Fantastic Hover flies Facts
May 18, 2022
➤ Flies of the insect family Syrphidae are known as hover flies.
➤ They also known as "Flowers fly" and "syrphid flies".
➤ There more than 6000 species of hover flies seen across the world.
➤ Hover flies are double beneficial for humans.
➤ Some species of hovers eat aphids during their larval stage, and control pest on farms.
➤ Adult Hover flies feed on nectar and play a major role as Pollinators.
➤ After wild bees , hover flies are second most Pollinators of our planet.
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| Image by Vireo from Pixbay |
➤ many species of Hoverflies are mimics of bees and stinging wasps to avoid predators.
➤ Did you know , Hoverflies have only one pair of wings and not two pairs as in the case of bees and wasps.
➤ hover flies are distinguished from other flies by having a spurious vein, located parallel to their fourth longitudinal wing vein.
➤ Hoverflies can fly at the speed of 40 km/hr intermittently.
➤ Hoverflies possess the ability to fly backwards.
➤ Did you know,Male Hoverflies have larger eyes that are placed close together.
➤ Did you know, The eyes of the females hoverfly, on the other hand, are slightly smaller and placed apart.
➤ The males hoverfly mature faster than the females.
➤ Mating may take place while flying or terrestrially resting on foliage.
➤ Females lay the fertilized eggs on plant shoots and leaves where they will have easy access to eat.
➤ A female hoverfly can lay up to 100 eggs during the course of their life.
➤ Most of the hover flies live a very short life . Average they last 12 days, however some live upto 55 days depending on species.
➤ In a year, 3 to 7 generations of these syrphid flies may be produced.
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References
Interesting facts about Hoverflies by Animalsake - https://animalsake.com/interesting-facts-about-hoverflies
Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hover_fly
8 Hoverflies facts
Shocking Facts about Skippers
May 18, 2022
➡ World wide there More than 3500 species of skippers have been identified.
➡ Skippers are family of Butterflies .
➡ Nevertheless, skippers have the antennae clubs hooked backward like a crochet hook, while the typical butterflies have club-like tips to their antennae.
➡ Skippers mostly have an absence of wing-coupling structure available in most moths.
➡ Did you know, the Skipper Butterfly can fly faster than a horse can run.
➡ Pyrginae, a subfamily of the skipper butterfly family ,commonly known as spread-winged skippers.
➡ They called Spread - winged because they mostly seen with opend wings .
➡ Spread winged skippers love the sun basking.
➡ Spread-Winged Skippers It still is the second-largest subfamily of skipper butterflies.
➡ Males maintain territories and frequently perch on overhanging branches and tree trunks.
➡ Male spread winged skippers do not visit flowers for sustenance, but rather drink fluids from dung, carrion, and rotting fruit.
➡ the spread-winged skippers are found essentially worldwide, except in very cold or desert regions.
➡ The long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus) butterfly found throughout tropical and subtropical South America, south to Argentina and north into the Eastern United States and southern Ontario.
➡ It is a showy butterfly, with wings of light brown tinted with iridescent blue, and two long tails extending from the hindwings.
➡ The long tailed skippers have awingspan between 4.5 and 6 centimeters.
Amazing Facts about Aphids
May 18, 2022
➣ About 5000 described species of aphids has been found in the world.
➣ Around 400 species of aphids found in food and fiber crops.
➣ Aphids are small sap-sucking insects, often called as greenfly and blackfly , however individual in a species can very widely in colour.
➣ Many of the aphids are serious pests of agriculture , foresty and of course harming gardens.
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| Bond between Ants and Aphids . |
➣ Ants have a mutualistic relationship with aphids. They protect them from predators and get honeydew from Aphids
➣ Aphids can migrate great distances, mainly through passive dispersal by winds.
➣ Winged aphids may also rise up in the day as high as 600 m where they are transported by strong winds.
➣ Most aphids have soft bodies, which may be green, black, brown, pink, or almost colorless. Aphids have antennae with two short, broad basal segments and up to four slender terminal segments.
➣ When host plant quality becomes poor or conditions become crowded, some aphid species produce winged offspring so they can migrate to other food sources.
➣ The majority of aphids are wingless, but winged forms are produced at certain times of year in many species.
➣ Most of the Aphids species feed on only specific plants.
➣ Some species of aphids , about 10% of species feed on different plants at different times of the year.
➣ The winged adults of aphids found new host plant, through detection of odorous by using the antenna.
➣ Aphids is the only known example of photoheterotrophy in animals.
➣ aphids may well be able to absorb solar energy and convert it to a form that their cells can use, ATP.
➣ Aphids use their carotenoids to observe solar energy.
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References
WIKIPEDIA - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid
Primary Facts about Planthoopers
May 18, 2022
➧ World wide 12,500 species of Planthoopers were described.
➧ They got their name as they resemblance to plant and leaves.
➧ Planthoppers generally walk very slowly.
➧ Planthooper escape in a quick jump.
➧ nymphs, release waxy substances to protect themselves from any threat.
➧ Some planthoopers consider as pest , however Only few of them.
➧ Brown planthoppers feed only on rice crops and are considered one of the worst pests for rice crops.
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| Image by Rhododendrites , from Wiki Commonslicense- Creative Commons Share Alike 4.0 license. |
➧ Lycorma delicatula is a species of Planthoopers well known as Spoted Lanternfly.
➧ Adult L. delicatula measure about 25 millimetres (1 in) long and 12 millimetres (1⁄2 in) wide.
➧ Adult Lantern forewings adorned with black spots , thats why they called Spoted Lanternfly.
➧ Lanternfly having a minimum of 20 black spots, with 6 spots located on the anterior margin of the forewings.
➧ Neatly spaced black rectangular markings color the tips of the forewings in a pattern sometimes likened to brick and mortar.
➧ The Body and legs of a female Spoted Lanternfly is bigger than a male spoted Lanternfly.
➧ Did you know , while adult have the powerful wings to make quick flights , they use hoping as usual.
➧ Spoted Lanternfly Nymphs hatch from eggs in late April to early May.
➧ Nymph of lantern fly don't have wings until they get matured.
➧ Nymph of lantern fly don't have wings until they get matured, however they have those Spoted earlier.
➧ In the first instar, it is black with white spots. Later instars have red patches in addition to the white spots.
➧ As early as July, adults can be seen, and they mate and lay eggs from late September
➧ Did you know Spoted Lanternfly migrates during the mating period.
➧ perform a brief courtship and copulation which will last for up to 4 hours.
➧The egg masses of Spoted Lanternfly contains 30–50 eggs.
Cool facts about Crickets
May 16, 2022
Cool Facts about Crickets
➣ Mainly Crickets are nocturnal , and best known for the loud , loud persistent chirping songs.
➣ Crickets stridulating system is unique from grasshopper , Crickets has significant structure on their wing's top known as sraper.they open up their wings 45- degree angle and draw the scraper of one wings across wrinkles on the underside of another wing known as file.
➣ Every cricket has its own distinctive song, which it uses to attract mates and defend territory.
➣ Level of Cricket's sounds corresponds to outside temperature. Louder in hot and lower in cold temperature.
➣ Although , Some cricket species are mute.
➣ Crickets often appear as characters in literature.
➣ Male mole crickets sing by stridulating, always under ground.
➣ Crickets have relatively powerful jaws, and several species have been known to bite humans
➣ The Bull Crickets are the largest members the family , they are up to 2 inch long (5 cm).
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| Image from Pixbay by krzysztofniewolny |
➣ The tree Crickets are delicate white or pale green .
➣ The Ground Crickets are rebust brown or black in colour.
References
Amazing Facts about Ants
May 13, 2022
➤ There are more than 12,000 species of ants all over the world.
➤ Ants go on battle , fought with their rival colonies for weeks at a time.
➤Ants smaell with their antenna !
➤Each ant colony has its own special scent. So they can identify their own members and intruders!
➤Ants can digg their nest 2 feet Deeper underground.
➤Ant's can navigate using the magnetic field of earth.
➤Ants have strongest feeling vibrations in the ground , they hear through their feet . Because they don't have ears.
➤Ant's jaws is like a sharp scissors they open widely sideways.
➤Ant's have a whooping 250,000 brain cells. Officially they are the world's smartest insects.
➤Queen ants have longest life among insects. They can live 30 years .
➤When The Queen complete matin she no longer needed her wings , that fall off after.
➤Soldiers ant ' steal ' eggs from other colonies and when they born they became works as slaves.
➤ Female worker ants can travel as long far as 200 metres from their nests. That’s a long way when you’re that small!
➤ Adetomyrma is a genus of ants that only found in Madagascar . Did you know, tahat the workers of this genus can't see , they are blind . Socking facts about this tribe is , it includes thw Dracula ants those can feed on hemolymph of larvae and pupae.
➤The world’s biggest ant is the bullet ant, which is found in the Panama jungle. These critters can grow up to 1.6 inches.
➤The sting of a bullet ant is powerful enough to paralyse a tarantula.
➤There is a species of ant called Bulldog ant , their bite can kill a human in 15 minutes.
➤Australian green ant colonies can have nests spanning over twelve trees.
➤ Did you know,The world’s smallest ant is the Pharoah ant, which is a teeny 2mm long.
➤The leafcutter ant is the strongest ant, which can lift 50 times its body weight.
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References
100 facts about Ants - https://www.colonialpest.com/fun-fact/100-fun-facts-ants/
Wonderful Facts about Wasps
May 12, 2022
❏ Wasps come in any colour imaginable including , blue, green, red and, of course, yellow , orange,and black.
❏ Only female wasps have stingers.
❏ The stingers of wasps are actually a modified egg-laying organ.
❏ Social wasps use their stingers as a defence, while solitary wasps use their stingers and venom for hunting.
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| Picture by Pat Morgan from Pixbay |
❏ Did you know, Wasps feed their young meat.
❏ Paperwasps creat their own paper by chewing and spitting out barks for nest building.
❏ Potter Wasp make clay to buil their mud nest.
❏ Social wasps in the UK are estimated to capture about 14 million kilograms of insect prey annually.
❏ European Hornets strip the bark from trees, causing damage to trees and shrubs.
❏ A Brazilian wasp Polybia paulista produces a toxin in its venom that eliminates cancer cells.
❏ Did you know there is a family of wasp known as Pompilidae , they hunt spiders to lay eggs.
❏ There 5000 species of Spiders hunting wasp in 6 subfamilies.
❏ The male tarantula hawk wasp does not hunt.
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| Picture by Titi from Pixbay |
❏ The female tarantula hawk wasp stings a tarantula paralyzes and drags to a specially prepared burrow and lay only a single egg in it.
❏ The sting Tarantula hawk wasp ranked second most painful among insects.
❏ Did you know , Pepsis_grossa is the state insect of New Mexico.
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References
Wasp 21 facts you won't believe- https://kidadl.com/animal-facts/wasp-facts
Buttom lines of Bees | Prime Facts of Professional Pollinators
May 12, 2022.jpg)
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➣ There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families.
➣ Some species are social and lives in colonies .
➣ Most of bees greater than 90 percent are solitary.
➣ Did you know , Bees have 5 eyes.
➣ The tips of the antennae have more than 300 taste sensors!
➣ Did you know, Bee can't see color red.
➣ The honey bee is the only insect that produces a food eaten by human.
➣ Honey bee foragers must collect nectar from about 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.
➣ The average forager makes about 1/12 th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
➣ Did you know, If the queen bee dies in a honey bee hive the workers can create a new queen bee. For this purpose, they select a young larva and, by feeding it a special food called "royal jelly", the larva develops into a fertile queen.
➣ Honey Bees have two stomach , one to digest and second for gathering honey.
➣ Bees teach each other how to make honey; it's not inborn.
➣ Losing its stinger will cause a bee to die.
➣ The honey bee is one of the most scientifically studied creatures in the world after man!
➣ The honey bee's brain is about the size of a tiny grain of sugar, but researchers have found that it is surprisingly sophisticated.
➣ The honey bee's brain is about the size of a tiny grain of sugar, but researchers have found that it is surprisingly sophisticated.
➣ Vulture bee make meat honey, they gather meat from the dead and rotting animals and produce honey like substance.
➣ Halictidae is the second-largest family of bees but smallest in the size , the workers are less than 2mm long.
➣ Megachile pluto, also known as Wallace's giant bee or 'king of the bees' . it is the largest known living bee species. It's as long as adults thumb.
➣ Wellace's Giant bee has large size of jaws that easilydistinguished them from other bees.
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References
Surprising facts about honey bee ,That we dont have on our blog - https://www.buzzaboutbees.net/honey-bee-facts.html
Fantastic Facts about Flies
May 11, 2022
➤ Did you know Flies are Deaf.
➤ On average, the life cycle of a house fly only lasts for around 30 days.
➤ In a lifetime house flies can lay up to 500 eggs.
➤ Flies have sticky pads on their feet , so they can walk upside down , and vertically.
➤ Flies don't have eyelid so they clean it with their legs.
➤ Drosophila bifurca , tiny fruit fly's sperm is 6 cm or 2.4 inches long , which is 20 times longer than the fly itself, and 1000 times longer than a human sperm.
➤ The Compound eyes of flies are actually madeup of separate light detecting units.
Beetles Buttom line
May 11, 2022
➣ Beetles are the Strongmen of the animal kingdom.
➣ Did you know ,The stag beetle is the largest species of insect to be found in the UK.
➣ One dung beetle can drag 1,141 times its weight.
➣ Did you know , Fireflies are actually Beetle.
➣ Did you know , Lady bugs are not bug they are beetles .
➣ Different Types of Ladybugs have different numbers of spots.
Mind-blowing Facts about Moths | Lepidoptera
May 11, 2022
➤ Over 90% of known Lepidoptera are moths.
➤ Moths have a more grounded feeling of smell than butterflies.
➤ Some moths as adult don't have mouth,They can get by energy stored during caterpillar.
➤ Some moths can confuse bats by clicking ultrasonic sound.
➤ Average weight of Moth species can range from 0.003 to12 g.
➤ Many females of tussock family of Moths don't have wings.
➤ Some moths caterpillar loaded with sharp sting hairs .
➤ Moth navigate with lights of moon and stars, but when light source are obscured they go through geomagnetic clues.
➤ Moths don't get the radiant sun energy , so they heat up their flight muscle by vibrating their wings.
➤ Male moths have larger antenna than female ,so they can detect females for mating.
➤ Did you know,Each Moths species have their own unique wing veins . It's helpful for species identification.
➤ Hawk Moths are a family of moths scientifically described as Sphingidae.
➤ Hawk Moths are also known as sphinx.
➤Hawk moths have special adaptations of narrow wings and streamlined abdomens for rapid flight.
➤ Hawk Moths are so popular for their " swing - hovering '' flight ability.rapidly moving from side to side while hovering.
➤ Hummingbird moth beats their wings 70 times in every second. Means 4200 times in minutes.
➤ Hawk Moth caterpillars are known as " hornworms".
➤ larvae of hawk Moths tend to be specific feeders, rather than generalists.
➤ Some species can tolerate quite high concentrations of specific toxins.
➤ Some species of hornworms ,(caterpillars of hawk moth) do sequester toxins from their hosts, but do not pass them on to the adult stage.
➤ Did you know, many of the hawk moths pupate underground .
➤ death's-head hawkmoths are capable of producing a "squeak" from the pharynx, a response triggered by external agitation.
➤ African death's - head hawk moth is most commonly identified by the vaguely skull-shaped pattern adorning the thorax , thats the reason its got the name .
➤ The moth sucks in air, causing an internal flap between the mouth and throat to vibrate at a rapid speed. The "squeak" described is produced upon the exhalation when the flap is open.
➤ Each cycle of inhalation and exhalation takes approximately one fifth of a second.
➤ The death's head hawk moths have the habits of raiding honey bee hive.
➤ The squeak produced from this moth mimics the piping noise produced from a honey bee hive's queen, a noise in which she utilizes to signal the worker bees to stop moving.
References
Moth Fun Facts - Pdf file -
