Scorpions Extraordinary Facts

All scorpions fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The fluorescence is caused bycalled the hyaline layer. This indicates that the an unidentified substance in a very thin layer in the cuticle of the scorpion fluorescent factor is either secreted by the scorpion shortly after molting or that the fluorescence is a by-product of the tanning process.

Ancestry

Scorpions have been found in many fossil records, including coal deposits from the Carboniferous Period and in marine Silurian deposits. They are thought to have existed in some form since about 425–450 million years ago. They are believed to have an oceanic origin, with gills and a claw like appendage that enabled them to hold onto rocky shores or seaweed.

Scorpion Venom

Scorpion venom is used to subdue prey and to defend against threats, as well as in the mating process. The composition and action of the venom varies from species to species. The venoms are mixtures of salts, small molecules, peptides, and proteins. The peptides are specialized; some act against invertebrates and some against vertebrates, and some target both. This complex formula results in a neurotoxin which depolarizes the nervous system of the victim.

Scorpions are apparently able to regulate the delivery of the venom in scale to the size of their target. Some scorpions are known to produce a transparent prevenom in addition to the more potent opaque venom which is loaded with additional toxin. The use of the prevenom occurs at the initiation of the threat or opportunity. If the action persists, the opaque venom is released. These abilities enable the scorpion to conserve the venom for use when it is needed most, for larger predators or prey.

Medically Significant Scorpion Species

Most of the more venomous scorpions have lighter, more delicate pedipalps and larger, stronger tails. The Buthidae family contains most of the scorpions dangerous to man. They can generally be distinguished by the triangular sternal plate on their ventral side. Other species' sternal plates are more square or pentagonal.

Centruroides exilicauda

Only one species of scorpion in North America and about 20 others worldwide have venom potent enough to be dangerous to human beings. The North American species, Centruroides exilicauda (formerly called C. sculpturatus), is found over much of Arizona and Mexico. It is also known as the Arizona Bark Scorpion. A small population occurs in extreme southeastern California, and a few records exist for southern Utah and small parts of Texas, New Mexico and Nevada. The venom of this scorpion can cause severe pain and swelling at the site of the sting, numbness, frothing at the mouth, respiratory difficulties, muscle twitching, and convulsions. The sting is more dangerous to infants, small children and the elderly. Death is rare, especially in more recent times. An antivenom was created by Arizona State University but is no longer being produced, and is not FDA approved. The FDA has recently given approval for clinical trials to evaluate a Mexican antivenom for use in the United States.

Medically significant species of scorpion occur worldwide:

• In the Mediterranean and North Africa - Buthus, Leiurus, Androdoctonus and Leiurus
• In Western and Southern Africa - Parabuthus
• Across Southern Africa to S outheast Asia - Buthotus (also known as Hottentotta)
• In Asia - Mesobuthus and the Buthotus (also known as Hottentotta)
• South America - Tityus

Life Cycle

The pedipalps are used in scorpion courtship behavior. The male performs a kind of dance with the female, grabbing her pedipalps with his own and dragging her across the ground until he locates a preferred place to deposit his spermatophore, which is then drawn up into the female's genital pore, near the front on the underside of her abdomen. Some species' courtships include a sexual sting of the female by the male.

Scorpion gestation periods vary from several months to a year and a half, depending on the species. Each brood will consist of about 24-35 young. They are viviparious - the young develop as embryos in the female's ovariuterus. The young scorpions are born two at at time, climbing onto their mother's back to be carried there until their first molt in about two weeks, when they will be large and strong enough to take care of themselves.

Scorpions do not metamorphasize as they grow, changing only in size and sometimes to a deeper color with each molt. Typically five or six molts over two to six years are required for the scorpion to reach maturity. The molting is accomplished by a split in the outer covering through which the scorpion must crawl in order to grow.

Scorpion lifespans range from three to five years, though some species are thought to live 10-15 years. Some kinds of scorpions show more sophisticated social behaviors, like colonial burrowing, and living in familial groups that may share burrows and food.

Scorpions

Scorpions are eight legged venomous invertebrates belonging to the class Arachnida, and the order Scorpiones. They are related to spiders, mites, ticks, and harvestmen as well as other members of the Arachnida class. They possess an extended body and a segmented, erectile tail ending with the telson (the sting). There are roughly 1,300 species of scorpions worldwide.

The scorpion's body has two parts, a cephalothorax which contains the prosoma, or head; and the abdomen. The cephalothorax is covered by the carapace, a hard bony or chitinous outer covering. The carapace usually suports a pair of median eyes at the top center. Two to five pairs of lateral eyes are found at the front corners of the carapace, though a few cave and montane forest litter-dwelling scorpions are eyeless. Chelicerae, the scorpion's mouthparts, and a pair of pedipalps, or claws used for prey capture and mating complete the head anatomy. The pedipalps are covered with trichobothria, sensory setae, that sense air-borne vibrations.

The abdomen is made up of the mesosoma, the main body, and the metasoma, the tail. The mesosoma, protected by bony armour, contains the lungs, digestive organs and sexual organs, as well as bearing 4 pairs of walking legs and the pectines. The tips of the legs have small organs that detect vibrations in the ground. The pectines are feathery sensory organs which hang beneath the abdomen and trail on the ground. They are coated by chemosensors that provide detection of minute chemical signals that are thought to alert the scorpions to the approach of prey and also to be of use in mating behavior. The respiratory structure, known as "book lungs," are spiracles that open into the scorpion's body. The surfaces of the legs, pedipalps, and body are also covered with thicker hairs that are sensitive to direct touch.

The metasoma curves up and ends in the telson, which bears the bulbous vesicle containing the venom glands and a sharp, curved aculeus which delivers the venom.

Most species of scorpions reach adulthood at a length of between 2 and 3 inches.The longest scorpion in the world is probably the African Scorpion (Hadogenes troglodytes) which grows to over 8 inches in length. In the U.S., members of the genus Hadrurus (giant desert hairy scorpions) are probably the largest, growing to a length of about 5 inches.

Range & Habitat

Though most prolific and diverse in warm habitat, scorpions have adapted to a wide range of environments, including plains and savannahs, deciduous forests, mountainous pine forests, rain forests and caves. Scorpions have been found at elevations of over 12,000 feet in the Andes Mountains in South America and in the Himalayas of Asia, as well as the Alps. In snowy areas, they hibernate during the cold months of the year. In drought areas they may aestivate (pass the summer in a dormant or torpid state).

About 90 species are found in the U.S. All but four of these naturally occur west of the Mississippi River. Scorpions are most common in southern Arizona and in parts of Texas and central Oklahoma.

Behavior

Scorpions are nocturnal. They often ambush their prey, lying in wait as they sense its approach. They consume all types of insects, spiders, centipedes, and other scorpions. Larger scorpions may feed on vertebrates, such as smaller lizards, snakes, and mice if they are able to subdue them. They capture their prey with their pedipalps, paralyzing them with their venom as well if necessary. The immobilized prey is then subjected to an acid spray that dissolves the tissues, allowing the scorpion to suck up the remains.

As well as being predators, scorpions are also prey. Many types of creatures, such as centipedes, tarantulas, insectivorous lizards, birds (especially owls), and mammals, including shrews, grasshopper mice, and bats hunt scorpions for food.

Spiders

There are at least 50,000 spider species in the arachnid family. Spiders are defined as having eight jointed legs, no wings, no antennae and only two body sections: the thorax and the abdomen. Spiders spend their entire life span capturing and eating other insects (about 2,000 in a year). Even though spiders do a great deal of good for our environment, spiders are greatly feared by most of the population. Most spiders are killed only because they scare people, not because they are actually dangerous to humans.

All spiders have some amount of venom with varying degrees of potency. The fangs of a spider are hollow. The venom is injected through the fangs into the victim (usually an insect). The venom will rapidly paralyze the victim and aid in digestion. Fortunately, most spiders are not dangerous to humans because their fangs are either too short or too fragile to penetrate human skin.

Spiders do not attack in herds. Spiders do not lay in wait and attack people. Spiders do not lift the covers at night and crawl into bed to bite people as they are sleeping. Some spiders can jump but they are not intentionally jumping at humans to attack them. A spider generally bites a human because it was scared and bites to defend itself. Spiders generally prefer to live in undisturbed areas such as corners of the house or the eaves or in the garden where they can catch insects in peace.

Killing spiders with pesticides is difficult. Spraying surfaces is usually ineffective because the spider has minimal contact with the sprayed area. The actual spider or egg sacs must be sprayed with pesticide. The danger of a possible spider bite has to be weighed against the risk of over-using pesticides that probably will not work against spiders.

Bite marks from most spiders are usually too small to easily be seen. Frequently the patient will not recall being bitten. Many of the spider bites will result in pain, small puncture wounds, redness, itching and swelling that lasts a couple of days. Spiders rarely bite more than once, so multiple bites are usually caused by insects such as fleas, bedbugs, ticks, mites and biting flies.

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Pictures Of Spiders

There are many different types of spiders that live all over the Earth in practically every type of habitat. They come in colors including black, brown, white, gray, red, yellow, green, and orange. Most spiders live for about a year, but the tarantula can live for 15 years. Spiders range in size from barely visible to many inches across.

Spiders are arachnids (and not insects); they are related to scorpions and ticks. Young spiders are often cannibals (they will eat each other), and females often eat the male after mating. Spiders are carnivores (meat-eaters); most eat insects (like moths and crickets), but the larger spiders, like tarantulas, will eat many other small animals.

Webs: Spiders produce silk in abdominal glands (called spinnerets). Spiders use silk to make webs and traps (for catching prey), shelter, life lines, cocoons, and diving bells (for those spiders who hunt underwater). The tips of the spider's legs are oily; this oil keeps them from getting trapped in their own webs. Weight for weight, spider's silk is stronger than steel.




Anatomy: All spiders have eight legs; each leg has 2 to 3 tiny claws at the end. They have a two-part body and strong jaws (usually with poisonous fangs). They have a hard exoskeleton and not an internal skeleton.



Life Cycle: After mating with a male, the female spider produces an egg sac that can contain up to a thousand tiny spider eggs. The egg sac is made of silk, and the color varies from species to species. In some species, the female spider carries the egg sac on her spinnerets or in her jaws until the eggs hatch. In other species, the egg sac is hidden under a rock, attached to a plant stalk, or encased in a web. Tiny spiderlings (baby spiders) hatch from the eggs - they look like tiny versions of an adult spider. Some spiderlings are on their own and receive no care from their mother. Other spiders climb onto their mother's back after hatching, where she feeds them. In some species, the mother dies when the young are ready to go off on their own, and the spiderlings eat her carcass.

Arachnids

Arachnid, term for animals in the class including the scorpions, spiders, daddy longlegs, mites, and ticks, and certain other eight-legged land invertebrates. Fossils suggest that arachnids were among the first animals to live on land, perhaps in the early Devonian Period, nearly 400 million years ago. About 60,000 species are known, although many, especially mites, remain undiscovered or undescribed. Arachnids are found throughout the world in nearly every habitat, but they reach their greatest size and diversity in warm arid and tropical regions.


Daddy Longlegs

The arachnid body is divided into two parts: anterior and posterior. The anterior part, called the cephalothorax, contains sense organs, mouthparts, and limbs in pairs. The first pair of limbs-the chelicerae-may form pincers or poison fangs, and the second pair-the pedipalps-may serve as pincers, feelers, or legs. The other limb pairs, generally four, are used for walking. The posterior part of the body, the abdomen, bears the genital opening and other structures. It is usually equipped with modified gills called book lungs. Most arachnids are solitary except at the time of mating, when a variety of complex behavior patterns may be observed. Females may guard eggs or young, which are often born live.

Arachnids are usually predaceous. Often they hunt or lie in wait for small animals such as insects. Food may be partly or wholly broken down by secreted fluids and then sucked in. Arachnids have simple eyes and various prey-subduing structures, such as the segmented, stinging tail of scorpions and the abdominal spinnerets with which spiders construct elaborate insect traps (orbs or webs).



Mites constitute the largest and most diverse order of arachnids, followed by the spiders. Some mites feed on plants and a few species are serious agricultural pests. Some are predaceous, often feeding on other species of mites. Parasitic lifestyles are common among mites and many are of veterinary and medical importance. Ticks are a distinct bloodsucking subgroup of mites specialized for parasitizing reptiles, birds, and mammals. Ticks carry organisms that cause serious human diseases, such as Lyme Disease.

The bites of some spiders and the stings of a few species of scorpions are dangerously poisonous to humans. However, most arachnids are harmless and contribute to the balance of nature by controlling the populations of the insects they prey on or the plants, reptiles, birds, or mammals that serve as their hosts.

Beautiful Pictures Of Ladybirds

Ladybugs are beetles. Adults ladybugs (Hippodamia convergens) over winter in leaf litter and protected sites like your garage or garden shed. These adults wake up and become active mid-May feeding mostly on aphids.



The adults mate and the females lay masses of eggs on leaves, usually near food for the developing young (on a plant currently infested with aphids). The eggs hatch five days later and the larvae feed voraciously (several hundred aphids are eaten per larvae). Then, when development is completed, they go through a "quiet" pupal stage: the outer surface hardens and they stick to leaves or twigs and after a week in the pupa a new adult emerges and starts the life cycle anew. At least three generations occur during one season, the adults of the last generation becoming dormant and over winter in leaf litter.

Adult ladybugs are a primary predator of aphids, but also feed on small soft-bodied caterpillars, scales, spider mites, thrips and other beetle larvae. The ladybug larval form is the big eater though, plowing through several hundred aphids by the time it has completed its development. Birds are the major predator of ladybugs.

In the Middle Ages, observent gardeners saw bright red spotted beetles eating aphids on their grape vines. The beetles ate so many aphids that the grape vines were able to produce great quanities of grapes for wine production. In appreciation the farmers dedicated the beetles to "Our Lady" and the name, Ladybug, has been its moniker ever since.

Ladybugs were introduced purposely by various state and federal agencies (starting in the late 1970's) as a biological control of plant pests (instead of using chemical sprays). You can buy ladybugs at garden stores in the springtime to help eat the bugs that are eating your garden!

LADYBUG LEGENDS

Their scientific names (Coleoptera, meaning "sheath-winged", and Coccinellidae, meaning "little red sphere") can be quite a mouthful, but by whatever name you call them, Ladybugs are well-known and well-loved all over the Earth. Nearly 400 species of Ladybug live in North America, and there are nearly 5,000 species worldwide. Also commonly known as the Lady Beetle or Ladybird Beetle, the name of these insects reflects the global admiration of mankind. None are much larger than a pencil-eraser (some are even smaller) and they come in a wide variety of colors, including red, orange, pink, yellow and black. They can have as many as 20 spots.....or no spots at all. They're also one of the few insects who hibernate during the winter months (called "over-wintering"), emerging in the spring to lay their eggs.

In the 1880s, California Citrus Growers were forced to put the Ladybug's legendary appetite to a crucial test: A destructive scale insect (imported from Australia) was killing large groves of lemon and orange trees. The orchard owners released thousands of Australian Ladybugs with the hopes that they would gain the upper hand. Within 2 years (and $1,500 worth of Ladybugs) the scale insect infestation was conquered and the trees began to bear fruit again.

The Ladybugs had singlehandedly saved an entire industry (worth half a billion dollars today). Since then, numerous species of Ladybugs have been "employed" around the world to help control and conquer outbreaks of crop-destroying pests. The Hippodamia Convergens (so-named due to the 2 converging white dashes on the black thorax portion of the beetle's body, just above the wing cases) is undoubtedly the "aphid-eating champ" of all the Ladybug species. For this reason, many orchard owners, plant nurseries, and farmers have used them for pest control since 1910. During certain months of the year, you can even purchase containers of these Ladybugs at your local garden centers (or online) for use in your own backyard. Of course, not all of them will stick close to home, but the ones that do will vigilantly remain on patrol for pests, and they take no prisoners!

Nearly ALL cultures believe that a Ladybug is lucky.
Killing one is said to bring sadness and misfortune.

In France, if a Ladybug landed on you, whatever ailment
you had would fly away with the Ladybug.

If a Ladybug is held in the hand while making a wish,
the direction that it flies away to shows where
your luck will come from.

If the spots on the wings of a Ladybug are more than seven,
it's a sign of coming famine. If less than seven, it means
you will have a good harvest.

In Belgium, people believed that if a Ladybug crawled across
a young girl's hand, she would be married within a year.

People in Switzerland told their young children
that they were brought to them, as babies, by Ladybugs.
(...and we thought Storks did that)!

In some Asian cultures, it is believed that the Ladybug understands
human language, and has been blessed by God, Himself.

In Brussels, the black spots on the back of a Ladybug indicate to the
person holding it how many children he/she will have.

According to a Norse legend, the Ladybug came to earth
riding on a bolt of lightning.

The Victorians in Britain believed that if a Ladybug alighted on your
hand, you would be receiving new gloves.....if it landed on your head,
a new hat would be in your future, and so on.

In the 1800's, some doctors used Ladybugs to treat measles! They
also believed that if you mashed ladybugs and put them
into a cavity, the insects would stop a toothache!

During the Pioneer days, if a family found a Ladybug in their log cabin
during the winter, it was considered a "Good Omen".

In the Spring, if numerous Ladybugs are seen flying around,
British farmers say it forecasts many bountiful crops.

Many Bretons believe that the arrival of Ladybugs will bring fair weather.

Folklore suggests if you catch a Ladybug in your home, count the number
of spots and that's how many dollars you'll soon find.

In Norway, if a man and a woman spot a Ladybug at the same time,
there will be a romance between them.

Ladybug Around The Globe

Female Ladybugs produce clusters of 20-50 yellowish orange oval-shaped eggs in the early spring -- you can usually find them stuck to the undersides of leaves. The average female will lay anywhere from 300 to 1000 eggs during her lifetime. The eggs hatch primarily in March and April, depending on the temperature.

Ladybug Larvae are actually larger than their parents, and they look very much like miniature blue-black alligators! In fact, some well-meaning gardeners will actually exterminate them because they don't recognize them as Ladybug offspring. The Larvae are ravenous and immediately begin gorging on aphids, mealybugs, scale insects, and other soft-bodied pests. One Larvae can consume as many as 400 aphids during the 3-week period before it enters the Pupae stage and turns into an adult.

Ladybugs are a bit clumsy, though efficient enough, fliers. Their transparent sheath-wings (hidden from view under the outer wing cases, until they take to the air) flutter at a rate of 85 beats per second. Their bright colors serve as a warning sign to birds and other potential predators that they DON'T TASTE GOOD. If attacked by a predator, Ladybugs ooze a yellow, foul-smelling liquid (actually their blood) from their leg joints, which is usually all it takes to convince their attacker not to continue snacking on them!

Finally, after consuming aphids all summer-long, the air starts to turn brisk, and the Ladybugs begin to seek shelter for the winter. They cluster together by the thousands (for warmth, it's presumed) under dead leaves, inside hollow logs, and even high up in the eaves of our houses. For still unknown reasons, they tend to prefer light-colored structures with a prominent southern exposure. There they will remain - in hibernation - until the warmer temperatures return, indicating that Spring has come and the aphid population has been replenished. The Ladybugs will then devote themselves to several days of eating and frenzied mating, the females sometimes feeding and breeding at the same time! The beautiful, brightly-colored beetles will die soon thereafter......but before they do, new clusters of yellow-orange eggs will be laid and the Life cycle begins anew, much to the delight of farmers and Ladybug Lovers everywhere!

HOW THE LADYBUG GOT ITS NAME

Legends vary about how the Ladybug came to be named, but the most common (and enduring) is this: In Europe, during the Middle Ages, swarms of insects were destroying the crops. The farmers prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. Soon thereafter the Ladybugs came, devouring the plant-destroying pests and saving the crops! The farmers called these beautiful insects "The Beetles of Our Lady", and - over time - they eventually became popularly known as "Lady Beetles". The red wings were said to represent the Virgin's cloak and the black spots were symbolic of both her joys and her sorrows.

"LADYBUG" IN OTHER LANGUAGES

"Glückskäfer" -- Austria
"Slunécko" - Czechoslovakia
"Mariehøne" -- Denmark
"LadyBird" -- England
"Leppäkerttu" -- Finland
"Coccinelle" -- France
"Marienkafer" -- Germany
"Paskalitsa" -- Greece
"Parat Moshe Rabenu" -- Hebrew
"Lieveheersbeestje" -- Holland
"Katicabogár" -- Hungary
"Coccinella" -- Italy
"Tentou Mushi" -- Japan
"Da'asouqah" -- Jordan
"Mudangbule" -- Korea
"Mara" -- Latvia
"Kumbang" -- Malaysia
"Biedronka" -- Poland
"Joaninha" -- Portugal
"Buburuzã" -- Romania
"Bosya Kopovka" -- Russia
"Pikapolonica" -- Slovania
"Mariquita" -- Spain
"Nykelpiga" -- Sweden
"Ugurböcegi" -- Turkey
"Ladybug" -- United States
"Ilsikazana Esincane" -- Zulu

Ladybirds Arts

Ladybug or Lady Beetle (Coccinellidae) is the one beetle everybody can identify on sight, but did you know it is not a bug (Hemiptera); instead it is a beetle (Coleoptera). The lady beetle belongs to a whole family of beetles called Coccinellidae, which belong to the superfamliy Cucujoida that belongs to the series Cucujiformia within the suborder Polyphaga of the beetles (Coleoptera).




Ladybugs are usually generalist and feed on plants, crops, eggs, larva, and other insects; especially aphids in Alaska. Aphids pierce a leaf or stem of a plant and suck out the juice, which leaves a honeydew excretion behind and subsequently ants feed upon the residue. The ants in turn attack predators of aphids to keep up the supply of honeydew. This turns into a three-way predator prey relationship between aphids, ladybugs, and ants.



Therefore, to get rid of a high population of ants and aphids a good idea is to introduce ladybugs that will prey upon the aphids. Ants are not the only predator of ladybeetles, wasps and some moths also prey upon them. An ecosystem can become very complicated in a short amount of time.

Ladybugs have a two-step system of avoiding predators. The first is a reflex-bleed from the tibio-femoral articulations (leg joints). The blood (hemolymph) is a yellow staining repellent having a repulsive smell as well as containing (in some species) various alkaloid toxins (adaline, coccinelline, exochomine, hippodamine, etc.). The second is an aposematic system, where the ladybugs' bright red or orange color warns would be predators that they are toxic and distasteful.



Ladybeetles or ladybugs are oval and range in length from 0.04 inches (1 mm) to 0.4 inches (10 mm), depending upon the species. Females are larger than males. Adults of some species are brightly colored or spotted. They catch large amounts of prey by using physical contact rather than sight or smell, like other insects and chew with their mandibles (lower jaw). Ladybugs also march in straight lines until they find something to eat. They have wings and can migrate hundreds of miles by riding the winds.




When you see a ladybeetle or ladybug remember they are good at getting rid of pesky insects and are good for the yard or garden.

All About Ladybirds

LADYBUG CLASSIFICATION
Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Insecta
Superorder Uniramia
Order Coleoptera
Family Coccinellidae Ladybugs (also called lady birds and lady beetles) are small, oval-shaped winged insects. These shiny insects are usually red with black spots or black with red spots on the wing covers. The number of spots identifies the type of ladybug. Most ladybugs are less than 1/4 inch (4-8 mm) long. As ladybugs age, the color of the spots fade. Birds are the major predator of the ladybug. Ladybugs will play dead when threatened.

DIET
These tiny predators are usually very welcome in gardens because ladybug larvae and adults eat aphids, mealybugs, and mites (which are garden pests). Ladybug larvae can eat about 25 aphids a day; adults can eat over 50. There are about 5,000 different species of ladybugs throughout the world. A common species is the two-spotted ladybug; it is orange red with one black spot on each wing cover.

ANATOMY
Ladybugs are winged insects (a type of beetle). When they are not flying, the flight wings are covered and protected by a pair of modified wings (called elytra). When flying, the elytras open up, allowing the wings to move. The area above the elytra is called the pronotum (it is part of the thorax). The pronotum frequently has grayish spots on it. The head of the ladybug is very tiny (and frequently confused with the pronotum). Females are larger than males.

Like all insects, ladybugs have:

• 6 jointed legs (arranged as 3 pairs)
• one pair of antennae
• an exoskeleton made of chitin (a type of strong protein similar to the one that forms our hair and fingernails)
• a three-part body consisting of the:
  • head (which has the mouthparts, compound eye, and antennae)
  • thorax (the middle section which is where the 3 pairs of legs and the pairs of wings attach)
  • abdomen (which holds the excretory and reproductive organs and most of the digestive system)

LIFE STAGES
The labybug, like all beetles, undergoes a complete metamorphosis during its life. The life stages of the ladybug are: egg --> larva --> pupa --> adult.

Female ladybugs lay tiny eggs, usually laid in a small mass (fertilization is internal). The larvae that hatches from the egg is small and long and has 6 legs. As it rapidly grows, the larva molts (sheds its skin) several times. After reaching full size, the larvae attaches itself to a plant leaf or stem (by its "tail"). The larval skin then splits down the back, exposing the pupa. The pupa is about the size of the adult but is all wrapped up, protecting the ladybug while the it undergoes metamorphosis into its adult stage. This last stage in the metamorphosis takes a few days.

HABITAT
Ladybugs live in a variety of habitats, including forests, fields, grasslands, gardens, and even in people's houses.

LADYBUGS ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE
Four ladybugs were sent into space in 1999 on NASA's space shuttle led by Eileen Collins. Ladybugs and their main food, aphids, were sent to a zero-gravity environment to study how to aphids could get away from the ladybugs without being able to jump using gravity.

According to the STS-93 Pilot Jeffrey S. Ashby, "One of the experiments that I do understand well, and is also very interesting, is an experiment that involves aphids and ladybugs. We are taking a small container with some leaves and aphids, and the ladybugs that are their prime predator. I'm told that the ladybugs on Earth will climb up a stalk to capture the aphids, and the aphids will use gravity to assist them to fall off of the leaf to escape from the ladybug. The question is, how will these defense mechanisms work in the absence of gravity, and what will happen to the relationship between predator and prey? One of the things that extra time has allowed us to do is to come up with names for the four ladybugs that we have. I think they have been very appropriately named after The Beatles: John, Paul, Ringo, and George. We're taking these ladybugs up and we're going to release them and see what they do."

Results of the Experiment: Upon completion of the mission, it was determined that the ladybugs survived and did eat the aphids while in a microgravity environment. Ladubugs do very well in space!

Different Beetle Types

Common Name: Red Turnip Beetle

Latin Name: Entomoscelis americana

Length: 7 mm

Range: Thoughout Alberta

Habitat: Various

Time of year seen: Summer and Fall

Diet: Turnip, radish, rapeseed, mustard and canola




Common Name: Firefly

Latin Name: Ellychnia spp.

Length: 5 - 14 mm

Range: Alberta

Habitat: Damp areas

Time of year seen: Summer and Fall

Ground Beetles (Family Carabidae)
Ground beetles make up the third largest family of beetles in North America, with more than 2200 species in the US alone. Its members exhibit considerable variation in size, shape, and color. Most species are dark, shiny, and somewhat flattened, with hard striated elytra (fancy word for their hard wing coverings).


Cicindela duodecimguttata A predaceous ground beetle--more specifically, a tiger beetle--often found on cranberry beds in Maine, especially along the dikes and banks.

Ground beetles are commonly found under stones, logs, leaves, bark, or debris, or just running about on the ground (hence, the name). When disturbed, they run rapidly, but seldom fly. Most species hide during the day and feed at night. Thus, they are not often picked up in sweep nets while sweeping in cranberry beds. Nearly all ground beetles are predaceous on other insects, and many are very beneficial. In cranberries, their benefits are less significant--because their numbers are not that high--and so they probably play more of a neutral role (neither beneficial nor harmful). However, those in the genus Calosoma--which are the largest and most brilliantly colored ground beetles--feed chiefly on caterpillars and so may be more beneficial to cranberry growers than what the industry is aware of. A very few ground beetle members are plant feeders, such as the seed-corn beetle, Stenolophus lecontei(Chaudoir).

Eggs are laid singly, often in cells, in mud or damp soil; larvae pupate and emerge as adults the following year. Adults can live 2 to 4 years!



Scarab beetles (Family Scarabaeidae)




Carrion beetles (Family Silphidae)

Nice Pictures Of Beetles

Colorado potato beetle can be a serious pest of potato, tomato, eggplant, and pepper. The common black and yellow-striped "potato bug" is a very familiar insect to home gardeners. Both the striped beetle and the black-spotted, red larva feed on potato leaves. Their damage can greatly reduce yield and even kill plants. Colorado Potato beetle overwinters as an adult in the soil, in fencerows, or under litter in garden or fields. They become active in the spring as temperatures rise and begin to feed on weeds and volunteer or early planted potatoes, even entering the soil to attack emerging foliage. Female beetles can lay 500 or more eggs over a four to five week period. Full grown larvae burrow in the ground to pupate. In five to 10 days, the adult beetle emerges. This insect can go from egg to adult in as little as 21 days. The newly emerged adult female feeds for a few days before egg laying begins. There are two full and occasionally a partial third generation each year.

Beetles are one of the most diverse groups of insects. Their order, Coleoptera (meaning "sheathed wing"), has more described species in it than in any other order in the animal kingdom.

Forty percent of all described insect species are beetles (about 350,000 species), and new species are regularly discovered. Estimates put the total number of species, described and undescribed, at between 5 and 8 million. This is why when J.B.S Haldane, a Scottish geneticist, was asked what his studies of nature revealed about God, he replied, "An inordinate fondness for beetles".

Beetles can be found in almost all habitats, but are not known to occur in the sea or in the polar regions. They impact the ecosystem in several ways. On the one hand, they feed on plants and fungi, breaking down animal and plant debris, and eating other invertebrates. On the other hand they are prey of various animals including birds and mammals.

Tiger Beetle

Certain species are agricultural pests, such as the the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, the Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata, or the mungbean beetle Callosobruchus maculatus Fabr. while others are important controls of agricultural pests. For example, lady beetles (family Coccinellidae) consume aphids, fruit flies, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.

Impact Of Beetles On Humans

The elm bark beetles, Hylurgopinus rufipes

Pests

Many agricultural, forestry, and household pests are represented by the order. These include:

• The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, is a notorious pest of potato plants. Adults mate before overwintering deep in the soil, so that when they emerge the following spring, females can lay eggs immediately, once a suitable host plant has been found. As well as potatoes, a suitable host can be a number of other plants from the potato family (Solanaceae) such as nightshade, tomato, aubergine and capsicum. Crops are destroyed and the beetle can only be treated by employing expensive pesticides, many of which it has begun to develop immunity to.
• The elm bark beetles, Hylurgopinus rufipes, elm leaf beetle Pyrrhalta luteola and Scolytus multistriatus (in the family Scolytidae) attack elm trees. They are important elm pests because they carry Dutch elm disease (the fungus Ophiostoma ulmi) as they move from infected breeding sites to feed on healthy elm trees. The spread of the fungus by the beetle has led to the devastation of elm trees in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, notably North America and Europe.
• The death watch beetle Xestobium rufovillosum is of some considerable importance as a pest of wooden structures in older buildings in Britain. It attacks hardwoods such as oak and chestnut, and always where some fungal decay has taken or is taking place. It is thought that the actual introduction of the pest into buildings takes place at the time of construction.
• Asian long-horned Beetle
  

  In China, it's called the starry sky beetle because of the white, celestial markings on its black body. But in the United States, this latest alien insect immigrant is commonly known as the Asian longhorn beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis.

  "Whatever name you use," says Steven W. Lingafelter, "this pest and related species could have a devastating economic impact in the United States. It could cause millions of dollars in damage to ornamental trees and to the maple syrup and lumber industries." Lingafelter is a systematic entomologist.

  "This woodboring pest is native to China, Japan, and Korea and has a natural range broad enough to guarantee it can live in most sections of this country," he says.

  The Asian longhorn beetle was first discovered on maple, horsechestnut, and elm trees in Brooklyn, New York, in October 1996. Last July, workers there began cutting down, chipping, and burning trees to slow the pest's spread. Since then, the beetle has moved on to other communities in New York, and other specimens have been seen across the country. In Amityville and Greenpoint, New York, the beetle is attacking many types of maple and horsechestnut trees.

  Recently, adults and larvae have been intercepted in forest product shipments in California, South Carolina, and Canada. Early identification and cargo fumigation have so far prevented establishment of this species in these other areas.

  
  
• Citrus long-horned beetle

The citrus longhorned beetle, is one of the worst non-native pests to ever enter the United States. Its unwitting arrival on a shipment of bonsai maple trees is the first and only time the beetle has been caught out-of-doors in the U.S. The wood-boring beetle is considered a serious pest in Asia. In Washington, it poses an unprecedented threat to the environment because it attacks healthy trees -more than 40 varieties of hardwood and fruit trees - and has no natural enemies. Not only are greenbelts, urban landscapes and backyard trees at jeopardy, but also orchards, forests and salmon and wildlife habitat. If this pest were to become permanently established in Washington, thousands upon thousands of trees would be destroyed.

Beneficial organisms

• The larvae of lady beetles (family Coccinellidae) are often found in aphid colonies. While both adult and larval lady beetles found on crops prefer aphids, they will, if aphids are scarce, use food from other sources, such as small caterpillars, young plant bugs, aphid honeydew, and plant nectar.
• Large ground beetles (family Carabidae) are predators of caterpillars and, on occasion, adult weevils, whereas smaller species attack eggs, small caterpillars, and other pest insects.

Some farmers introduce beetle banks to foster and provide cover for beneficial beetles.

Several species of the dung beetles, most notably Scarabaeus sacer (often referred to as "scarab"), enjoyed a sacred status among the ancient Egyptians, as the creatures were likened to the god Khepri. Some scholars suggest that the people's practice of making mummies was inspired by the brooding process of the beetle.

Many thousands of amulets and stamp seals have been excavated that depict the scarab. In many artifacts, the scarab is depicted pushing the sun along its course in the sky. During and following the New Kingdom, scarab amulets were often placed over the heart of the mummified deceased. The amulets were often inscribed with a spell from the Book of the Dead which entreated the heart, "Do not stand as a witness against me."

Study and collection

The study of beetles is called coleopterology, and its practitioners are coleopterists.

Coleopterists have formed organizations to facilitate the study of beetles. Among these is The Coleopterists Society, an international organization based in the United States.

Research in this field is often published in peer-reviewed journals specific to the field of coleopterology, though journals dealing with general entomology also publish many papers on various aspects of beetle biology. Some of the journals specific to beetle research are:

• The Coleopterist (United Kingdom beetle fauna)
• The Coleopterists Bulletin (published by The Coleopterists Society)

There is a thriving industry in the collection of beetle specimens for amateur and professional collectors. Some countries have established laws governing or prohibiting the collection of certain rare (and often much sought after) species.

Beetles - Friends & Foes

Death-watch beetle

Beetles are often confused with bugs, but their mouthparts are adapted for biting and are completley different from the needle-like mouthparts of bugs.


Diving Beetle

Although most beetle species can fly quite well, they spend much of their lives in or in the ground. You'll find them scrambling about in the roots of plants, or under stones and logs -- places where their elytra help to protect them and stop their bodies from dryiung out. Diving beetles, such as members of the family Dytiscidae, hunt underwater for food and carry their own supply of air down with them under their wings.


Colorado Potato Beetle

Some beetles are serious pests. The black-and-yellow striped Colorado beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), for example, can destroy potato crops. The Death-watch beetle(Xestobium rufovillosum) damages houses and furniture, as does the woodworm, which is the larva of the Furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum).


The scarab is a large group of 20,000 species of beetle. Some species eat plants and sometimes harm lawns and/or crops. And other breed in dung (manure). They roll them into pellets and lay their eggs in the pellet. the ancient Egyptians called them the sacred scarabs. They also believed that the projections on the head of the were emblems of the sun and the beetle also symbolized the resurrection and immortality. the Egyptians carved them out of stone or metal, using them as charms. They usually took out the heart of a dead person and put a carved, and sometimes jeweled, scarab in its place during embalming.

Dung beetles (family Scarabaeidae) are altogether more useful. They have broad front legs with which they dig into the soil to bury dung, beginning a process that helps to recycle this waste material. The beetles lay their eggs in the dung, and their larvae feed on it after hatching.





Strange flashing lights on a summer's night may betray glowworms (family Lampyridae) -- a type of beetle, despite their name. Glowworms are very popular in Western Europe. They are very closely related to a firefly. These insects are primarily nocturnal creatures that flashes actively only during a limited period of the night. Male glowworms can fly, but the females are wingless and use their greenish lights to attract the males in the breeding season. Fireflies, or lightning bugs, belong to the same family. They behave in a similar way, except that both sexes can fly. These common names show one reason why scientific names are so necessary -- these animals are neither worms, flies nor bugs!

Beetles Development

Beetle Tiger

Beetles are endopterygotes with complete metamorphosis.

Although beetle eggs are generally very small, their size, shape, color, and content vary extensively among species, as it is generally the case for most sexually reproducing species. A single female may lay from several dozen to several thousand eggs during its life time. Eggs are usually layed according to the substrat the larva will feed on upon hatching. Among others, they can be layed loose in the substrat (e.g. flour beetle), layed in clumps on leafs (e.g. Colorado potato beetle), or individually attached (e.g. mungbean beetle and other seed borer)or buried in the medium (e.g. carrot weevil).

The larva of a beetle is called a grub, and often represents the principal feeding stage of the life-cycle. Larvae tend to feed voraciously once they emerge from their eggs. Some feed externally on plants, such as those of certain leaf beetles and lady bird beetles, while others feed within their food sources. The larval period varies between species but can be as long as several years. All beetle larvae go through several instars, which are the developmental stages between each moult. In many species the larvae simply increase in size with each successive instar. In some cases, however, more dramatic changes occur. Among certain beetle families or genera, particularly those that exhibit parasitic lifestyles, the first instar (the planidium) is highly mobile in order to search out a host, while the following instars are more sedentary and remain on or within their host. This is known as hypermetamorphosis; examples include the blister beetles (family Meloidae) and some rove beetles, particularly those of the genus Aleochara.

As with all endopterygotes insects, beetle larvae pupate for a period of time, and from the pupa emerges a fully formed, sexually mature adult beetle, or imago. Adults have an extremely variable lifespan, from weeks to years, depending on the species.

Reproduction

Beetles may display extremely intricate behaviour when mating. Smell is thought to be important in the location of a mate.

Conflict can play a part in the mating rituals of species such as burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus) where conflicts between males and females rage until only one of each is left, thus ensuring reproduction by the strongest and fittest. Many beetles are territorial and will fiercely defend their small patch of territory from intruding males.

Pairing is generally short but in some cases will last for several hours. During pairing sperm cells are transferred to the female to fertilise the egg.

Parental Care

Parental care varies between species, ranging from the simple laying of eggs under a leaf to certain scarab beetles, which construct impressive underground structures complete with a supply of dung to house and feed their young.

There are other notable ways of caring for the eggs and young, such as those employed by leaf rollers, who bite sections of leaf causing it to curl inwards and then lay the eggs, thus protected, inside.

Predation

Beetles and their larvae have a variety of strategies to avoid being eaten, for example using camouflage to avoid being spotted by predators. These include the leaf beetles (family Chysomelidae) that have a green colouring very similar to their habitat on tree leaves. More complex camouflage also occurs, as with some weevils (family Curculionidae), where various coloured scales or hairs cause the beetle to resemble bird dung.

A number of longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) bear a striking resemblance to wasps. This defense, known as mimicry, can be found to a lesser extent in other beetle families, such as the scarab beetles.

Many species, including lady beetles and blister beetles, can secrete poisonous substances to make them unpalatable. These same species often exhibit aposematism, where bright or contrasting color patterns warn away potential predators.

Large ground beetles will tend to go on the attack, using their strong mandibles to forcibly persuade a predator to seek out easier prey.

Anatomy Of Beetle

The general anatomy of beetles is quite uniform, though specific organs and appendages may vary greatly in appearance and function between the many families in the order. Beetle bodies are divided into three sections: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. Like all insects, beetles are segmented organisms, and all three of the major sections of the body may themselves be composed of several further segments, although these are not always readily discernable.

Beetles are generally characterised by a particularly hard exoskeleton and hard forewings (elytra). The beetle's exoskeleton is made up of numerous plates called sclerites, separated by thin sutures. This design creates the armoured defences of the beetle while maintaining flexibility. The elytra are not used for flight, but tend to cover the hind part of the body and protect the second pair of wings (alae). Elytra must generally be raised in order to move the hind flight wings.

A beetle's flight wings are crossed with veins and, after landing, are folded, often along these veins, and stored below the elytra. In some cases the ability to fly has been lost, most notably in the ground beetles (family Carabidae) and the true weevils(family Curculionidae), but also in some desert and cave-dwelling species of other families. Many of these species have the two elytra fused together, forming a solid shield over the abdomen. In a few families both the ability to fly and the elytra have been lost, with the best known example being the glowworms of the family Phengodidae, in which the females are larviform throughout their lives.

Beetles have mouthparts similar to those of grasshoppers. Of these parts, the most commonly known are likely the mandibles, which appear as large pincers on the front of some beetles. The mandibles are a pair of hard, often tooth-like structures that move horizontally to grasp, crush, or cut food or enemies. Two pairs of finger-like appendages are found around the mouth in most beetles, serving to move food into the mouth. These are the maxillary and labial palpi.

The eyes are compound, and may display some remarkable adaptability, as in the case of whirligig beetles (family Gyrinidae), in which the eyes are split to allow a view both above and below the waterline. Other species also have divided eyes (some Cerambycidae and Curculionidae), while many beetles have eyes that are notched to some degree. A few beetle genera also possess ocelli, which are small, simple eyes usually situated farther back on the head (on the vertex).

Beetle antennae are primarily organs of smell, but may also be used to physically feel out a beetle's environment. Further, they may be used in some families during mating, or among a few beetles for defence. Antennae vary greatly in form within the Coleoptera, but are often similar within any given family. In some cases males and females of the same species will have different antennal forms. Antennae may be filiform, clavate, flabellate or genticulate.

The legs, which are multi-segmented, end in two to five small segments called tarsi, which are vaguely comparable to feet. Like many other insect orders beetles bear claws, usually one pair, on the end of the last tarsal segment of each leg. While most beetles use their legs for walking, legs may be variously modified and adapted for other uses. Among aquatic families (Dytiscidae, Haliplidae, many Hydrophilidae, and others) the legs, most notably the hind pair, are modified for swimming and often bear rows of long hairs to aid this purpose.

Other beetles have fossorial legs that are widened and often spined for digging. Species with such adaptations are found among the scarabs, ground beetles, and clown beetles (family Histeridae). The hind legs of some beetles, such as flea beetles (within Chrysomelidae) and flea weevils (within Curculionidae), are enlarged and designed for jumping.

Oxygen is obtained via a tracheal system. Air enters a series of tubes along the body through openings called spiracles, and is then taken into increasingly finer fibres. Pumping movements of the body force the air through the system.

Beetles have hemolymph instead of blood, and the open circulatory system of the beetle is powered by a tube-like heart attached to the top inside of the thorax.

Coccinellidae

Coccinellidae is a family of beetles, known variously as ladybirds (commonwealth English) , ladybugs (North American English) or lady beetles (preferred by scientists). The word "lady" in the name is thought to allude to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Catholic faith. Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 4,500 species described, more than 450 native to North America alone.



Coccinellids are small insects, ranging from 1mm to 10mm (0.04 to 0.4 inches), and are usually yellow, orange, or red with small black spots on their carapace, with black legs, head and feelers. As the family name suggests, they are usually quite round in shape. Because they are useful, colourful, and harmless to humans, coccinellids are typically considered cute even by people who hate most insects. Some people consider seeing them or having them land on one's body to be a sign of good luck to come, and that killing them presages bad luck.

Coccinellids are brightly coloured to ward away potential predators. This defence works because most predators associate bright colours (especially orange and black or yellow and black) with poison and other unpleasant properties. This phenomenon is called aposematism. In fact, most coccinellids are indeed toxic to smaller predators, such as lizards and small birds; however, a human would have to eat several hundred coccinellids before feeling any effects. Adult coccinellids are able to reflex-bleed from their leg joints, releasing their oily yellow toxin with a strong repellent smell. This becomes quite obvious when one handles a coccinellid roughly.

Most Coccinellids mate in the spring or summer, and the female lays a cluster of eggs (numbering from a few to a few hundred, depending on species) as near as possible to an aphid colony. In most species these eggs hatch into a larval state within a week. This state lasts 10-15 days, and they then go into a pupal stage before becoming an adult coccinellid. The entire life cycle of the Coccinellid is only 4-7 weeks.

Coccinellids lay extra infertile eggs with the fertile eggs. These appear to provide a backup food source for the larvae when they hatch. The ratio of infertile to fertile eggs increases with scarcity of food at the time of egg laying.

Importance Of Coccinellids

Coccinellids are beneficial to organic gardeners because most species are insectivores, consuming aphids, fruit flies, thrips, and other tiny plant-sucking insects that damage crops. In fact, their name is derived from "Beetle of Our Lady", recognising their role in saving crops from destruction. Today, they are commercially available from a variety of suppliers.

In agriculture, coccinellids, like other beetles, can find protection in beetle banks.

Coccinellids are and have for very many years been favourite insects of children. The insects had many regional names (now mostly disused) such as the lady-cow, may-bug, golden-knop, golden-bugs (Suffolk); and variations on Bishop-Barnaby (Barney, Burney) Barnabee, Burnabee, and the Bishop-that-burneth.

The ladybird is immortalised in the children's nursery rhyme extant:

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home

Your house is on fire and your children are gone

All except one, and that's Little Anne

For she has crept under the warming pan.

and ancient (recounted in an 1851 publication):

Dowdy-cow, dowdy-cow, ride away heame,

Thy house is burnt, and thy bairns are tean,

And if thou means to save thy bairns

Take thy wings and flee away!

The name which the insect bears in the various languages of Europe is clearly mythic. In this, as in other cases, the Virgin Mary has supplanted Freya, the fertility goddess of Norse mythology; so that Freyjuhaena and Frouehenge have been changed into Marienvoglein, which corresponds with Our Lady's Bird. There can, therefore, be little doubt that the esteem with which the lady-bird, or Our Lady's cow, is still regarded and is a relic of ancient beliefs. In parts of Northern Europe, tradition says you get a wish granted if a ladybird lands on you.

In Italy, it is said by some that if a Ladybird flies into your bedroom, it is considered good luck. In central Europe, a ladybird crawling across a girl's hand is thought to mean she will get married within the year. In Russia a ladybird is called Божья-Коровка (God's cow) and a popular children's rhyme exists with a call to fly to the sky and bring back bread. Similarly, in Denmark a ladybird, called a mariehøne (Mary's hen), is asked by children to fly to 'our lord in heaven and ask for fairer weather in the morning'.

The ladybird is the symbol of the Dutch Foundation Against Senseless Violence. Other companies using ladybirds as their corporate logo include: Ladybird Books (owned by Pearson PLC; the Ladybird range of children's clothing sold by Woolworth's in the UK; and Axosoft, a US-based software development firm whose flagship product helps manage the software development process, including defect (bug) tracking.

More Beetles Facts

Spotted Cucumber Beetle

Among the insects, beetles are the most important group of ground-dwelling predators. Beetles will prey on both active and inactive stages, such as eggs and pupae, of a wide range of insects and other prey. However, adults of some ground beetles (family Carabidae) and many lightning beetles (family Lampyridae) prey mainly on snails. Many beetles that live in decaying leaves on the ground, or leaf litter, prey on mites (class Arachnida). Some predators can be omnivorous, with the larva or adult feeding on both plants and animals.Soldier beetles (family Cantharidae) and others have predaceous larvae and plant-feeding adults.

A unique form of predation among beetles is present with larvae of tiger beetles. Most beetles are active hunters of prey, but tiger beetle larvae, also known as "chicken chokers," wait in burrows in the ground. These larvae have a large bump on their backs that help them hold their bodies in the burrow. When an insect walks over their camouflaged heads, they grab the prey with long mandibles.

Most kinds of plants are eaten by some kind of beetle. Many beetles have certain parts of the plant that they eat. Adults and larvae of many beetles chew off parts of leaves. Larvae of some beetles are leaf miners, eating trails inside the leaves. Other beetles bore in stems or fruit. Some kinds of beetle larvae, including white grubs and rootworms, feed on roots. Many adult beetles can be found in flowers where they may feed on the petals, nectar, or pollen. Some beetles feed on sap that flows from a tree wound.

Larvae of long-horned beetles (family Cerambycidae) and metallic wood-boring beetles (family Buprestidae) bore in the wood of shrubs and trees, especially those that are dying or dead. The female twig-girdler, a kind of long-horned beetle, lays an egg at the end of a branch on a living tree. Then, the female chews, or girdles, the stem to cut off the water supply. The tip of the branch dies and usually falls to the ground. The larva of the twig-girdler then feeds inside the dead branch. Metallic wood-borers are known also as jewel beetles.

Bark beetles (family Scolytidae) feed under the bark of trees. Some bark beetles are known as engraver beetles because when they eat they make distinctive patterns on the wood. Other bark beetles are calledambrosia beetles because they feed on a kind of fungus, known as ambrosia, that they grow in their tunnels.

Beetles in several families of Coleoptera eat many kinds of fungi. Some eat bracket fungi that grow on trees, and others prefer mushrooms or puffballs on the ground. Some beetles in fungi are actually predators that are eating larvae of beetles, flies, and other insects eating the fungi. Many beetles can be found in leaf litter that has fungi and bacteria aiding decay of the leaves. Sometimes it is not known if the beetle is eating fungi or is eating the decaying leaves and other organic materials.

Several groups of beetles feed on animal droppings, or dung. Some dung beetles (family Scarabaeidae) feed on the dung where it falls on the ground, sometimes burrowing into the ground under the dung pile. Tumblebugs are dung beetles that form a round ball of dung and roll it away to another location where it won't be disturbed by other insects that eat the same food. Different species of dung beetles prefer different kinds of animal droppings. Some cave beetles feed on bat droppings.

Certain species in the families Scarabaeidae, Dermestidae, and Silphidae feed on decaying animal flesh, or carrion. Some carrion beetles (Silphidae) bury small animals several inches below the surface of the soil. After finding a suitable spot for burial, a mating pair of these beetles work together to move the carcass and bury it. The beetles will feed on the buried carrion and lay eggs on it as well. The developing larvae may feed on the carrion for three or four weeks. Information on an endangered species of carrion beetle can be found at the American burying beetle.

Characteristics of Beetles

Calligraphic Beetle

Size

Adult beetles range in size from 0.01 to almost 8 inches in body length, but antennae of some are much longer than their bodies. Beetles usually have hard bodies, but sometimes they are leathery or even have soft bodies. These bodies may be very smooth or very hairy. Most beetles are dark brown or black, but many are red, blue, green, purple or a combination of colors.

Antennae

Beetles have many types of antennae. Some of them are threadlike, sawtoothed, comblike, feather-like, or clubbed. Some beetles have "lamellate" antennae with segments at the end of the antennae that have long, plate-like projections on one side. Weevils have "elbowed" antennae, with an elbow-shaped joint between the long first segment and remaining shorter segments.

Mouthparts

Beetle mouthparts are usually the biting and chewing type with well-developed mandibles, or jaws being present. The mandibles may be very large and resemble the antlers of deer in males of stag beetles. Mandibles of some beetles are used in defense or mating instead of in eating. Mandibles of some predaceous (bug eating) larvae are grooved or have a tube inside for injecting digestive enzymes into the prey.

Wings

Beetles usually have two sets of wings, the hard front wings, or elytra (elytron is singular), and the soft hind wings for flying. The hind wings are folded under the elytra when not in use. The elytra usually extend to the tip, or near the tip, of the abdomen. A special feature of Coleoptera is that the elytra meet in a straight line on the back. Some beetles, such as rove beetles, have short elytra, and most of the abdomen is exposed.

Legs

The three pairs of legs in beetle species may be modified for swimming, digging, running, grasping, or other activities. Flea beetles (family Chrysomelidae) have hind legs modified for jumping. Males of some water beetles have wide segments for holding the female during mating. Many scarab beetles have sharp spines on their legs that are used for defense against vertebrate predators (animals with backbones).

Larvae

Beetle larvae can be of different shapes and sizes. Some are wormlike and legless, and others are more like caterpillars, with thoracic legs and abdominal prolegs (fake legs). Wireworms, such as larvae of click beetles, have short legs and are long, hard, and wirelike. Many larvae have C-shaped bodies and are usually soft. This form of larva, which is present in scarabs and other beetles, often is called a grub. Many predaceous larvae have long legs for running along the ground.

Pupae

Pupae are like pale, mummified versions of the adult beetle. The legs and wings project from the pupa, instead of being fused with the body as in Lepidoptera. In some species the pupa is surrounded by a silk cocoon or a round chamber made of hardened earth.

Life Cycle

Beetles have complete metamo rphosis with egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Females of some beetles keep the eggs inside their bodies and give birth to live larvae. Blister beetles (family Meloidae) have a unique type of metamorphosis, termed hypermetamorphosis, in which the larva changes into different forms of larvae during its development. A blister beetle egg hatches into an active, long-legged larva. As the larva molts and becomes larger, it changes into a C-shaped larva with shorter legs. This form of larva molts into a legless instar that does not feed. Eventually, the legless instar molts into the pupa with legs and wings projecting from its body.

In some beetles, the adults help take care of the young larvae, which is a simple form of social behavior. Females of rove beetles in the genus Bledius (family Staphylinidae) build, maintain, and defend larval tunnels and also provide algae for the larvae to eat. Males and females of some Scarabaeidae cooperate in digging nests and providing their larvae with food. Bess beetles (family Passalidae) and species in other families of insects also care for their young.

Most beetle larvae pass through 3-5 instars, or stages. Some beetles may have as many as 30 instars, while one species of cave beetle is known to have only one instar. At the end of the final larval instar, the larva molts into the pupal stage. After the pupal stage, the adult beetle will emerge to feed, mate, and produce eggs for another generation. A few weevils, leaf beetles, and other beetles can reproduce without mating (parthenogenesis).

Most beetles have one generation per year, although some may have two or more in warm regions. Many scarab beetles require two to three years to complete one generation. Some long-horned beetles (family Cerambycidae) have been known to take thirty years to complete their life cycle!

Form and Feeding Habits

Most beetles are either plant feeding or predaceous ( hunters). Some species have different feeding habits in different stages, such as those with predaceous larvae and plant-feeding adults. Many species feed as scavengers on dead plants and animals. Other species feed on fungi or mold, and a few are parasitic on other insects or vertebrate animals (animals with backbones).

Beetles

Horny Beetles

Beetles might be the most successful creatures on earth! Their incredible ability to adapt to any environment makes sure that they will exist, probably long after humans have disappeared from earth. One of the most important features of the beetles that makes them distinctly beetles is their elytra, the hard exoskeletal covering over their wings. Elytra have many functions, but the most important is protection for the beetle.

Some species are able to trap moisture on their wings and keep it because the elytra protects it from the heat and wind. This has allowed some species to travel to deserts, where moisture is scarce, because they can carry their own water with them. Other species can live under water because they are able to trap air in their wings and keep it under the elytra.

How did beetles get their names?

The order name Coleoptera is pronounced "co-le-OP-ter-a." This name was first used by Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., more than 5,000 years ago! It comes from the Greek words "koleos," which means sheath (or shield), and "ptera," which means wings. The name refers to the fact that most beetles have hardened front wings, termed elytra, which cover the folded hind wings like a sheath. Insects in the order Coleoptera are commonly called beetles. The common name "beetle" comes from older English words for a "little biter". Larvae of some species are called grubs, wireworms, and rootworms.

More about beetles

Coleoptera is the largest order in the entire animal kingdom. There are more species of beetles than species of plants! There are about 350,000 named species of beetles in the world and many more unnamed species. In the United States and Canada, there are almost 24,000 species. That's about 30% of all insect species in North America.

The families of beetles containing the mos t species in North America are the rove beetles (Staphylinidae, 3100 species), the w eevils (Curculionidae, 2432 species), the ground beetles (Carabidae, 1700 species), the leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae, 1474 species), the scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae, 1375 species), the darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae, 1300 species), and the long-horned beetles (Cerambycidae, 1100 species).

Pyrrhona laeticolor (The Long-horned beetles)

Habitats

Beetles can be found in many land and fresh-water habitats. In addition to being associated with all kinds of plants, they can be found in logs or under bark, in fungi, in mud, in decaying plant and animal matter, in water, in stored food, in bird and mammal nests, and in termite nests. Species in the genus Cremastocheilas (family Scarabaeidae) live in ant nests and feed on ant larvae. Many beetles live deep in the soil or in decaying leaf litter on the ground. Other beetles live under rocks or in caves.

Scarab Beetle on Serruria glomerata

Mammal nest beetles (family Leptinidae) are external parasites of mammals, including beavers. These beetles live in the fur or the nests of their hosts. Some scarab beetles in the genus Trox live in bird and mammal nests, apparently feeding on the droppings of the animals or the remains of their food.

Fun Facts About Insects

Picture of springtail

• Houseflies find sugar with their feet, which are 10 million times more sensitive than human tongues.

• Ticks can grow from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a marble.

• Approximately 2,000 silkworm cocoons are needed to produce one pound of silk.

• While gathering food, a bee may fly up to 60 miles in one day.

• Ants can lift and carry more than fifty times their own weight.

• Mexican Jumping Beans, sometimes sold commercially, actually have a caterpillar of a bean moth inside.

Picture of Monarch Butterfly

• It takes about one hundred Monarch Butterflies to weigh an ounce.

Picture of dung beetle

• When the droppings of millions of cattle started ruining the land in Australia, dung beetles were imported to reduce the problem.

• Wasps feeding on fermenting juice have been known to get "drunk' and pass out.

• The queen of a certain termite species can lay 40,000 eggs per day.

• Honeybees have to make about ten million trips to collect enough nectar for production of one pound of honey.

• Insects have been present for about 350 million years, and humans for only 130,000 years.

• Beetles account for one quarter of all known species of plants and animals. There are more kinds of beetles than all plants.

• Blow flies are the first kind of insect attracted to an animal carcass following death.

Picture of blow fly

• To survive the cold of winter months, many insects replace their body water with a chemical called glycerol, which acts as an "antifreeze" against the temperatures.

• There are nearly as many species of ants (8,800) as there are species of birds (9,000) in the world.

• The male silk moth is estimated to "smell" chemicals of female silk moths in the air at the ratio of a few hundred molecules among 25 quintillion (25,000,000,000,000,000,000) molecules in a cubic centimeter of air.

• Male mosquitoes do not bite humans, but rather live on plant juices and other natural liquids from plants and decomposing organic material.

Picture of true flies

• True flies have only one pair of wings, and sometimes, none at all. A hind pair of "wings" is reduced to balancing organs called halteres.

• There are about 91,000 different kinds (species) of insects in the United States. In the world, some 1.5 million different kinds (species) have been named.

• Vladimir Nobokov, a famous Russian author, collected butterflies and actually named as a new subspecies the Kamer Blue Butterfly from the pine barrens of the Northeast United States.

• A particular Hawk Moth caterpillar from Brazil, when alarmed, raises its head and inflates its thorax, causing it to look like the head of a snake.

• About one-third of all insect species are carnivorous, and most hunt for their food rather than eating decaying meat or dung.

• The oldest known fossil of an insect dates back 400 million years and is a springtail.

Amazing Insects Facts

Picture of honeybee

• A cockroach can live for up to a week without a head.

• A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.

• Amazon ants (red ants found in the western U.S.) steal the larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants build homes for and feed the Amazon ants, who cannot do anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves for survival.

• Ants are social insects and live in colonies which may have as many as 500,000 individuals.

• Ants don't sleep.

• Aphids are born pregnant without the benefit of sex. Aphids can give birth 10 days after being born themselves.

• Australian termites have been known to build mounds twenty feet high and at least 100 feet wide.

• Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.

• Each year, insects eat 1/3 of the Earth's food crop.

• In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.

• Mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their feet.

• Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.

• No two spider webs are the same.

• Only female mosquitoes bite. Females need the protein from blood to produce their eggs.

• Only full-grown male crickets can chirp.

• The animal responsible for the most human deaths world-wide is the mosquito.

• The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.

• The disease-carrying mosquito, delivering encephalitis, the West Nile virus, malaria, and Dengue fever, is by far the deadliest beast in the animal world. The World Health Organization says mosquitos cause more than 2 million deaths a year worldwide.

• The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.

• The largest cockroach on record is one measured at 3.81 inches in length.

• The largest insect egg belongs to the Malaysian jungle nymph, a sticklike insect, and measures about 1.3 centimeters long - larger than a peanut! (Some insects, mainly mantises and cockroaches, lay egg cases that are larger, but they contain about 200 individual eggs.)

Picture of a tsetse fly

• The tsetse fly kills another 66,000 people annually.

• The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.

• The world's smallest winged insect, the Tanzanian parasitic wasp, is smaller than the eye of a housefly.

• There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.

• There are more than 900,000 known species of insects in the world.

• When a queen bee lays the fertilized eggs that will develop into new queens, only one of the newly laid queens actually survives. The first new queen that emerges from her cell destroys all other queens in their cells and, thereafter, reigns alone.

• When ants find food, they lay down a chemical trail, called a pheromone, so that other ants can find their way from the nest to the food source.

• Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years.

• You're more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you consume bananas.

Incredible Insects

Insects are ubiquitous, they are in the soil beneath your feet, in the air above your head, on and in the bodies of the plants and animals around you, as well as on and in you. Some of the most adventurous insect are the Brine Flies (Ephydra), you can find them living in the strangest places including, the larva of Ephydra hyans in Mono Lake California which is nearly as salty as the Dead Sea, the larva of Psilopa petrolei in pools of crude oil also in California, and the adults and larva of Scatella thermarum in the hot springs of Iceland, the adults live on the mats of algae which float on the water's surface, and the larva live beneath the mats and in water, which is as hot as 48 degrees Celsius, which, for most people, is too hot to put your hand into.

The Biggest Insects
There are several different ways of measuring the size of an insect, most people would consider the largest insect to be the bulkiest, in this case the champion insect is the Acteon Beetle (Megasoma acteon) from South America the males of which can be 9cms long by 5cms wide by 4cms thick, however there is a serious challange for heaviest insect in the world in the form of the True Wetas from New Zealand.


Acteon Beetle (Megasoma acteon)

For instance a gravid female Deinacrida heteracantha can weigh as much as 70 grams. Another competitor for the title is the extemely rare South American Longhorn Beetle Titanus giganteus, these giants can have a body length (not including antennae) of over 16cms (6.5 ins), other longhorn beetles are nearly as large and may look even bigger because of their longer legs i.e. Xixuthrus heros from Fiji.



Another beetle, Dynastes hercules (picture above) is also well known for reaching 16cms in length, though it is not nearly a heavy. However other insects are larger in other ways, the longest insect in the world is the Stick-Insect Pharnacia kirbyi, the females of which can be over 36cm long. Some living lepidoptera have wingspans as great as 32cm and an area of over 300 square cms.

The Smallest Insects
There are an incredible number of very small insects in the world, far more than there are giants. Many beetles are less than one millimetre in length, and the North American Feather-winged Beetle Nanosella fungi, at 0.25mm, is a serious contender for the title of smallest insect in the world. Other insect orders which contain extremely small members are the Diptera (True Flies) and the Collembola (Springtails). There are also many small Hymenoptera, especially in the Superfamily Chalcidoidea, such as the Fairy Flies, of the family Myrmaridae, of which Alaptus magnanimus(picture on the left), at 0.21mm long, was once thought to be the smallest insects in the world. However another Hymenopteran parasite now holds the record. Megaphragma caribea from Guadeloupe, measuring out at a huge 0.17 mm long, is now probably the smallest known insect in the world.

The Most Insects
The incredible size of individual species of insects is only dwarfed by the incredible numbers they sometimes occur in. In 1943 Profeesor Salt found that an acre of British pastureland near Cambridge supported over 1,000,000,000 Arthropods of which nearly 400,000,000 were Insects and 666,000,000 were Mites the remaining 38,000,000 were Myriapods (Centipedes and Millipedes).


Some Scientist have recorded the otherwise inconspicous Springtails at densities as high 100,000,000 per square metre in the ordinary farm soil of Iowa U.S.A. In Africa swarms of Orthoptera ( Desert Locusts Schistocerca gregaria) may contain as many as 28,000,000,000 individuals. Although each Locust only weighs about 2.5grams when they are all added up together this comes to 70,000 tons of locust.

The Incredible Ants
Ants are social animals and live in colonies, sometimes these colonies may contain only 50 or so individuals, but, one supercolony of Formica yessensis on the coast of Japan is reported to have had 1,080,000 queens and 306,000,000 workers in 45,000 interconnected nests. Some Scientist think that 30% of the animal biomass of the Amazon Basin is made up of ants, and that:-- 10% of the animal biomass of the world is ants, furthermore they believe another 10% is composed of Termites. This means that 'social insects' could make up an incredible 20% of the total animal biomass of this planet.

Types Of Aphids

Cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii
The Cotton aphid has piercing-sucking mouthparts. These are small pear-shaped insects with prominent reddish eyes. They vary in color from yellow to green to black. Some have transparent wings.The cotton aphid has continual generations and many different hosts. When populations on the host plant are high, winged forms are produced, and they fly to adjacent plants to establish new colonies. Aphid colonies are commonly visited by ants which feed on the honeydew secreted by the aphids. This honeydew also serves as the food on which the sooty mold grows. The cotton aphid is a virus vector and has a wide host range including many vegetable crops.



Potato aphid, Macrsiphum euphorbiae
The potato aphid is worldwide in distribution and probably Asian origin. In Canada, it is transcontinental and the most abundant aphid on the potato in eastern Canada and possibly across Canada. In Atlantic Canada this is the first aphid to appear on potato. It usually can be found in June in most fields. It shows a preference for the middle and upper part of the plant, which is where the winged forms usually settle.

High numbers can weaken the crop and reduce yields.

A new aphid pest feeding on soybeans, soybean aphid, Aphis glycines, an aphid native to Asia. The soybean aphid is yellow-green with black cornicles ("tail-pipes") and a pale colored cauda (tail projection). As with other aphids, the soybean aphid is small, about the size of a pinhead. Nymphs would be smaller.



White Pine Aphid Cinara strobi (Fitch) The white pine aphid feeds on the bark of twigs and branches. Heavy aphid infestations can seriously weaken small trees.

White Pine Aphid Black or gray with long legs. Colonies occur most commonly on twigs and stems where the bark may be killed in patches. Needles and twigs are sometimes completely covered with sooty mold. Eggs, which are laid in lines on the needles, may hatch when infested white pines are brought indoors for use as Christmas trees.


Picture of adult rose aphid



Heavy rose aphid infestation on rose buds.

Rose Aphid Green or pink with black legs. A widespread and common pest of all cultivated roses. Stems, buds, and young, tender leaves are injured.


A colony of giant bark aphids, Longistigma caryae

Giant Bark Aphid Ash gray with black spots. It is one of the largest aphid species. It feeds on willow, maple, elm, birch, and several other common shade trees. It feeds on the bark of twigs and small branches. Bees, wasps, and flies are attracted to the honey-dew it excretes.


Picture of Green Peach Aphid

Green Peach Aphid Pale yellow-green. This species feeds on dozens of different hosts including aster, catalpa, crocus, chrysanthemum, dahlia, English ivy, iris, lily, nasturtium, pansy, rose, snapdragon, tulip,and violet, as well as many garden vegetables and some fruit trees. It is capable of transmitting over 100 different plant viruses.


Chrysanthemum Aphid Shiny dark brown with short cornicles. Common and widespread on chrysanthemums.




Woolly Alder Aphid Prociphilus tessellatus (Fitch) Plump and blue-black, but completely covered with white waxy filaments. Silver maple is the primary host, but they migrate to alder in mid-summer, then return to silver maple in late fall. This aphid is not harm these trees, but it becomes a nuisance when waxy filaments accumulate under heavily infested trees.