Photograph by Atilano Contreras-Ramos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWell, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as I did.\u00a0 I really do love this time of year! It has been awhile since I did a fact about an insect so I thought I would devote today’s Wild Fact to the Dobsonfly.<\/p>\n
If you look at the picture, this looks like the most vicious insect in the world.\u00a0 They are a large insect that can reach up to 12.5 cm (5″) in length. For the record, that is almost half a foot! Even crazier is the fact that the male dobsonfly will grow tusks (or mandibles) that can reach about 1″ in length. The females also have mandibles but they are substantially smaller than the males. Like a lot of insects, the adult version (pictured above) do not actually feed and are fairly short lived. They spend most of their life in the aquatic larvae form where they can live up to 3 years and are very predacious.<\/p>\n
So if the adult dobsonfly does not feed then what the heck is the purpose of the huge mandibles.\u00a0 Obviously, they are used to scare people into thinking they are the most deadly insect on the face of the earth.\u00a0 Actually, they are used to impress the ladies.\u00a0 That’s right, the dobsonfly studs will show off their impressive tusks to their mating partner.\u00a0 They are also used to hold the female during copulation.\u00a0 I wanted to write about this insect to illustrate that mating adaptations are common throughout the animal kingdom.\u00a0 Not only with mammals or reptiles but with the more primitive animals such as crustaceans and insects.\u00a0 Mating plays such an important role in evolution since it can decide the fate of an entire species.\u00a0 You may have noticed that most of the adaptations presented so far have to do with self defense or mating. If it is the survival of the fittest then these are the strategies that need to be perfected in order for a species to make it to the next generation.<\/p>\n
Dobsonfly Fast Fact: <\/strong>The mandibles on the male dobsonfly are so large that they are actually incapable of biting a human. They are not able to get enough leverage to do any harm.\u00a0 The female dobsonfly, on the other hand can use her pincers to inflict a painful bite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend as much as I did.\u00a0 I really do love this time of year! It has been awhile since I did a fact about an insect so I thought I would devote today’s Wild Fact to the Dobsonfly. If you look at the picture, this looks like the most vicious insect in the world.\u00a0 They are a large insect that can reach up to 12.5 cm (5″) in length. For the record, that is almost half a foot! Even crazier is the fact that the male dobsonfly will grow tusks (or mandibles) that can <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,4024],"tags":[348,337,338,208,339,4113,4025,4027],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Photograph](\"http:\/\/wild-facts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/contreras6.jpg\" "\\"contreras6\\"")
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