Types of insects: what you need to know about the numerous representatives of the species

Who are insects

Insects are a class of invertebrate arthropods that have chitinous bodies. They differ in structure, shape, size and lifestyle.

Life cycle.

All of them go through a life cycle with complete or incomplete transformation. The complete transformation cycle consists of 4 stages:

• egg;
• larva;
• chrysalis;
• adult (imago).

In an incomplete cycle, there is no pupal stage.

What to do?

In a forward-looking paper that brings together findings from 11 studies, scientists outline key ways world leaders could help reduce insect populations. These efforts should include closer monitoring of the health and abundance of insect populations, as well as stressors ranging from rising temperatures to pesticide use. In addition to creating new monitoring, the authors call for more resources to be used to analyze existing data, many of which receive little or no analysis.

Types of insects

Insects are the most numerous representatives of the animal class. In the selection there are some species that are the most common and often found.

Lepidoptera

These are butterflies familiar to everyone. The name comes from the fact that the wings have small scales. They provide strength and affect color and pattern.

ladybugs

These are small, egg-shaped bugs with a small head and a short body. Insects are twofold - beneficial killers of garden insects and carriers of disease or infection.

Bees

A relatively small family of flying representatives. They are useful, feeding on pollen and nectar, thereby promoting pollination and productivity. Several domesticated species produce honey.

Wasps

Another flying insect that does not have a special classification, but has a number of features - they bite and sting painfully. Such neighbors are undesirable for people.

Lice

Parasitic insects that live on the skin of humans. They carry a large number of diseases and cannot live for long without food.

Grasshoppers

This is a subspecies of insects with wings that cannot fly. They are often painted to match the color of their habitat, thus camouflaging themselves. The food varies from plant pests to predators.

flies

Various representatives of flying dipterans. Distributed everywhere, but prefer warm climates. They cause harm, bite and carry diseases.

Mosquitoes

Blood-sucking insects that can also feed on plant debris, but drink blood to reproduce. They are common, carriers of infection and sting painfully and cause itching.

Fleas

A large group of blood-sucking parasites that live on various mammals. They bite, cause itching, and transmit diseases.

Ants

A large family of Hymenoptera, but not using wings as unnecessary. A clear hierarchy and a specific role for everyone is a distinctive feature.

Cockroaches

The most ancient creatures with an extraordinary ability to survive and adapt to various conditions. Pests, carriers of diseases and infections.

How to make your garden more attractive to entomophages?

Of course, you can simply buy these necessary helper insects at the Institute of Plant Protection, but if they don’t like it in your garden, they will simply leave it. What will make your site a “paradise” for such “insects”?

1. Attractive plants. Plant crops that you and entomophages need, such as flowering mustard, parsley, and creeping thyme. Celery, cumin, and coriander are also suitable.
2. Plant the necessary plants in such a way that they bloom throughout the entire summer season and attract beneficial insects with their aromas, even from a remote distance.
3. Sow bluegrass, alfalfa and meadow fescue in the spring. If these herbs are not removed after mowing, then all your entomophages will find an excellent refuge in such a “litter.”
4. Also, the preservation and breeding of entomophagous insects is greatly facilitated by: irrigation (in dry places), and regular mulching of the soil between the rows in the beds and sodding in the orchard.
5. It is especially important to take into account the vital functions of entomophages located on your land, and to carry out various protective treatments of plants taking them into account. This approach will allow you to keep your assistants alive and capable as much as possible.

If you are not sure which insects are human helpers, do not crush bugs again, because the likelihood that this is a beneficial insect is high. We know almost all pests by sight. And although not all entomophagous insects are well studied, they constantly perform their service and help us curb outbreaks of insect pests.

The role of insects in life

In nature, everything is connected and harmoniously arranged. Therefore, each insect has a specific role. It doesn't always benefit people.

Harmful insects

Depending on your lifestyle, there are insects that only cause harm. They can feed on human waste products, plant juices and fruits. Here are some examples:

• whitefly Little white flies are actually nasty pests that come in large numbers;
• goldentail A pest of fruit trees, the hairy caterpillar is also harmful;
• silverfish. Insects that spoil supplies, paper products, and food. They don't bite people.

Relatively harmful

This is a series of insects that can act in two ways. They often cause harm, but they are also useful in their way of life. So, the most striking examples of this are harmful insects that can bite or sting people, but at the same time protect the area from pests:

• mosquito. An insect similar to a mosquito and also feeding on blood. But it processes organic matter, thanks to which it enriches the soil;
• scolopendra. They bite painfully and cause irritation. But they hunt flies, mosquitoes and fleas;
• crickets. Relatively safe vegetarians, which, if widely distributed, can ruin the harvest.

Useful

Contrary to misconceptions, not all insects harm people. There are a lot of useful inhabitants of the house and garden. Although the appearance of these prominent representatives may be surprising:

• flycatcher An unpleasant-looking insect that rarely bites and does not spoil food. Destroy a lot of small pests;
• mantis. A predator that helps destroy pests on the site;
• Daphnia. Small crustaceans that live in stagnant bodies of water filter the soil and are food for fish.

Entomophages resisting the Colorado potato beetle

Chemical agents are undoubtedly recognized as the leaders in the fight against invasive beetles from Colorado in the modern gardening world. The Colorado potato beetle loves not only potatoes, but also other types of nightshade crops, which are very popular. But you can do without pesticides.

The Colorado potato beetle is happily consumed by toads (gray and green), frogs and spadefoot frogs, pheasants, starlings and gray partridges. But the most tangible benefits and assistance to the gardener in this matter are still brought by arthropods and insect predators. These include 23 arachnid species, 270 species of various insects, including 190 species of beetles and 34 species of bedbugs. Here are some of them.

Ground beetles , or otherwise carabuses, or splashers (Carabus) are a large group of fairly large beetles. Their distinctive feature is that almost all of them (with rare exceptions) do not fly. Ground beetles feed mainly on various pests that live both in the soil itself and on its surface. They are also one of the few insects that, in search of food, move around the plants themselves, and do not harm them in any way! In general, they are very useful beetles, and even, to a certain extent, beautiful, but they are always at risk - children love to “collect” them in their fists, and the future fate of these wonderful helpers in gardening is under great threat.

The most common representatives of the ground beetle genus in our latitudes are:

1. Picelus copper - approximately 13 mm in length (medium-sized beetle). It has a fairly varied back color: copper-red, green, bronze, black with a green sheen. It specializes in the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle - in laboratory conditions it can destroy up to 25 pieces per day. It also does not disdain the eggs of this pest, but no more than 1 dozen can handle them under the same conditions. It is most active in the first half of the summer season, in the afternoon - from 15 to 17 hours, so beware of carrying out any pesticide treatments at this time.
2. Pterostichus vulgaris also fights the Colorado potato beetle. Outwardly it looks larger than the Picelus, has a black back with deep grooves on the elytra. Pterostichus loves to feast on the eggs and larvae of the Colorado pest. In one day it is capable of absorbing 7 eggs or 26 early larvae. It will not refuse secondary instar larvae, but it will handle much fewer of them - no more than 14. It is most active in the second half of the summer, at night.
3. The common loggerhead is a black beetle, slightly shiny, of medium length - from 17 to 25 mm. Its limbs are brown in color. It prefers to live where it is drier - at higher elevations, in areas with sandy soil. The bighead is most energetic from mid-July, at night. In food preferences he is similar to his brothers. In two weeks, 1 bighead can eat 20 larvae, 10 pupae and 5 mature Colorado potato beetles.
4. The hairy ground beetle is a medium-sized beetle, black in color. The antennae and paws of the hairy ground beetle are red with a yellowish tint. A characteristic distinguishing feature is that the elytra are often dotted with dots of a lighter shade and hairs. This beetle exhibits maximum activity in the second part of summer and autumn, in the evenings and at night. The modest appetite of the hairy ground beetle allows the destruction of only 3 eggs or 4 larvae of early instars (or 2 secondary ones) of the Colorado potato beetle. In terms of its nutritional needs, this ground beetle is certainly not a competitor to its “relatives,” but it surpasses them in number of individuals.

Ladybugs (Coccinellidae) are also predators and protect nightshade garden crops from the Colorado potato beetle. There are 8 species of them “working” in total, but the most common are two types: seven-spotted ladybugs and changeable ladybugs.

1. Seven-spotted ladybug - feeds on eggs, aphids and leafhoppers of the Colorado potato beetle. It is noteworthy that it is not the ladybug itself that eats the eggs, but its third instar larva. In 1 week, 1 such larva is capable of “sentencing” 50 pest eggs!
2. The variable ladybug is a beetle that has an elongated, oval-shaped, flattened beetle, up to 6 mm long. The color of the beetle's back is black with a yellow border and two bright yellow spots. The elytra of the variable ladybug are yellow in color with red inclusions, and they are decorated with 6 yellow markings of irregular geometric shape, which can visually merge with each other. In one summer season, this beetle can reproduce up to three times. By type of nutrition, these ladybugs are polyphagous. In addition to the eggs of the Colorado potato beetle, aphids, mites, copperheads, scale insects, and butterfly eggs are suitable for them as food.

Bugs (Heteroptera) are insects from the order Hemiptera, also exhibiting the qualities of entomophages. Here are the most common ones:

1. Arma carnivora is a bug that destroys Colorado potato beetles. Arama has a length of 10 to 14 mm, brown in color with frequent small black dots. This type of bug is common in the steppe and forest-steppe - where it is warmer. In addition to the Colorado potato beetle, it happily eats hawthorn caterpillars, ringed and gypsy moths, apple moths and alder leaf beetles, as well as cutworms.
2. Zikrona blue is a bug of amazing blue color with a steel or greenish tint and black legs. It lives everywhere where there are trees and shrubs. But at times the zikron also moves onto the grass. This bug feeds on the eggs of the Colorado potato beetle (it can “consume” up to 10 eggs per day) or its early larvae. Zikron will also not refuse leaf beetle larvae or flea beetles.
3. Pingethus vulgaris is one of the largest predatory bugs. Its length can reach 17 mm. The color is dark brown above and striped on the abdomen, the paws are brownish-reddish, and the antennae are usually black. This species lives in the middle zone and in the south of the country. This predator feeds on almost all larvae of various ages.

Different in socialization

All insects are conventionally divided into two categories: solitary and social. According to the names, they either live on their own and interact only in the case of reproduction, or they exist in a colony, family, or clusters.

Social insects

This includes those who live in an organized family and their own hierarchy. These species have a structure and their own occupation for each family member.

Paper wasps. This species has a nest that is built by workers, a queen that is responsible for reproduction, and animals that feed the offspring.

Termites. They build homes and live in colonies, feed on wood and pose no danger other than possible destruction.

Solitary insects

Those that do not live in colonies or families. They prefer to live alone and not meet others like themselves unless necessary.

Earwigs

After mating, the mother carefully arranges a place of residence and remains there until the babies are able to set out on an independent life. They don't touch anymore.

Scorpion

This arachnid is a prime example of loners. They only meet other representatives of the species when mating is necessary. And even then, the male may suffer.

Transition from water to land

The study, conducted by researcher Heather Bruce and MBL director Nipam Patel, dotted the i's. Their work, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, attracted the attention of biologists.

A team of researchers has proven that insect wings originate from a growth, or “petal,” on the legs of aquatic crustaceans, the distant ancestors of land creatures. After marine life reached land about 300 million years ago, the leg segments closest to the body became part of the body wall during embryonic development.

Most likely, evolutionary changes are caused by the need to better distribute weight when moving along the ground. "The leg lobes then moved onto the insect's back and later formed wings," says Bruce.