The wingless midge — reaching up to 6 mm (0.24 in) in length — is Antarctica's largest permanent land animal. It survives the year-round cold by burrowing, losing up to 70% of its body water, and producing antifreeze-like proteins. Without wings, it sheds less heat and avoids being blown out to sea.

A silkworm wraps itself in a fluid substance from its silk glands that hardens to become a cocoon — this cocoon can be unravelled to a single strand reaching lengths of 1.5 km (1 mile). Inside, it "digests" its own larval body (called histolysis) before building up the body of a silkworm moth.

The common cockchafer spends its first 3 to 5 years below ground, growing as a larva. Then, all at once, these beetles emerge as adults in great numbers during spring. They clumsily buzz about, using their frilly antennae to find mates and reproduce — they live for only 6 weeks in this form.