Namib desert beetle
The Namib desert beetle lives in one of the driest places on Earth. It almost never rains there, so this clever beetle drinks fog. It catches tiny water drops on its bumpy back and lets them roll down into its mouth.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its desert home gets only about 1.4 centimetres of rain in a whole year.
On foggy mornings it climbs a little sand ridge, faces the wind and tips its body up at a steep angle.
Its back has water-loving bumps with waxy grooves in between. Drops stick to the bumps and grow bigger and bigger.
When a drop is about 5 millimetres wide, it rolls down the beetle's back right to its mouth.
Scientists copied its back to make new materials that collect water from the air and windows that do not fog up.
Most asked questions about Namib desert beetle
?How does the Namib desert beetle drink?
It stands with its back to the foggy breeze, collects tiny drops on its bumpy back and lets them roll to its mouth.
?Where does the Namib desert beetle live?
In the Namib Desert in southern Africa, one of the driest places in the world.
?Why do scientists study the Namib desert beetle?
Its bumpy back gave them ideas for catching water from the air and making windows that stay clear.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Stenocara gracilipes
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Tenebrionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Tenebrionidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Racingstripe darkling beetle
Where the facts come from
- Stenocara gracilipes (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hans Hillewaert. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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