9781422283448

Insects look like aliens. But there’s a method to the madness. Sometimes being a weird shape can help an insect to find food. Some take advantage of how they look to hide from predators. Other insects look ugly or frightening to scare their enemies away.

If you had eyes on stalks like the diopsid fly at the

Peanut-head bugs live in rainforests and eat tree sap. Their large heads may help to frighten other animals away. 7

bottom of the page, you could use them to peek around corners! But diopsid flies do not do this. Instead, they fight each other by holding up their eyestalks. The fly with the longest stalks is the winner.

8 A diopsid fly’s feelers are on its eyestalks.

6.