Insects

Grasshoppers: Introduction, Description, Characteristics, Life Cycle, and, Control

Grasshoppers are insects belonging to the suborders Caelifera and Ensifera of the Orthoptera order. To distinguish them from katydids, which have much longer antennae, they are frequently referred to as short-horned grasshoppers (Caelifera) (Ensifera). These insects are hemimetabolous. The three stages of the life cycle—egg, nymph, and adult—complete it. The nymph went through five moults, each time resembling the adult insect more. Some grasshopper species can alter their colour and behaviour as well as create swarms when the population density is high and the environmental circumstances are right. They are referred to as locusts when this occurs. Grasshoppers are plant-eating insects that can occasionally cause major damage to pasture, vegetables, and grains, particularly when they swarm in the millions like locusts and decimate crops over large areas. As a result, they are categorized as mixed and oligophagous feeders (Mulkern 1967). They are crucial ground invertebrates in the grassland ecosystem from a functional standpoint (Scott 1979 and Risser 1981). They frequently serve as the primary invertebrate in the grassland ecosystem’s consumer community and are a key source of food for many predatory species, such as birds (Joern 1986 and Samways 1997). There are 1,750 species of orthoptera recognized in India out of the world’s almost 20,000 species (Tandon and Hazra 1998). The majority of species are tropical, however, they are also widely found in temperate regions. Grasshoppers can occasionally turn into significant pests on field crops, ornamentals, and vegetable crops. The most frequent hosts for these pests are grasses and other herbaceous plants, but after consuming those hosts, grasshoppers frequently switch to eating vegetables, field crops, leaves, or even the sensitive bark of shrubs and trees.

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Beetle (Coleoptera): Classification, General Morphology, and, Life Cycle

The insect order Coleoptera is known as the Beetle family. The Greek words for “sheathe” and “wing,” respectively, are keleos and pteron, which translate to “sheathed wing” and “coleoptera,” respectively. The front pair of wings, known as the “elytra,” of most beetles, which have two pairs in total, are hardened and thickened to serve as a protective sheath or shell for the rear pair and the back portion of the beetle’s body. Almost 25% of all known life forms are members of the order Coleoptera, which has the most species of any other order. There are over 400,000 species of beetles, which make up about 40% of all described insect species, and more are continuously being discovered. A hundred million species, both known and unknown, have been estimated to exist overall. Beetles are found in a very wide variety. Except for the ocean and the polar regions, they can be found in all major habitats. Some species can adapt to almost any type of diet. The largest family of insects, the Scarabaeidae, has more than 30000 different species worldwide. The Beetle can be viewed as a pest because many of these plants are crucial for forestry, agriculture, and domestic use. Beetles are not only a nuisance, but they can also be helpful by reducing insect numbers. The ladybug or ladybird is one of the best and most well-known examples (family Coccinellidae). On aphid colonies, the larvae and adults are observed feeding. Other ladybugs consume mealybugs and scale insects as food. They may eat other things like tiny caterpillars, juvenile plant bugs, honeydew, and nectar if their usual food supplies are lacking. Predators of several insects and other arthropods, such as fly eggs, caterpillars, wireworms, and others, include ground beetles (family Carabidae). Pestilent flies and parasitic worms that breed in bovine manure have been successfully controlled by dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae). Dung beetles are a crucial part of the terrestrial ecology both taxonomically and functionally.
The largest order of insects belongs to the class Coleoptera. There are over 350,000 species in 115 groups that are currently known to exist there, but according to recent estimates, there may be hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of undiscovered species. Beetles are tremendously diverse in terms of size, form, and ecological tactics in addition to being extremely rich in species (Lawrence and Britton, 1991; Balke et al., 2002).

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Stick insect: Distribution, Life History, Ecology, Characteristics, and Life Cycle

The Phasmatodea, often known as the Phasmida or walkingstick insects, are leaf insects. All the species are stick-shaped, while several tropical species resemble leaves (Family Timemidae). The Phasmatodea are also known as walking sticks, stick animals, bug sticks, stick insects, and stick bugs. Other names for them include Devil’s darning needles.
Phasmatodeans are mostly nocturnal creatures that mimic various plant parts, such as twigs, bark, and living or dead leaves, in extreme cases of masquerade crypsis. The vast majority of surviving phasmatodeans have long, slender legs and an extended tubular body, giving them a stick-like appearance. Less frequently, taxa display a more robust body with expansions in the shape of leaves, yet, as recently published fossils imply, mimicry of leaves may have developed before that of twigs (Wang et al. 2014). Through specific behaviours like catalepsy (adapted stillness) and imitating a leaf swinging in the breeze during the day, several types of plant mimicry are brought to perfection (Bedford 1978, Bian et al. 2016). Phasmatodeans can deceive visually seeking predators with this astonishing sort of mimicry, and even their eggs exhibit it. The remarkably hard-shelled and intricately sculpted capsules closely resemble plant seeds (Bedford 1978, Sellick 1997, Goldberg et al. 2015).

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House Fly: Distribution, Classification, Characteristics, Life cycle, Damage, and Medical Importance

The House fly, (Musca domestica) Linnaeus, is a common household and agricultural pest. Always associated with humans or human activity, this species can be discovered. On hog and poultry farms, horse stables, and ranches, it is the species that is most frequently encountered. House flies can carry disease-causing pathogens in addition to being an annoyance. The presence of close human habitations makes excessive fly populations potentially dangerous for the public’s health in addition to being an annoyance to field employees.
This widespread fly was first discovered in the steppes of central Asia, but it can now be found on every continent where people live, in all types of climates—from tropical to temperate—and in both rural and urban settings. It is frequently linked to animal waste, but it has adapted well to feeding on trash, making it widespread practically everywhere people dwell.

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Bot fly: Description, Horse Botflies, Impact, Cycle of Life and Control

Bot Fly: Definition
Bot fly (family Oestridae), often spelled botfly, is any member of the Diptera order whose adults have a beelike look and are hairy but lack bristles.
Botflies are huge, hairy insects with thick bodies that resemble bumblebees. A mosquito, or occasionally another bug, lays the botfly egg. The larva grows until it is rather enormous inside the host’s body. Adult botflies do not feed since their mouthparts are nonfunctional. In most cases, the parasite does not cause significant harm to the host. When the larvae depart the host through the warble, the majority of the damage occurs. The botfly’s parasitism has little effect on the rabbit’s edibility (if you eat rabbit), and the area adjacent to the warble is usually clipped away, leaving the rest of the rabbit edible.

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Honey bee: Classification, Characteristics, Castes, and Pest Control

Members of the colony of Bees (Caste system)
Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies with a well-organized system of labor division. There are three castes in each family: Queens (fertile females), Drones (males), and Labourers (sterile females). Each caste serves a distinct purpose in the colony. The Drones are males, the Workers are undeveloped females, and the Queen is a fully formed female. A good colony of bees in the summer will have between 50,000 and 60,000 workers, 1,000 or more drones, and one Queen.

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