Extraordinary animals : an encyclopedia of curious and unusual animals

1 Strength in Numbers: Animal Collectives 1 Acacia Ant 1 Antarctic Krill 4 Aphids 6 Giant Japanese Hornet 9 Leaf-Cutter Ants 11 Naked Mole Rat 13 New Zealand Bat-Fly 16 Portuguese Man-of-War 18 Sponges 20 Stony Corals 23 Tar-Baby Termite 25 Trap Ant 27 2 Th e World Is a Dangerous Place: Defensive Tactics 31 Armored Shrew 31 Balloon Fish 33 Bombardier Beetles 35 Bushy-Tailed Wood Rat 38 Electric Eel 40 Glaucus 42 Goliath Tarantula 44 Honey Badger 47 Hooded Pitohui 49 Mimic Octopus 51 Sea Cucumbers 53 Slow Loris 55 Springtails 58 3 Th e Quest for Food 61 Ant Lions 61 Aye-Aye 63 Bolas Spiders 66 Bulldog Bat 68 Candirú 70 Common Chameleon 72 Cone Shells 74 Cookie-Cutter Shark 76 Egg-Eating Snake 78 Fat Innkeeper 80 Gharial 83 Giant Anteater 85 Harpy Eagle 87 Kiwis 89 Luminous Gnat 92 Mantis Shrimps 94 Megamouth Shark 96 Portia Spider 98 Purse-Web Spider 100 Shrews 103 Spitting Spider 105 Triclads 107 Velvet Worms 109 4 Getting from A to B: Solutions to the Problem of Movement 113 Bee Hummingbird 113 Common Swift 115 Emperor Penguin 117 European Eel 119 Flying Dragons 122 Four-Wing Flying Fish 124 Grant’s Golden Mole 126 Leatherback Turtle 128 Northern Bluefi n Tuna 130 Sea Lamprey 132 Sloths 135 Stenus Rove Beetles 137 Stowaway False Scorpion 139 Tokay Gecko 141 White Worm Lizard 144 5 Looking Out for the Next Generation 147 Bee Wolf 147 Blue Whale 149 Burying Beetles 152 Fig Wasps 154 King Cobra 156 viii CONTENTS Malleefowl 158 Marble Gall Wasp 161 Platypus 163 Red-and-Blue Poison-Arrow Frog 165 Sand Tiger Shark 168 Ship Timber Beetle 170 6 Living at the Expense of Others: Parasitism 173 Alcon Blue Butterfl y 173 Ant-Decapitating Flies 175 Bird Fluke 178 Cod Worm 180 Cricket Fly 182 Giant Roundworm 184 Gordian Worms 187 Guinea Worm 189 Human Botfl y 192 Leaf Wasps 194 Rabbit Flea 196 Red-Tailed Wasp 199 Sabre Wasp 201 Sacculina 204 Strepsipterans 206 Warble Flies 208 7 Th e Continuation of the Species: Sex and Reproduction 211 Blue-Headed Wrasse 211 Cockroach Wasp 213 Deep-Sea Angler Fish 215 Green Spoon Worm 218 Narwhal 220 Palolo Worms 222 Pocketbook Mussels 224 Spotted Hyena 226 Surinam Toad 228 Taita Hills Caecilian 231 Tarantula Hawks 233 Transvestite Rove Beetle 235 8 Pushing the Boundaries: Surviving Extremes 239 Antarctic Toothfi sh 239 Beard Worms 241 Coconut Crab 244 Coelacanth 247 Giant Mudskipper 249 Giant Squid 252 Hagfi sh 254 Human 256 Lake Titicaca Frog 259 Lungfi sh 261 Marine Iguana 263 Olm 266 CONTENTS ix Sperm Whale 268 Sun Spiders 270 Symbion 273 Water Bears 275 Water Spider 278 Zombie Worm 280 Glossary 283 Selected Bibliography 289 Index 291