Margie Patlak is a science and nature writer and photographer. Her book “Insect Safari: Exploring the Wondrous World of Everyday Bugs” was published by Workman/Hachette. She divides her time between Corea, Maine, and Philadelphia.

In the film “Project Hail Mary,” a molecular biologist turned astronaut travels for 11 years in an induced coma to reach another part of our galaxy. There he meets an alien in another spaceship. But you don’t have to travel light-years to encounter alien life because it’s already here— in your own backyard.

I’m not talking about the rock-like alien in the film, but about the common insects buzzing and burrowing all around us. Because, let’s face it, insects are weird.

They wear their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, for starters. But their anatomy has even more surprises. Insect ears can be almost anywhere — on the torso, legs, mouth, or even wings. Their eyes don’t always stay on their heads either — Japanese yellow swallowtail butterflies have primitive eyes on their genitals that help guide mating and egg-laying. Butterflies, moths and flies taste with their feet as well as their mouths. 

As strange as their bodies are, insect abilities are even more astonishing. Many are in some ways superheroes with special powers. The diabolical ironclad beetle can survive being run over by a car. A leafhopper as small as a pinhead can migrate thousands of miles each year. A delicate lacewing can withstand temperatures far below zero. And a bottle fly can smell the carrion it consumes from as far as 10 miles away.

Insects also possess senses we lack entirely. Humidity sensors lead some moths to flowers laden with nectar, while the carbon dioxide sensors mosquitos have enable them to zero in on humans and other animals. Beetles that need a dead or dying tree to house their young have heat or smoke sensors to detect nearby forest fires. 

Bees see ultraviolet light bouncing off bulls-eye patterns on certain flowers that direct them to pollen and nectar. Crickets have motion detectors to help them scurry away from nearby intruders. Flies essentially see everything in slow-motion because they can capture so many more images per second than we can with their fast-snapping-camera vision. No wonder they easily escape our swatting. 

Insects also have communication systems we lack. To signal to potential mates, fireflies flash lanterns in their bellies, while locusts beat them like drums. Some tiger moths emit ultrasonic clicks that jam the sonar bats use to find them. Many kinds of insects create coded vibrations in their torsos that travel down their legs and through the plant surfaces they are on to signal others on the same plant. Nearly all insects send chemical messages across long distances in a secret, species-specific language we can’t hear.

Even more surprising are recent discoveries about insects’ behavior. Wasps use tools, recognize faces and are as precise as neurosurgeons when stinging their prey. Bees play with balls, count and teach other bees shortcuts for finding nectar in flowers. Ants farm fungi, herd aphids and doctor their wounded siblings. Even minuscule male fruit flies deliberate their mating choices and drown their sorrows with alcohol when they don’t get the females they’ve been courting with their complicated dance steps.

All these findings suggest we’re not the only smart ones on our planet. Animals with different sorts of intelligences and capabilities are already all around us. So the next time you find yourself longing for a close encounter with an alien, like that depicted in the classic film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” take a closer look at the small creatures at your feet or buzzing around you.

You may discover that the strangest beings you’ll ever meet have been there all along.