Skip to main content

#31: Lacewings


Litinsects #31: Lacewings

Lacewings belong to the insect order NEUROPTERA, or net-winged insects, which I’d guess might be among the orders that you’ve never heard of... Neuropterans are characterized by membranous wings with many branching veins. Species in this order undergo complete metamorphosis. This here is a green lacewing and here are a few facts about these fellas.

  • These insects are active predators but are omnivorous. They prey on scale insects, aphids, mites, and other small soft-bodied arthropods but may also feed on pollen, nectar, and aphid honeydew. The larvae are also predacious and are sometimes referred to as aphid lions
  • Lacewings are often used as biological pest control
  • They have tympanal organs at the base of their wings... remember these? They are the insect equivalents of eardrums. They can sense bat echolocation so when they hear a predator while flying, they drop to the ground to avoid being caught
  • Individuals produce courtship songs through body vibrations. Many species of lacewings are physically almost indistinguishable but are still considered different species because of their unique courtship songs
  • Eggs are laid in a rather unique way, at the end of a thin hair-like structure on the underside of leaves
  • And best of all... after sucking out the insides of aphid prey, some lacewing larvae stick the shriveled carcasses to their backs as a kind of chemical camouflage! Remember last time how I mentioned that some ants tend to and protect aphids in exchange for feeding on their honeydew? Well this includes attacking predators of aphids... so by carrying aphid carcasses around with them, they aren’t as vulnerable to attack by ants
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#13: Insect Legs

Litinsects #13: Insect Legs Insect legs can be as diverse as the animals themselves. Some are long and slender like a crane fly’s, some are short and hefty like a mole cricket’s. But what all insects share is the number and layout of those legs. Hexapods have 6 LEGS, a pair each of fore, mid, and hind legs that are made up of the same basic units. Starting closest to the body, they are:  (1) the coxa, which attaches the leg to the thorax  (2) the trochanter (3) the femur, which is oft en the thickest segment  (4) the tibia, often covered in tiny hairs (5) the tarsus, which contains 5 “pseudo-segments”  (6) the pretarsal claws, of which most insects have 2 on each leg The basic units of the leg always occur in this order but may be reduced or highly modified in some species to fit certain tasks such as running, digging, swimming, grasping, or jumping. This photo sums it up perfectly: from < https://wiki.bugwood.org/File:Insect...
Post a Comment
Read more

#4: Simple Eyes

Litinsects #4: Simple Eyes Yesterday I talked about compound eyes, the multi-faceted structures that most insects use to see the world 👀 But insects actually have another visual system as well, composed of simple eyes or OCELLI. Unlike compound eyes, ocelli are composed of only one structure which makes them comparatively “simple” although they are still very important. These are light-detecting organs consisting of a single lens with sensory cells. They can detect movement but don’t form complex images. “Ocellus” comes from the Latin word oculus, meaning eye. So these structures are literally “little eyes” Ocelli are located on the insect’s head, usually between or adjacent to the compound eyes. They are usually dome-shaped, somewhat shiny structures In most flying insects (such as flies, dragonflies, bees, etc.) there tend to be three ocelli in a triangle arrangement (see photo). Some terrestrial insects (like cockroaches) have only two ocelli ...
Post a Comment
Read more

#22: Caterpillars

Litinsects #22: Caterpillars Since you are freshly familiar with metamorphosis from my last posts, I will today be talking about caterpillars 🐛 and some structures that change drastically in appearance from before to after metamorphosis: legs. Caterpillars are the worm-shaped larval stage of butterflies and moths. They have huge appetites; they mainly feed to grow and gain energy for their transformation into adulthood. In order to do this they need to get around, for which they use le gs because only adult stages have wings.  But insects only 3 pairs of legs, right? So where do all these extra legs come from all down the sides of their bodies?  Caterpillars have 3 pairs of TRUE LEGS, attached to their thorax, which are jointed and have little claws on the end. These legs are still present after metamorphosis, though they will have changed substantially Additionally, they usually have 2 to 5 pairs of PROLEGS, which are protrusions fr...
Post a Comment
Read more