Showing posts with label Insects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insects. Show all posts
Giraffe Weevil
2. Its extended neck that rises up above its carapace gave it its name'Giraffe' weevil.
2. The male has a neck longer than that of a female.
4. Males use their extended neck to fight for the right to mate with a female.
5. The total body length of the males is just under an inch (2.5 cm), among the longest for any weevil species.
6. The "giraffe beetle tree," (Dichaetanthera arborea) also found only in Madagascar is the host tree of this weevil. It provides both home and diet for the giraffe weevil.
7. These are not dangerous to humans.
8. This species was discovered recently in Madagascar in 2008.
The beautiful Karner blue butterfly.
This beautiful karner blue butterfly is an endangered species. The habitat of this small butterfly is in oak savannas and pine barren in New Hampshire, where the wild lupine occurs, wild lupine is a small attractive flower plant. The Karner blue butterfly is wide spread in Wisconsin and also found in New York, Canada, Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana.
The male and the female ones of this one inch-wingspan butterfly can be identified by the difference in their appearances. The male butterfly has silvery or dark blue wings with a black narrow border & the female has greyish brown ones.
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| Source: Photo Credit USFWS |
The Karner blue butterfly usually breeds twice a year. The Karner blue rarely ventures more than 300-600 feet from its hatching place. Blue caterpillars' sole food is the wild lupine plant. Adults feed on the nectar of flowering plants. When the Karner butterfly emerges, it expands its wings and dries them for about 45 minutes
The Karner blue was first identified in 1861 in Karner, New York. The karner blue butterfly is the state butterfly of New Hampshire and it is found in the Concord pine barrens in East Concord.
The Karner blue butterfly was listed as an "Endangered species" by the U.S. government in 1992.
Tarantula
Tarantula is a large hairy tropical spider with fangs. They are native to South and Central America, in Africa and in the southern part of North America. Savanna, grasslands such as the pampas, rain forests, deserts, scrub land, mountains, and cloud forests are their natural habitats. They are generally classed among the terrestrial types.
Tarantulas may live for years, the females can live for up to 30 years or more. The oldest spider, according to Guinness World Records, lived to be 49 years old. Small tarantulas feed on insects, beetles and grasshoppers. The largest tarantula species like the Goliath Bird-eater hunts larger prey, such as, lizards, snakes, frogs, bats and small birds. All tarantulas are venomous but most of them don't harm humans.
A tarantula has four pairs of legs and two additional pairs of appendages, they have two or three retractable claws at the end of each leg. Also they have a group of hairs, surrounding the claws, which help the tarantula to grip better when climbing surfaces like glass. Though most tarantulas tend to stay on the ground, they sometimes climb trees. When they climb trees, the claws are used for gripping the surfaces. Tarantulas do not use webs to capture prey, they take the difficult path – hunting on foot. When threatened, the spider will rub the hairs with their legs and shoot them at their predator. Their worst enemy is the Spider-Wasp.
Most tarantulas are seen wandering during the summer months to find a mate.
Tarantulas can regenerate lost legs. The regenerated leg may not be quite as long as the one it lost. However, over successive molts the leg will gradually get longer until it reaches normal size again. Tarantulas will sometimes eat their detached legs as a way to recycle the protein.
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| Source : USFWS |
Tarantulas may live for years, the females can live for up to 30 years or more. The oldest spider, according to Guinness World Records, lived to be 49 years old. Small tarantulas feed on insects, beetles and grasshoppers. The largest tarantula species like the Goliath Bird-eater hunts larger prey, such as, lizards, snakes, frogs, bats and small birds. All tarantulas are venomous but most of them don't harm humans.
A tarantula has four pairs of legs and two additional pairs of appendages, they have two or three retractable claws at the end of each leg. Also they have a group of hairs, surrounding the claws, which help the tarantula to grip better when climbing surfaces like glass. Though most tarantulas tend to stay on the ground, they sometimes climb trees. When they climb trees, the claws are used for gripping the surfaces. Tarantulas do not use webs to capture prey, they take the difficult path – hunting on foot. When threatened, the spider will rub the hairs with their legs and shoot them at their predator. Their worst enemy is the Spider-Wasp.
Most tarantulas are seen wandering during the summer months to find a mate.
Scientists recently discovered that tarantulas can produce silk with their feet, in addition to using spinnerets as other spiders do.
Tarantulas can regenerate lost legs. The regenerated leg may not be quite as long as the one it lost. However, over successive molts the leg will gradually get longer until it reaches normal size again. Tarantulas will sometimes eat their detached legs as a way to recycle the protein.
Insects Facts
The Hercules Beetle is remarkable, not only for its strength, able to carry up to 850 times its own weight, its shell changes from green to black as its surrounding atmosphere gets more humid.
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| Hercules Beetle source; science daily |
Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant sends out an alarm pheromone to alert the nearby ants of a possible danger. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves.
Interactive teaching has been observed to be effective in ants only apart from mammals. The follower obtains knowledge through its leading tutor. The leader slows down when the followers lag and speeds up when the follower get too quick.
Southern Giant Darner, an endemic dragonfly species of Australia is one of the fastest flying odonates, recorded at nearly 97 km/h. Normally, large dragonflies like the hawkers have a maximum speed of 22–34 mph with average speed of about 4.5 metres per second
I can't move my hands for more than 25 times, it starts aching, but a mosquito can flap its wings for 300-600 times per second. Mosquitoes fly at speeds between 1 and 1.5 miles per hour.Mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide from 75 feet away. We cannot underestimate insects by their size, we don.t know their ability.
Caterpillars have 12 eyes. The caterpillar can differentiate between light and dark with the help of, tiny eyelets, called stemmata, 6 of which are on each side of its head, arranged in a semi-circle. it is said to have mosaic vision. It sometimes moves its head from side to side. This most likely helps it judge depths and distances. It has around 4,000 muscles in its body.
Fly eyes have the fastest visual responses in the animal kingdom. A new study shows that their rapid vision may be a result of their photoreceptors -- specialised cells found in the retina -- physically contracting in response to light. The study was published October 11, in the journal Science.
The rain forest insect Katydids or the South American bush cricket, both male and female produce sounds. When they want to sing, they do so together by rubbing their forewings with each other and they hear each other with ears on their front legs.
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| Katydid Source: science daily |
Katydid sings at an amazingly high 150 kilohertz the most ultrasonic singer of any known organism. The katydids must have ultrasensitive ear structures to catch such ultrasonic sound over distances, a new study published recently in nov in the journal Science. These insects hear a lot like humans do even though their ears may be on their legs.
The authors of the new study, led by Fernando Montealegre-Zapata of the University of Lincoln in England, discovered that the katydid’s ear functions similar to the human ear.
O Dear Fly tell who you are before you fly away!
I saw this fly in my courtyard but couldnt recognise it as you know that there are a lot of species of flies in the world.if anyone amongst you knows the name of this creature kindly inform me in your comment.
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