In the subtropical forests of the Malay Archipelago, a moth of seemingly impossible proportions flutters among the trees. Named the atlas moth (Attacus atlas), this saturniid — meaning a member of the Saturniidae family — is the largest moth in the world in terms of overall size, with a staggering maximum wingspan of nearly 12 inches and a surface area up to 62 inches. The moth is so huge that it’s often mistaken for a bird at first glance. Being a big moth means it’s also a big caterpillar, stretching up to nearly 5 inches long, and its silk cocoon is so durable that people in Taiwan sometimes use them as purses. Sadly, the moths are also short-lived, surviving only one to two weeks after emerging from their cocoons.

Some moths don’t have mouths.

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The atlas moth and other moths don’t have a functioning mouth. Because adult atlas moths can’t feed, they rely on the fat reserves from their larval stage for the one to two weeks they’re alive. This is why moths are often so still — they’re trying to conserve their limited energy.

Although the atlas moth is considered the biggest in overall size compared to other lepidopterans (a taxonomic order that includes butterflies, moths, and skippers), it isn’t necessarily an outlier. The hercules moth (Coscinocera hercules), endemic to Papua New Guinea and Australia, comes in a close second with a wingspan of 11 inches, and the males have a graceful swallowtail that actually makes them the longest moth. Meanwhile, the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina), found mostly in Central and South America, has a maximum wingspan even slightly longer than that of the atlas moth, at 12.6 inches, although it’s smaller overall. So while your average U.S. moth might be only a tiny nocturnal annoyance, remember that its big and beautiful brethren are fluttering elsewhere.

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Most politicians are at least somewhat divisive. One notable exception: Stubbs, a cat who served as the honorary mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, for more than 18 scandal-free years. He first entered office around 1998, when the town (technically an unincorporated census-designated place) and its 900 residents chose him as their leader. (Rumors that Stubbs was officially elected as a write-in candidate are incorrect, but locals loved their feline “mayor” nonetheless.) Over the course of the next two decades, Stubbs became a popular tourist attraction and performed such mayoral duties as, in the words of Smithsonian Magazine, “wandering around the town, drinking catnip-laced water from margarita glasses, and of course, sleeping a lot.”

A cat has been to space.

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The French astrocat’s name was Félicette, and she soared 100 miles above the planet in a Véronique AG1 rocket on October 18, 1963. The brave tuxedo cat returned from her 15-minute journey safe and sound after boldly going where no feline had gone before — or since.

Stubbs isn’t the only animal to lead a town. A black Labrador retriever named Bosco served honorably as mayor of Sunol, California, from 1981 until his passing in 1994; the town later erected a statue in his honor. Fair Haven, Vermont, made the wise decision when electing its first-ever mayor in 2019 to put a goat named Lincoln in office, though he was defeated in the following year’s election by Murfee the therapy dog. And across the country in San Francisco, Frida the Chihuahua had a one-day term as mayor in 2014 — among many other furry, friendly local officials.

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Humans have known about bees for a long time: 8,000-year-old cave paintings in Bicorp, Spain, show early humans scaling trees to collect honey. But modern scientists wanted to know if bees recognize us, which is why researchers have put the insects’ microscopic brains to the test. In a 2005 study, honey bees were trained to memorize pictures of human faces by scientists who rewarded them for correct matches with droplets of sugar water. While a bee’s-eye view isn’t as clear as our own gaze, the buzzing insects were able to correctly differentiate between faces up to 90% of the time — even two days after first seeing them, and when the sweet incentives were removed.

Bees are the only insects that make honey.

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Bees have a monopoly on commercial honey production — most store-bought honey comes from European honey bees — but they’re not the only insects that make the sticky syrup. Honeypot ants and Mexican honey wasps make their own honey too, among other creatures.

The emerging research into bee brains shows that not all living creatures need the complex brain systems humans have in order to recognize and recall environmental differences, but some researchers say that’s not entirely shocking. The Apis mellifera (aka the European honey bee) can visit up to 5,000 flowers in one day, distinguishing between buds that give off beaucoup nectar and those that don’t. So, it makes sense that bees have some form of working memory. And unlocking how bee brains work has practical applications for both us and them: Tech developers may be able to fine-tune artificial intelligence systems (in part by understanding how such tiny brains work so efficiently), and entomologists can better focus on supporting these crucial insects — which are responsible for an estimated 80% of food crop pollination.

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