Sedarkah anda bahawa dalam dunia ini, terdapat pelbagai serangga yang
sebenarnya lebih mirip kepada Alien. Walaupun tiada siapa yang kenal
rupa alien sebenarnya.
.
Kalau dikata sahaja alien, sudah tentu
anda bayangkan rupa yang ganas, dan bentuk yang tidak dibayang sebelum
ini. Jika anda terserempak serangga yang lebih ganas di halaman rumah
anda, bolehlah bandingkan dengan serangga yang akan dipaparkan.
Jom kita tengok senarai serangga yang tergolong dalam golongan rupa bentuk alien ini.
A
common mistake when searching for alien life forms is to look up into
the sky for something big. But alien life is right here, at our feet,
in our backyards. Millions of tiny but frightening aliens, many just a
few millimetres long. We’ve convinced the most cheerful of the lot to
give us a tour…
1. “Hi, I’m Danny and I’ll be your host. Buzz along…”
This alien poses as a damselfly of the
Zygopterasuborder. People often fail to notice that they hold their wings
differently when at rest and are also smaller than dragonflies. Oh, and
did you notice, their eyes are separated. Though running might be
better than waiting to see the blue in their eyes… 2. “Give me… FOOD!” This fuzzy yellow alien with black spots is called
Dasychira Pudibunda and is the larval form, or caterpillar, of the red-tailed moth.
3. This species of aliens has fooled humans for many years. Popularly known as a bumblebee of the
Apidaefamily, they have donned a fuzzy yellow-and-black fur and spread
rumours that some of them are stingless. Right, whatever, just careful
with that … thingy, dude!
4. “Listen to me, Earthling, feel the mighty wrath of Gandalf the Green!” This green bush cricket of the
Tettigoniidae family is still miffed because he wasn’t cast in
Lord of the Rings.
5.
“Hullo there, did I startle you? If I did pretty please, will you be
my… ahem… buy my dinner?” This praying mantis is one of 2,000 species
in the mantis order of insects. As predatory aliens, er, insects, they
might better be called preying mantis.
6.
“I might look cute but I can sap you out!” Treehoppers have long
fascinated biologists because of their unusual appearance. They belong
to the
Membracidae family and are closely related to cicadas
and leafhoppers. They feed upon the sap found in plant stems, which
they prick with their beaks.
7.
This praying mantis male would certainly score a role in any alien
movie. His acting talent is undisputed as he’s part of the flower
mantis species - they pretend to be flowers and then attack their prey.
How very cunning, indeed.
8.
“Who you’re calling an alien? Our ancestors have been around since 350
million BC!” Wasps are said to be terrestrial but some of them look
positively extra-terrestrial. Though often called pests, they are in
fact very important for ecosystems: as food for other insects and birds
or as predators limiting the populations of many other species.
9.
“Call me a cricket one more time!” Grasshoppers have horns or antennas
that are shorter than their body, unlike their relatives’, the bush
crickets. They may look well shielded but lose many a battle when they
end up as a protein-rich delicacy on someone’s plate in many parts of
the world.
10. This praying mantis looks straight out of
Alien or
Men in Black… No prizes for guessing who inspired whom.