ALIEN INSECTS

ALIEN INSECTS

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 KINI and I'll be your host. Buzz along " This alien poses as a damsel fly of the Zygoptera suborder. 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

Image: Barry Forbes

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.

Image: Malgorzata Tomkowicz

3. This species of aliens has fooled humans for many years. Popularly known as a bumblebee of the Apidae family, 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!

Image: L. Reyns

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 Rings.

Image: Luis Manual Guaida

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.

Image: Kool Pix

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.

Image: Vai_boy

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.

Image: Scott Thompson

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.

Image: J. Wadele

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.

Image: Lida Rose

10. This praying mantis looks straight out of Alien or Men in Black No prizes for guessing who inspired whom.

Image: Kristin Lee

GOLDEN STING RAY MIGRATION

Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico. The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters.

Gliding silently beneath the waves they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks.

She said: 'It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind. 'It's hard to say exactly how many there were, but in the range of a few thousand.

'We were surrounded by them, without seeing the edge of the school, and we could see many under the water surface too. I feel very fortunate I was there in the right place at the right time to experience nature at his best.'

Measuring up to 7 ft (2.1 meters) from wing-tip to wing-tip, Golden Rays are also more prosaically known as Cow Nose Rays. They have long, pointed pectoral fins that separate into two lobes in front of their high-domed heads and give them a cow-like appearance. Despite having poisonous stingers, they are known to be shy and non-threatening when in large schools. The population in the Gulf of Mexico migrates, in schools of as many as 10,000.

TWIN FISH

It is so incredibly rare that you would think Siamese twin fish attached at the stomach would never survive. But at eight months old, these two Nile Tilapia fish in Thailand have found the perfect way to cope with life upside down or the right way up if you're the lucky twin. The bigger fish protects its smaller sibling on the bottom, while it in turn looks for food.

The Nile Tilapia fish is a common freshwater species found in tropical rivers, canals, lakes and ponds but these two were found in a Bangkok aquarium. The fish can reaches a maximum of 2ft in length and can weigh up to 9lb. Originally from waters stretching from Africa to the Cape Horn, the fish was introduced to freshwater irrigation systems so as to fight algae growth but has now become a pest.

Best mates: The bigger fish helps its sibling, while the smallerone searches for food. Behind shrimp and salmon Nile Tilapia is the third most imported fish to the U.S. It is not the first time Siamese twins have been discovered in the animal kingdom. In July, a pair of barn swallows conjoined at the hip by skin and muscle tissue, were found in Arkansas. The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission said it was a 'one in a million - probably more than that - occurrence'. When discovered by officials the birds were not eating, and one died, while a veterinarian later put the other down. Experts say finding conjoined birds is rare because they likely die before being discovered. They believe the birds came from a double yolk egg. Life upside down: The Siamese twin Nile Tilapia are still alive and well at eight months in an aquarium in Bangkok.

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