The Insect That Laughs at the Cold

This is something cool I learnt today.

So, Antarctica. As expected, not the best place when it comes to life. After all, it's fucking cold. And do you know who hates cold?

Insects. Although there are a couple species spending a few months here and there in Antarctica, no insect can survive all year round.

None, except one that is.

Meet Belgica antarctica, commonly known as the Antarctic midge, the only insect known to thrive all year round in the harness of Antarctica.

source

Before reading more on the insect I figured it was some short of parasite, relying on the heat of other animals like dunno...penguins to survive.

But I was totally wrong. The tldr is that they survive by burrowing for most of their lives in the snow, where temperatures remain close yet below freezing and slowly evolve from larvae to full insect. Although below freezing, temperatures in the ground are hotter (or less cold 😅🙃). There they eat algae, bacteria, penguin poop and stuff like that.

The whole process from larva to adult takes about 2 years and when it does they only survive for about 10 days as full flightless adults. This is the most exciting time they get as it's mostly for mating. And then they die. ⚰️

Two Adults Mating, Public Domain

Of course the above is only the super dumbed down version of their life cycle.

Surviving for two years in below freezing temperatures is not a piece of cake and the species has evolved to have all kinds of physiological, biochemical, and behavioral adaptations. Wikipedia is a good source if you'd fancy read more on them.

Here's also a great video by scishow on the subject