Dec 9, 2014
This Is an Actual Insect. This Is Not a Joke
Treehoppers are without a doubt nature’s most bizarre insects, having evolved into a huge range of shapes: some with jutting, curling heads, others that look like they have ants on their backs, and still others that do a spot-on impression of a fungus that invades other insects and erupts from their bodies. What you’re seeing is a highly modified pronotum, the segment just behind an insect’s head. But the problem, at least for the time being, is scientists would have a hard time telling you definitively what purpose they serve.
Read more (via wired.com)
