So here we are marvelling at insects

Nature really is incredible, how about these for a couple of amazing facts?

How do bees kill hornets?
bearing in mind a hornet is roughly fifteen times the size of a bee

and

Why do certain non-swimming grasshoppers leap into water?
No, the answer is not because they are are suicidal.

Thought about it?

Ok.

Bees kill hornets as a group but more interestingly still they "microwave" them. The bees, anything between hundreds of them and thousands, forms a tight circle around the hornet and rub their wings together. The friction makes the temperature rise to 47° C at which point the hornet dies. Even more amazingly, bees can only survive up to temperatures of 48°C...

Certain non-swimming grasshoppers are hosts to a parasite that grows until it becomes a worm, and starts feeling a bit tight inside. The grub also wants to reproduce. So it secretes a chemical that acts on the brain of the grasshopper and convinces it that it needs to get to water. Now. So old grasshopper leaps, drowns and parasite leaves home.

Another amazing insect fact I learnt the other day concerns those big ugly buzzy buggers that are currently invading some part of America. These are harmless but relatively rare as they only turn up every 17 years. When they do come out after nearly two decades of grubbiness underground, they are immediately and massively eaten by the rest of wildlife, who regard them as a bit of a delicacy. That said, enough survive to breed and within a few weeks all are gone and a new batch starts its 17 year infancy.

Why 17 years then? The explination for this comes from a book I read about prime numbers and explains these numbers' presence in nature. The fact is, these bugs are so tasty and sought after by other creatures that in order to survive (or rather the reason they have survived) they have to make sure that their cycle does not coincide with those of too many predators. By only appearing every 17 years, any animal that has a two, three, four, five, six and all the way up to 17 year breeding cycle will not coincide with that of our bugs.

Let's put it another way. If these bugs popped out every 16 years, their apearance would coincide with predators who appear every two years or every four years. If they spent fifteen years underground, they would coincide with those who had three or five year cycles.
These coinciding cycles mean extra predators, and if the poor bugs spent twelve years underground they would come out only to be eaten by those who have 2, 3, 4 and 6 year cycles, and they would probably be extinct.