A caterpillar is a butterfly larva: varieties, life cycle, nutrition

Structure

Most have cylindrical bodies composed of several segments, with three pairs of true legs on the thorax and several pairs of short, thicker false limbs on the abdomen. The head contains six pairs of small eyes (stem eyes) that function in detecting light but not in forming images. They have short, segmented antennae and strong jaws. Many caterpillars in the order Lepidoptera are called worms, such as the silkworm (silkworm) and the army worm (Spodoptera frugipeda).

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How to remove parasites?

Removing a gadfly larva is an unpleasant and complicated procedure. It is advisable that it be carried out by a doctor - a surgeon or an ophthalmologist if parasites suddenly get into the eye (which also happens, although rarely).

If for some reason you cannot get medical help, then you should try to remove them from the body yourself as quickly as possible. Moreover, it is best to ask relatives or friends - especially if the parasites are located on the back, head or other hard-to-reach place.

The procedure for removing gadfly larvae itself will be most effective if you follow the action plan below:

1. The first step is to take a thick, sticky product. Scotch tape, Vaseline, PVA glue will do. You need to apply it to the nodule. And quite abundantly, because it is important to ensure that oxygen does not enter the resulting fistula. If necessary, you can open the abscess with a scalpel.
2. Now we wait. The larva, deprived of air, will partially crawl out. Then you should carefully remove it from the body. It is best to use tweezers or cosmetic tongs. It is important not to crush or tear the parasite. Otherwise, part of it will remain inside, and to remove it you will have to cut the skin deeply.
3. As soon as the “baby” gadfly is successfully removed, it is necessary to disinfect the wound. It would be a good idea to bandage it with a sterile cloth.
4. After which it is recommended to consult a doctor - a parasitologist or infectious disease specialist - as soon as possible. He will see if you managed to completely remove the parasites from under the skin, and will also prescribe the necessary medications (including antibiotics) and anti-inflammatory ointments.

By the way, in medicine, surgical removal is not always used to combat the larvae of the subcutaneous gadfly. This method is good when the location of the parasites is clearly visible. If they are hidden deep under the skin, then doctors or veterinarians prescribe special ointments and creams that drive the gadfly larvae out. In some cases, drug therapy is also carried out. A special course of medications helps drive out the vile parasites, creating an unfavorable environment for them in the body. But just don’t start treatment with medications without consulting a specialist!

For reference! The gadfly rarely manages to lay a larva in a person. Most often, parasites enter the body of animals.

What do they eat?

Caterpillars are known for their insatiable appetite. They typically feed on the leaves of a variety of plants, although some may eat insects or other small animals. Leaf-eating species can cause significant damage to fruit trees, agricultural crops, ornamental plants, deciduous trees and shrubs. For example, cabbage moth caterpillars (Trichoplusia ni) can eat three times their body weight daily. In addition to the damage these caterpillars cause by eating the leaves of cabbage and related crops, the feces they produce, known as frass, can stain the leaves and make the plants unsellable. Examples of insect-eating caterpillars include Feniseca tarquinius, which preys on woolly aphids, and the Alesa amesis butterfly, which feeds on nymphs of insects of the order Homoptera.

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The taste preferences of adults and larvae differ. Workers are engaged in obtaining food. They provide nutrition to the uterus and young offspring, and make reserves for a “rainy day.” In summer, wasps feed on flower nectar, honey from bees, juices of fruits, vegetables, and berries. They love sweets, as well as rotten foods.

Adults can be found in the vineyard, on raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, plums, apricots, melons, and watermelons. Insects are attracted to kvass, lemonade, fruit and vegetable juice, jam, and syrup. Predators often attack bee families and destroy the hive in just 2 hours. They eat honey, the bees are taken to feed the larvae.

The statement that wasps eat meat is not entirely correct. The common wasp feeds on juices and sweets. Protein food is necessary for the larvae. They hunt beetles, flies, butterflies, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and spiders. Often predators can be found on meat and fish. They bite off the prey and take it to the nest.

Interesting!

The wasps chew the meat, roll it into small balls, give it to the larvae, they secrete saliva, which serves as food for the imago. There is an exchange of food. Adult wasps can feed on meat, but only after the young have eaten it.

Features of individual types

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Some caterpillars have special respiratory structures that allow them to survive in aquatic habitats. For example, the larvae of some pyramidal clams (family Pyralidae) are aquatic, and several members of the genus Hyposmocoma (family Cosmopterigidae) have an amphibious caterpillar stage. Some caterpillars spin silken sheaths that provide protective coverings. They often have leaves, pebbles and more woven into them, making them look like part of their natural surroundings.

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Defense strategy

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All types of butterflies and moths begin life as a caterpillar. This is a very vulnerable form of the insect and therefore needs protection.

Their appearance varies greatly, especially with regard to coloration, which plays a major role in their ability to protect themselves from predators. In many cases, their coloration is meant to mimic the appearance of their surroundings, and this changes as they grow. For example, the young larvae of many swallowtail butterflies (Papilio) are white and brown, resembling bird droppings on the leaves, but over time their appearance changes such that the colors eventually become camouflage, allowing them to blend into the leaves and stems of plants . In some caterpillars, coloration is noticeable or enhanced by the presence of features such as false organs of vision, which can deceive or frighten predators.

Other defense strategies used by caterpillars include secreting foul-smelling substances, using sounds, generating vibration signals, and sequestering chemicals into tissues that are toxic to predators. Caterpillars of the great night peacock eye (Saturnia pyri) send out ultrasonic warning signals to deter predators. The caterpillar of the sicklewing butterfly (Drepana arcuata) produces vibration signals to defend its territory from intruders of the same species; she knocks her jaws on the surface of the leaf and scratches it with her hair-covered feet.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) larvae rely on a defense system associated with their unique ability to feed on milkweed (Asclepias) plants. These plants produce compounds known as cardenolides, which are typically toxic to animals. Monarch butterfly larvae are not affected by the poison, and they are able to sequester the compound in their tissues. Since the poison remains in insects during subsequent stages of development, they are toxic to vertebrate predators, both as larvae and as adult butterflies.

Clothes moth larvae

Caterpillars of this species are practically no different in appearance from the larvae of food insects, however, unlike the latter, they cannot be found in the kitchen, among food items. Their diet consists only of what contains a special protein - keratin, which is found in derivatives of the epidermis: fluff, feathers, wool, hair.

At home, a moth nest can most often be found on the following things:

• fur coats,
• wool sweaters,
• down jackets,
• carpets,
• furniture upholstery,
• edges made of natural fur,
• felt products.

Depending on the location of the caterpillars, clothes moths are divided into several subspecies: fur moth, furniture moth or wool moth. Like the larvae of food moths, they form their home from available materials: fluff, hairs, wool. It is very difficult to notice a caterpillar hidden in such a cocoon. However, this can be done thanks to the following characteristic features:

• oblong-shaped cocoons-pellets are visible on the things,
• there are tunnels on the carpets and upholstery,
• holes appear in clothes,
• Bald spots are visible on fur products.

The larvae can even damage shoes if they are made of fur or felt. Felt insoles and felt boots are most often attacked by the pest.

Clothes moths, like food moths, have a fairly wide distribution area. Under natural conditions, the larvae feed on bird feathers in nests, as well as fallen animal hair in burrows or rookeries.

Winter items must be put away for storage by first wrapping them in a piece of fabric soaked in a special preparation, the smell of which repels pests, or placing them in a tarpaulin cover. During the hot season, you should periodically sort through your clothes, otherwise it will not be possible to avoid damage.

Classification

There are different types of caterpillars. This is primarily due to the diversity of the Lepidoptera themselves. Interestingly, the color of the larva does not always match the color of the adult. One classification of caterpillar species is based on what they eat.

• The group of polyphages is represented by their representatives who are completely indiscriminate in food and can eat any plants. These include moths, for example, wine hawkmoth, ocellated hawkmoth, blind hawkmoth, kaya bear, moths, peacock eye and others.
• The group of monophages includes caterpillars that feed only on one specific type of plant. These are cabbageweed, apple moth, silkworm and some others.
• The group of oligophages includes those who feed on a specific type of plant; they represent one family or type. These include: swallowtails, pine cutworm, polyxena and others.
• Xylophages are caterpillars whose food is wood or bark. This group is represented by leaf rollers, wood borers and others.

Do wasps die in winter?

In autumn, when the air temperature steadily drops, wasps gradually begin to disappear. They no longer circle over sweet fruits hanging on trees or fly into houses. The thing is that most of the adult individuals die with the onset of cold weather, and the remaining ones hide in secluded corners until spring.

To understand why this happens, we need to take a closer look at the process of wasp reproduction. All summer the queen reproduces sterile worker wasps. And only at the end of summer do males and females capable of fertilization begin to appear. They actively mate, after which the males, whose main task is completed, die.

The same fate awaits worker wasps, who live for about 1.5–2 months and fall asleep when the temperature drops below the critical mark of +10⁰С, and die with the arrival of real cold weather. The queen leaves the nest in the fall, like other insects, and also dies with the onset of cold weather.

As a result, only fertilized females remain for the winter. They hide in secluded places, fall into suspended animation and sleep until spring.

Egg phase

It is the first in the caterpillar's life cycle. Eggs can be of different shapes, they can be round, cylindrical, oval, etc. The eggs are usually laid on the leaves of plants. Females may also leave eggs on the stems. Their location on the leaves makes it easier to obtain food at the next stage of development (caterpillars). The eggs are protected by a hard outer covering known as the chorion. The thin layer of wax that covers it helps prevent the eggs from drying out. This phase usually lasts several weeks. However, eggs that were laid during the winter months remain dormant during the cold season. The larvae hatch from them only with the onset of the spring season.

Insect cocoons

Sawfly larva Cimbex sp. (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) constructs a cocoon, attached on one side to a transparent wall, which allows you to see its work inside the cocoon. The larva has not yet entered the pronymphal state and is therefore mobile. By manipulating the head, she places new layers of silk thread on the inner surface of the cocoon under construction, which is produced by the Malpighian vessels and released from the opening in the area of ​​the oral appendages

The larvae of some insects with complete metamorphosis (many butterflies, caddisflies, hymenoptera, lacewings, etc.) before molting onto the pupa weave a cocoon of silk, which is either produced by the labial glands and secreted from the mouth (more precisely, from a special opening between the lower lip and the hypopharynx), or produced by the Malpighian vessels and secreted from the anus. Cocoons can be soft or hard, dense or loose, of various colors, and consist of different layers, depending on the type of larva that created them. Some larvae embed soil particles, their excrement and/or bristles shed from their bodies into the silk cocoon. Often cocoons are located in the soil or in other hard-to-reach places - under leaves, in cracks in the bark of trees, etc. Inside the cocoon, the larva enters the pronymph state and then molts, and thus the sedentary or completely motionless pronymph and pupa are protected by the cocoon. In some insects, the pupa leaves the cocoon just before molting into an adult insect; the pupae of some insects (caddisflies, scorpionflies, lacewings) gnaw the cocoon with their well-developed mandibles; in the pupae of other insects, the mandibles are motionless or absent. The pupae of beetles and hymenoptera molt onto the adult insect right inside the cocoon. In the latter case, the adult insect manages to spread its wings, soft after molting, in the cramped space of the cocoon and wait for them to harden, after which it folds its wings and gnaws its way out of the cocoon. The females of some bagworms do not leave the cocoon[1].

• The caterpillar secures the cocoon.
• Cocoon and pupa of the Actias luna butterfly.
• Cocoons of the butterfly Actias luna.
• An Actias luna butterfly leaves a cocoon.

Second stage of development

Caterpillars are very insatiable creatures. They go through various growth phases during their development. Apolisis is the process by which the caterpillar sheds its cuticle, an outer layer of protein and chitin. By the time the last growth phase is reached, wing development begins.

Caterpillar legs are of two types, that is, true and false. If there are only three pairs of the former, then there can be six of the latter on the body

The second and third thoracic segments of the caterpillar's body have wing discs. Their development is associated with the trachea. They grow rapidly during the last stage of this phase. Hemolymph gradually displaces the wings through the epidermis.

Pupal phase

This is an intermediate stage between the larva and the adult butterfly. When the caterpillars turn into pupae, they stop feeding and look for substrate for their final molt. As the pupal stage approaches, a metamorphosis hormone is produced, which ensures a change in developmental phases. Wings undergo rapid mitosis, so this stage requires a lot of nutrients. To protect themselves from predators, pupae make certain types of sounds.

List of larvae with independent names

• The axolotl is a neotenic larva of Ambystoma (tailed amphibians).
• Actinotroch is a phoronid larva.
• Auricularia is the early phase of development of holothurian larvae.
• Bipinnaria is the early phase of sea star larval development.
• Brachiolaria is the late developmental stage of a starfish larva.
• Veliger is a larva of gastropods and bivalves.
• Glaucotoe is a crawling crustacean larva.
• Glochidium is a larva of bivalves.
• A tadpole is the larva of a tailless amphibian.
• The caterpillar is the larva of butterflies.
• Dipleurula (dipleurula) is an early larval form common to echinoderms and coelenterates, which later transforms in different groups into auricularia, bipinnaria, pluteus or tornaria.
• Doliolaria is the middle phase of development of holothurian larvae.
• Zoea is an early larva of a decapod crustacean.
• Coracidium is a larva of a wide tapeworm, covered with cilia and equipped with six hooks.
• The coretra is a mosquito larva from the family Chaoboridae.
• The rat is the larva of some hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae).
• Leptocephalus is a larva (fry) of an eel and other eel-like fish.
• Lycophora is a cestode larva.
• The false caterpillar is the larva of sawflies (Hymenoptera-Symphyta).
• The false wireworm is a larva of beetles of the darkling beetle and pollen beetle families.
• Megalopa is a late larva of decapod crustaceans.
• Metanauplius is the larval stage of many crustacean species, following the nauplius.
• Metatrochophore is a larva of polychaete annelids that develops from a trochophore and turns into a nectochaete.
• Mysis is a late larva of long-tailed decapod crustaceans (Decapoda-Macrura).
• Miracidium is a sporocyst larva of flukes (Trematoda).
• The bloodworm is the larva of bell mosquitoes (Diptera: Chironomidae).
• Müllerian larva is the larva of ciliated polyclada worms (Polyclada)
• Nauplius is the early phase of larval development, characteristic of many crustaceans.
• Naiad is the larva of dragonflies.
• Nektochaete is a late larva of polychaete annelids that develops from a metatrochophore.
• Nymph is the traditional name for the larval stage of development of some arthropods with incomplete metamorphosis (mites and a number of groups of insects).
• Oncomiracidium is the larva of monogenea (monogenetic flukes).
• Oncosphere, or six-hooked larva, is the larva of tapeworms (Cestoda).
• Maggot is the larva of round stitch flies.
• Parenchymula is the larva of sponges.
• The pentacle is the late developmental phase of holothurian larvae.
• Sandwort is a lamprey larva.
• Pilidium is a nemertean larva.
• Planktosphere is the larva of a gastrointestinal worm.
• Planula is a coelenterate larva.
• Pluteus, or pluteus, is the larva of an echinoderm. For the larvae of brittle stars and sea urchins, special terms are used: Ophiopluteus, or ophiopluteus - brittle star larva,
• Echinopluteus, or Echinopluteus, is the larva of sea urchins.

Why do caterpillars grow so fast?

An important part of the survival strategy is rapid growth because at this stage of their life cycle many species are extremely vulnerable to predators, so short pupation times give them the best chance of survival. However, there are species that remain caterpillars for long periods of time, some overwintering and sometimes remaining in a tree trunk for several years.

Dream Interpretation, Larva

If you have seen insect larvae, it means that soon you will learn something about an important person that will greatly surprise you, and you will want to tell others about the news. No need to do this

You should think again and again: do you really want this? Won't you ruin the life of both yourself and the person who has become the object of your random attention? . Larva!! If you saw insect larvae in a dream, it means that soon you will learn something about an important person that will greatly surprise you; you will want to tell others about the news. There is no need to do this. You should think again and again: do you really want this? Won't you ruin the life of both yourself and the person who became the object of your random attention?!! Mercenary!! If you dreamed that you were a mercenary, it means that in real life you will have to help a person who is not very attractive to you.

Interesting Facts

Source

Prevention

Before concluding our review, as a prelude to it, I would like to recall the basic rules for preventing the appearance of these unpleasant guests in our home.

In order not to attract flies and prevent them from breeding in the apartment, you must follow these rules, namely:

• keep the house clean;
• remove fruits and vegetables, as well as meat products, from open areas in a timely manner;
• promptly send everything that has accumulated in the trash can to recycling containers;
• use mosquito nets on windows;
• follow traditional methods of insect control.