnoses have been recorded in California, Florida, and Oregon — places the spider has never lived. Most are misdiagnosed.

Most real recluse bites happen when humans roll onto a hidden spider in bed — the spider isn't aggressive, just trapped.