The post Micro Wonders: Exploring the Intricate World of Insect Architecture appeared first on AmericaninSects.
]]>The term insect architecture refers to any form of design or construction created by insects in nature. While existing in their natural habitat, insects have to design structures that can help with their basic needs: securing and storing food, raising offspring (especially in colonies), and escaping predators. Insects may take a while to complete these structures, but they always display amazing engineering skills in every finished product. Insects can also repair damage to their structures, which happens quite often due to external forces. Insects will try to defend these structures because they are essential to survival.
There are numerous examples in nature where insects have showcased their engineering skills. Here are some of the most common designs in insect architecture.
The primary functions of an insect architecture serve the best interest of an insect or a colony, but there are a few benefits apart from that.
You may experience the following if insects go unchecked with their architecture.
Also, if an insect structure is efficient enough in an ecosystem, it places its resident insects on the food chain, disturbing the ecosystem. Wood-consuming insects cause severe damage to several trees if they are not curbed.
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]]>A real flying crocodile lives in the rainforests of Mexico, Central and South America. This is what the locals call the Suriname lanternfly (Fulgora laternaria). But it also has other names among the locals. For example, some people see its strange shape as resembling a peanut pod and call it a peanut beetle. In fact, this insect belongs to the cicadas. It reaches the size of 85-90 millimeters with a wingspan of 100-150 millimeters.
On the wings of the insect there is a pattern in the form of huge eyes. Obviously, this is necessary for protection against all kinds of predators. If the crocodile head does not frighten the predator, then the wings with huge eyes will come to the rescue.
In fact, this is not an ant, but a member of the family of wingless wasps living in Chile. The females of these wasps are wingless and look like huge hairy ants. They are called pandas because they really resemble Chinese pandas. These wasps scare away predators with their bright color. When a panda ant senses danger, it begins to make a sharp sound, similar to a squeak. This wasp stings painfully, but not fatally, although in Chile it is nicknamed the killer of cows.
These beetles are very similar to small turtles, which is why scientists gave them this name. These strange insects, only 7-8 mm in size, have an unusual shape and color of the shield. If you look at the insect from above, you might think that the beetle has been crucified, which is why they are also called the “holy cross” beetle. But the most interesting thing is that turtle beetles can change the color of the shield, thanks to a special liquid in the transparent outer shell.
This small black bug lives in Madagascar. Its Latin name Giraffa camelopardalis clearly indicates its resemblance to a giraffe. Its body length does not exceed 2.5 centimeters. In these bizarre beetles, only males have such a long neck, while females have a much smaller one. The giraffe weevil belongs to the family of tube beetles. The male needs such a long neck to build nests and compete for a female. The female weevil lays her eggs in leaves, which she first rolls into a tube.
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]]>In the wake of the flurry of attention this looming ecological disaster has generated, an even more complex picture has emerged – with one gap in our understanding that is strikingly clear. Despite the tropical and subtropical regions being home to an estimated 85% of the Earth’s insects, what happens in these regions is critically under-studied.
To understand insect decline requires long-term datasets that are rare, especially in the global south. in our new study, we present one of the most comprehensive known datasets of subtropical freshwater insects over 20 years. We found a complete decline in insect abundance across all aquatic insect groups studied, including midges, mayflies and dragonflies.
The decline occurred in the canals, lakes, rivers and bays of one of the largest freshwater systems in South America, the Paraná River floodplain. At the same time, we found that the number of invasive fish has increased and the chemical composition of the water has become more unbalanced – all environmental changes associated with the construction of dams.
There are more than 130 dams along the Paraná and its tributaries. The most significant is Itaipú, the second largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Located in Brazil and Paraguay, its reservoir is so large that when it was full, it submerged one of the largest waterfalls on Earth, the Guaira Falls. The elimination of this natural and geographical barrier between Lower and Upper Paraná has led to massive invasions of fish: many of them are insect predators.
At the same time, the dams block the flow of sediment and nutrients, disrupting the chemical composition of the water and making the water clearer. Most aquatic insects are dark or spotted to camouflage themselves in turbid water. The increased water clarity weakened their ability to hide, making them even more vulnerable to being eaten by invading fish.
Roughly 70% of Brazil’s electricity comes from hydropower, and hydroelectric power plants will be important in the transition away from fossil fuels. However, dam construction can have serious environmental and social impacts. Our research shows that the negative impacts of the dam can occur long after forests have been flooded and local communities have been displaced.
While the tropics and subtropics are the most biologically diverse regions on the planet, they are also among the most threatened. Their rich natural resources are under enormous pressure to provide food, water and energy to some of the fastest growing people on the planet and developing countries.
Despite this, the logistical challenges of studying insects in such a biodiverse region, combined with the longstanding historical inequalities around where monitoring is conducted, means that the remaining tropics are underrepresented in insect decline research.
The lack of long-term datasets from the tropics and subtropics can distort the already complex picture of how insect declines are occurring across the planet. One of the most comprehensive studies to date on global insect decline compares 166 studies spanning more than a decade across five continents.
It was found that the number of terrestrial insects is indeed decreasing, but the number of aquatic insects is increasing. However, of the 68 freshwater insect datasets in their analysis, only 7% came from the tropics. This apparent success is distorted by the large number of studies from Europe and North America where improved water quality and effective policies have increased aquatic insect populations.
Our results contradict the findings of this study. Aquatic insects are declining in the Paraná River system, which drains much of southern South America, emphasizing the importance of better tropical data. Tropical and subtropical aquatic insects may be at greater risk from human activities than their counterparts in more northern regions. Freshwater regions are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems and should be a target for global conservation efforts.
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]]>Many of us have been familiar with ladybugs since childhood. Everyone knows that this is a harmless insect, and few people know that they feed on ticks, mealybugs, whiteflies, and its larvae feed on aphids. Moreover, ladybug larvae have an excellent appetite and eat up to 150 aphids per day.
If aphids appear on your site, do not rush to use insecticides. You can use folk remedies, such as soapy water, and additionally attract ladybugs by spraying the affected plant with sugar syrup.
The insect is also attracted to the aroma of marigolds, dill, caraway seeds, pelargonium, and cilantro. Planting these plants between beds of cucumbers, cabbage, and zucchini will be an excellent prevention of aphid damage.
The Fazenda agricultural store offers high-quality seeds of vegetables, herbs and ornamental plants. The website catalog offers a wide range of crops with descriptions and photos at the most affordable price.
In addition to the usual orange color with black dots, the class of ladybugs includes individuals with yellow and black color. The former have black spots, and the latter have red or yellow spots.
The adult insect looks like a small butterfly with translucent green wings with light streaks. The insect and its larvae feed on aphids, and the offspring of the insect eat the pest in huge volumes. Because of this, some farms specially breed the lacewing.
During the season, the lacewing lays up to two clutches of eggs. They can be seen under the leaves of plants in the form of thin hanging threads. The hatched sticky things fall to the ground and begin to feed on pests.
A small fly a few millimeters in size repeatedly lays eggs during the season. The hatched eggs actively feed on aphids for two weeks. It takes no effort to attract the Aphidimysis gall midge to your garden.
Everyone has probably seen this beetle with a black shell with a greenish tint. The insect moves around quite quickly and eats everything that comes its way: caterpillars, moths, scoops, fly larvae and other pests. These orderly beetles eat up to 300 units of any animal during the summer.
The beetle lays its eggs in moist soil. They look like round rice grains. The larvae that emerge look like a worm due to the lack of a shell, have a pair of legs in the front and powerful jaws. They also actively feed on insects.
For the winter, the beetle settles down under stones, firewood, and hides in the depths of sawdust or shavings.
The black, agile beetle will raise its abdomen in case of danger, which makes it resemble a scorpion. Staphylines are useful beetles in the garden, not only because they eat insect pests. The beetle larvae also feed on the larvae and pupae of flies and caterpillars.
The insect prefers a dark and damp place: deep in the masonry with firewood, under dry leaves, it can be found in a manure or compost heap.
Tortoise flies and tahini flies also come to the aid of gardeners. Tarantula flies have tenacious legs and a powerful proboscis that can easily pierce the shells of pests such as May beetles and wasps. They also actively feed on larvae found in the soil.
Beneficial tahini flies have black hairs on their bodies and transparent wings. Females lay eggs directly on caterpillars, larvae of Colorado potato beetles, weevils, and sawflies. The emerging parasitic larvae feed on the flesh of their hosts.
Quite useful beetles in the garden, they live in abundance on trees, feeding on pests in the bark: mustaches, weevils, bark beetles, bark beetles, sharpeners and their larvae. The insect has an elongated body, brown legs with villi, black and red color with a wide white stripe in the lower part.
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