Which bug only lives for 24 hours

During this brief window, the insect mates and lays her eggs. Reproductive life can be defined in several ways due to the enormous variety of insect reproductive strategies. In this paper, reproductive life is defined as the time from final molt until death in the stage where mating and egg laying occur, under natural conditions.

Using this definition, I searched for the insect with the shortest reproductive life. A computer search of Biological Abstracts was employed to initially search for candidate insects in the primary literature. This led to other sources cited in those publications. Several groups of insects can be characterized by their short reproductive life. The order Ephemeroptera has even been named based on this trait.

Among this group, few species live more than 48 hours as adults, and most do not even have functional mouthparts. In the search for the most ephemeral insect, three groups of what may be considered short-lived adults were found. Those whose adult life is typically measured in days, such as the Hessian fly with a span of about 4 days Bergh et al.

The next group is of those insects whose reproductive existence is measured in hours. Examples of this group are numerous and contain such species as the wasp Trichogrammatoidea bactrae which lives about 28 hours Hutchison et al. But the champion of these are the insects whose reproductive lives are measured in minutes.

During this time, to reproduce, they must find a mate, copulate, and lay their eggs back into the water from which they so recently emerged. If adult-stage life is the measure of longevity, the luna moth is another contender for brevity.

In Pennsylvania there are two generations per year. Ant drones. The winged males, also known as drones, in many ant colonies exist for only a few weeks after hatching.

Their sole function to engage in mating flights with queens that then can fly off to establish new colonies.

In the hive. Worker bees in a honey bee hive live only about 5 weeks. They work themselves to death, doing nearly all the work of the hive. Although some houseflies have been documented as living as long as 2 months in protective captivity, most do not live more than days. Mosquitoes typically pass through their egg, larva and pupa stages in day.

They then emerge as winged adults, which will be buzzing about for another months. Tiny fish. According to researchers at James Cook University, the pygmy gobi lives just 59 days, during which time it grows to no more.

Rare lizard. Another recently discovered that also is not found in Pennsylvania, but has the shortest lifespan of any known four-legged species. Tiny rodent. As we move into the higher animals, such as mammals, the shortest lifespans are those of the shrews, a family of mouse-sized, and smaller, venomous rodents that live The seven species of shrews found in Pennsylvania range from the pygmy shrew, which is no more than 3 inches long, to the short-tailed shrew, which can be as large as 5 inches.

The other end of the spectrum. For comparison, one the longest lived animals on Earth is a species of deep-sea sponge thought to be 11, years old. Big and old. She was The longest human lifespan was that of Jeanne Calment, from France, who lived years and days.

She died in George the 20lb lobster was caught off Newfoundland in and was estimated at around years old. He was returned to the sea in Ming the clam was caught off Iceland in and was estimated to be He died when scientists were examining him.