What insects are the fastest. The fastest animals

For us, running is necessary only for sports or maintaining good physical shape, and for the animal world, running is necessary to survive, or vice versa to feed ourselves. And it's really interesting, but how fast are they? We offer a small selection - the fastest animals of our mother Earth.

The fastest cat is the cheetah

The fastest land

The fastest animal in the world is the cheetah, for him the speed of 100 km / h is not the limit. But such speeds require a huge amount of energy, because the cat will not run far. The lightning attack lasts for a few seconds, otherwise the animal will either go into cardiac arrest.

In second place is the prey of the cheetah - the wildebeest.

Wildebeest

These animals prefer to stay in a herd, and during migration they move 50 km / h. But if they are in danger, then a huge herd of up to 500 heads rushes at a speed of up to 90 km / h. Grant's graceful gazelles can develop approximately the same running speeds.

Gazelle Grant

Lions are also able to run up to 70 km / h, but they are lazy, preferring to rest in the shade of trees while slower lionesses hunt.

Great speeds over long distances can afford hyena dogs. Them light weight does not allow the body to overheat, and they drive the victim to exhaustion at speeds up to 70 km / h.

hyena dog

When it comes to pets, the world's fastest dog is the Greyhound, but opinions differ, and many believe that this is an English hunting greyhound.

hunting greyhound

For them, at a short distance, the speed of 55 km / h is not difficult. Their domestic cats are the fastest Egyptian Mau, their limit is 50 km/h.

Of the birds, the fastest peregrine falcon.

peregrine falcon

This predator in a dive flight is capable of developing unimaginable speed - over 300 km / h. It is the fastest living creature in the world.

Undersea world

It would seem that the density of the water will not allow such speeds to develop, but the fish sailboat at the time of the attack develops it up to 100 km / h.

fish sailboat

Among water turtles, the record belongs to the leatherback turtle, whose speed reaches 35 km / h.

The fastest turtle

The rest of the high-speed inhabitants of the underwater world can reach speeds of up to 50 km / h. These include sharks, killer whales, tuna, mackerel, and the like.

insect world

In their microcosm, speeds are relative. So the American cockroach can accelerate the run to 5 km / h, we walk at that speed.

American cockroach

But if we translate this speed into our dimensions, then it will be at least 300 km / h! This is a record for land insects. But among those flying, the dragonfly is considered the fastest, capable of flying at a speed of 55 km / h.

Dragonfly

Few are inferior to horseflies and hawks.

Video selection - the fastest animals on the planet

Among the animals, the cheetah is able to develop the highest speed - up to 130 km per hour! At short distances, he can easily overtake a car. In the water, no one can compete with a sailboat fish, which travels 110 km in one hour. The peregrine falcon, a bird of prey, dives at a speed of 350 km per hour. What are the fastest insects you know? They will be discussed in the article.

Australian dragonfly

During scientific research entomologists have found out which is the fastest insect on our planet. This is the Australian dragonfly, or Austroflebia costalis. For its large size, it is often called the "southern yoke". In one hour of flight, she overcomes at least 60 km! This achievement is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records. Some scientists claim that the dragonfly is capable of flying at a speed of 100 km / h, but so far there is no documentary evidence of this theory.

How does the Australian dragonfly fly? This is the fastest insect on Earth in one second makes 100-150 strokes of its wings. When she needs maneuverability in pursuit of prey, she flaps her hind and front wings alternately, and simultaneously to develop super speed. It is known that dragonflies are able to overcome simply huge distances, moving away from home for more than a thousand kilometers.

What other fastest insects live in our world? Read more about them.

honey bee

Like a dragonfly, a bee can fly at a speed of 60 km per hour. But she often flies with nectar, which weighs as much as one insect. With a full honey ventricle, a worker bee is already flying at a speed of 30-33 km per hour, so it is on the second line of the "Fastest Insects" rating.

But in terms of the distance that a bee is able to overcome, it is far ahead of a dragonfly: in order to produce only 1 kg of honey, an insect flies at least 450 thousand km, which is about 10 earth's equators!

american cockroach

Periplaneta americana, or the American cockroach, occupies the third position in our ranking. He is the fastest runner among insects. In 1991, it was recorded that this red-haired creature moves at a speed of 5.4 km / h. Not impressive? But if you recalculate cockroach speed in relation to human standards, it turns out that having the height of an average man, Periplaneta americana would move at a speed of 350 km / h! And a cockroach can change the direction of its run 25 times in just one second.

This is the fastest land insect and also the most tenacious. A cockroach is able not to eat for a month and not drink for 8-10 days without harming itself, to hold its breath for 45 minutes, but the most amazing thing is that it can live without a head, while dying of hunger! Another striking fact is that after one mating, the female is able to retain the seed inside herself, later fertilizing herself several more times.

For comparison: a person can withstand up to 500 units of exposure to radiation, other living beings - from 350 to 1500, but the red cockroach can easily withstand 6500 units. This means that after an atomic war, only cockroaches will remain on Earth ...

jumping beetle

These beetles are distributed almost all over the planet. They have an elongated body 10-40 mm long, only the Manticore genus living in Africa reaches a length of 70 mm. The color can also be different - bright green, spotted, black. Horse beetles are distinguished by large eyes, long antennae, and, most importantly, thin high legs, on which they run very quickly. The actual speed of their movement is 7.5 km / h, so prey rarely escapes these predators. Scientists have calculated that if these fastest insects were the size of a person, then they would easily overcome 300 km in an hour (slightly less than red cockroaches). Also, jumping beetles fly well, developing rather high speed over short distances.

horsefly

This large fleshy fly with large wings and simply huge eyes ranks fifth among record-breaking insects in terms of speed. She flies very quickly, overcoming 50-55 km in an hour. Horseflies are amazingly hardy, they easily adapt even to the most unfavorable living conditions, and besides, they are very voracious - one individual drinks as much blood at a time as 70 mosquitoes can overpower.

Other record holders

This is what the top 5 fastest insects in the world look like. But there are other representatives that move on land or fly through the air very quickly. For example:

• hawk moths in flight develop a speed of 45-50 km / h, they are also able to hover over a flower for a long time, sucking nectar out of it with their proboscis;
• hornets cover 25-28 km in an hour;
• water striders run on the surface of the water at a speed of 4 km per hour, while their paws remain completely dry! Another mystery of nature;
• fleas - these nasty insects move by jumping at a speed of 6 km per hour;
• locusts - in search of food, overcomes 20 or more km in an hour.

Now you know which are the fastest insects in the world, what features they differ in.

The fastest insects in terms of the ratio of movement speed and body size are horse beetles. They are capable of speeds up to 2 (!!!) meters per second. If you transfer this speed to the size of a person, then a person would run at a speed of 225 km / h!

Subfamily: Horses

Family: Ground beetles

Class: Insects

Order: Coleoptera

Type: Arthropod

Kingdom: Animals

Domain: Eukaryotes

Parameter name	Meaning
Horse beetle size	Depends on the type. Most often 1 - 2 cm. The largest representatives are up to 7 cm.
What does the beetle eat?	Jumping beetles are predators by nature. Horses' favorite food is ants. They can also feed on small invertebrates, mosquitoes, beetles, etc.
Where does the horse beetle live?	This type of beetle can be found almost all over the world, except for the mainland of Antarctica, the island of Tasmania and some other islands in the oceans.

Adult horse beetles are capable of flight. Sensing danger, they quickly take off and fly off 1-2 meters. After landing, they observe what frightened them. They can also catch prey in the air, but most often they easily catch up with it on the ground. They have a very strong jaw. When the victim is clamped in the jaw, the jumping beetle rolls it into a ball and pours it with gastric juice, which dissolves the hard parts of the insect. After that, the beetle eats the softened parts. Such digestion is called extraintestinal.

Jumping beetle video

Jumping beetles have very long and thin legs, which help them gain such high speed. They are active during the day, and some species are active at night.

Reproduction of the horse beetle

The reproduction of these beetles occurs around the beginning of summer. The female lays eggs in the soil. The eggs hatch into larvae. The larva begins to dig tunnels. She leads her hunt from the hole - only the head remains on the surface - as soon as the insect gets close - the larva attacks it.

Horse beetle larva:

The larva also spends the winter in the burrow. After pupation, the larva turns into an adult insect.

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The fastest insects in the world are able to compete in speed of movement even with such a lightning-fast animal as a cheetah, which beats all records among predators, reaching speeds of up to 120 km / h. This feature plays an important role for some arthropods, as it helps them provide themselves with the necessary amount of food or allows them to hide from predators.

Readers are presented with the 10 fastest inhabitants of the Earth among insects.

desert locust is one of the fastest insects on Earth with a speed of up to 15 km / h in calm weather. On the day, agricultural pests are able to cover a distance of 80 to 120 km. These insects are very voracious and fly in huge flocks, destroying all vegetation in their path.

Marine water strider with a movement speed of 3.5 km / h or 58 meters per minute, it is included in the list of the fastest insects on Earth. Thanks to the special structure of the body and legs, it glides through the water like a skater. When encountering an obstacle in its path, the water strider easily overcomes it, making a sharp jump. The paws of an aquatic inhabitant remain dry while sliding through the water, thanks to the fatty substance, which also facilitates movement.

Butterfly with an unusual name Dead Head is one of the fastest flying insects with speeds up to 60 km/h. During the migration period, the insect is able to rise to a height of up to 2.5 thousand meters above sea level. She got her name because of the characteristic pattern on her chest, reminiscent of a human skull. In addition, the butterfly is one of the largest in Europe and Russia. The dead head can often be found next to domestic or wild bee hives, as it loves to feast on honey.

bees are among the ten fastest insects in the world with a maximum unladen flight speed of 65 km/h. In search of pollen and nectar, some individuals can move away from the apiary at a distance of 3-14 kilometers. Bees spend up to 12 hours a day in labor. To collect 1 kg of nectar, they have to make up to 150 sorties. This means that the insect will have to fly 450 km on average. In a lifetime, a bee could circumnavigate the Earth's equator 10 times.

jumping beetle- the fastest land insect in the world, with a speed of 2 m / s, which is equivalent to 7.2 km / h. If he were the size of a man, he could run at a speed of 200 km/h. For Agriculture the horse plays an important role as a predator that controls the number of pests. The beetle got its name because of the peculiarity of running: they periodically stop for a split second, because due to high speed they lose their visual ability and cannot quickly orient themselves.

African desert ants during the period of nomadism, on average, it moves at a speed of 5 meters per minute. Otherwise, they are called as nomadic ants due to the fact that they constantly migrate, stopping only for the night and for laying eggs. Nomads move in a column, which consists of a “head” 10-15 meters wide and up to 2 meters long. The tail of the column can stretch up to 45 meters. In Africa, they are referred to as devouring everything in their path. Passing through the villages, they exterminate not only insects, but also small farm animals: rabbits, pigs, sheep.

horsefly with a maximum flight speed of 60 km/h is one of the fastest insects in the world. The two-winged creature has not only good speed, but also very high endurance. Horsefly perfectly adapt to almost any conditions of existence. It is found on all continents except Antarctica. In total, there are more than 4 thousand species of these arthropods, but the most common and famous of them are three: bovine, raindrops and lacewings. Horseflies are considered very voracious: one individual is able to drink blood at a time, how much 70 mosquitoes drink. Moreover, only females feed on blood after mating before laying eggs.

African cockroach, with an average speed of 5.4 km / h, is considered one of the fastest land insects on Earth. Having the size of a cheetah, he could move at a speed of 80 km / h. In addition, the cockroach literally has a lightning-fast reaction, thanks to well-developed reflexes. On its paws there are small hairs that are able to catch the slightest movement of air caused by the approach of any living creature. With the help of high-speed cameras, it was recorded that the insect is able to change direction up to 25 times per second. According to one version, the word cockroach comes from the word "run away".

Dragonfly Darner capable of reaching speeds in flight up to 100 km / h, which gives her the right to bear the title of the fastest insect in the world. To develop such speed in flight allows the special structure of the wings. An insect makes 100 to 150 wing movements per second. Fast flight allows the dragonfly to hide from pursuing predators. In addition, she herself is a good hunter and has unique vision: 80% of her brain is used for vision, and her eyes have about 30 thousand micro-eyes.