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What this spider has going for it is a really scary name. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t hear much about it. It rarely kills people and many who are bitten never even know it. There are 32 types of widow spiders, including the western, southern, and northern widows, as well as the red, gray, and brown widows. They’re found on every continent except Antarctica. The females are usually dark-colored, frequently with red, white, or brown markings on the dorsal of the abdomen. Some have the classic hourglass-shaped markings and some do not. Black widows are usually small but carry an unusually potent venom that contains larotoxin, a neurotoxin that can cause pain, muscle rigidity, vomiting, and sweating. Symptoms typically last three to seven days. Only the female bite is considered dangerous to humans. Each year, about 2,200 people report being bitten by black widows. None has died since 1983. On the other hand, some house cats have died of convulsions or paralysis.
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Woops this was arthropod of the day yesterday I forgot to post it here
The Indian red scorpion has been said to be the most lethal in the world. This tiny scorpion packs a huge punch. When stung, victims typically experience nausea, heart problems, discoloration of the skin, and, in more severe cases, pulmonary edema, an accumulation of fluid in the lungs.
Pulmonary edema causes shortness of breath and could lead to death. The severity of these symptoms depends on the amount of venom received and the susceptibility of the victim. According to clinical studies, however, prazosin, a drug for hypertension that is often given in the event of scorpion stings, reduces the risk of mortality to 4%.
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Probably the best known bee, the honeybee's honey has been used by humans for thousands of years. In the wild they live in wooded areas in large hives made of wax honeycombs. The queen lays eggs whilst the workers care for the young, almost like a giant bee nursery! Every year a new queen will either take the place of her mother, or she will leave to start a colony of her own.
A single bee hive may contain as many as 50,000 individuals. In winter, the hive goes into survival mode: the drones are expelled, the workers huddle together to keep warm, and the larvae are fed on stores of pollen and honey. In spring, a new generation of bees emerges.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Also known as “Calling crabs” occasionally, Fiddler Crabs are small arthropods belonging to the family of crabs.
The term “fiddler” is used to refer to someone who plays the violin. One of the claws of the male Fiddler Crabs is much larger than the other one, held in front of their body just a fiddler holds his violin. This is why they have been named “fiddler”.
Fiddler Crabs are known for walking sideways.
Fiddler Crabs are among one of the smaller crab species, and live up to 2 years in captivity when they are taken good care of. However, in the wild, they can live up to the age of 7 years.
The natural habitat of the Fiddler Crabs is the coastal region, which is why these little creatures can be found on all continents, except Antarctica.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar can be solid black with two rows of yellow dots or bright red and have sting- or spine-like growths all over the body. They live on plants species belonging to the genus Aristolochia. As a defensive adaptation, they draw aristolochic acid from the food plants they consume in order to protect themselves from predators by being poisonous when consumed by the latter. This stage lasts for 3 to 4 weeks.
The Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly is a species of iridescent blue butterflies found in several parts of the Americas. They are mostly seen during the spring and the summer months in sunlit meadows and fields. Some species use the pipevine swallowtail as a template for mimicry.
When the wings are open, the dorsal surface of the hindwings display an iridescent blue or blue-green hue, which is more prominent in males than in females. There is also a row of white spots parallel to the border of the tailed hindwings. When the wings are closed, the ventral side of the hindwings shows a submarginal row of seven circular orange spots in an iridescent blue field highlighted with white.
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2 arthropods today due to missing yesterday - so it is the fire and ice bugs:
Fire bugs, or fire beetles, appear in droves. And they are quite a nuisance. However, European fire bugs are not really harmful, in contrast to the thick-mouthed weevil, aphids, cherry vinegar flies, plum moths or slugs. Experts agree that fire bugs do not destroy plants. Therefore, it is not necessary to control them.
Fire bugs do not have biting tools and therefore cannot gnaw plant parts. Instead, they use a type of proboscis to suck out fallen seeds and other plant debris.
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Grylloblattidae, commonly known as the icebugs, or ice crawlers, is a family of extremophile (psychrophile) and wingless insects that live in the cold on top of mountains and the edges of glaciers. They belong, along with Mantophasmatidae (rock crawlers), to the order Notoptera. Grylloblattids are wingless insects mostly less than 3 cm long, with a head resembling that of a cockroach, with long antennae and having elongated cerci arising from the tip of their abdomen. They cannot tolerate warmth (most species will die at 10 °C) and many species have small distribution ranges.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY🚨
Also known as lightning bugs, fireflies are beetles. Most fireflies are winged. That’s different from other light-producing insects of the same family, called glowworms. (Animals that produce light are called luminescent.)
Fireflies mostly use their light to “talk” to other fireflies and find a mate. They have special organs under their abdomens that take in oxygen. Inside special cells, they combine the oxygen with a substance called luciferin to make light with almost no heat. They use this light, called bioluminescence, to light up the ends of their abdomen.
Each firefly species has its own unique flashing pattern. When a male firefly wants to communicate with a female firefly, he flies near the ground while he flashes his light every six seconds. Once he’s near the ground, a female can more easily tell if he’s from the same species as she is. (Most female fireflies can’t fly.) She answers his flashes by turning on her lights. Then the male finds her.
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TICKS
Wood ticks are highly colorful and pretty easy to recognize. They have grayish patterns on their bodies and males will have a mottled grey coloration along their backs. American dog ticks (wood ticks) are often mistaken for Deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease. The American dog tick does not carry Lyme disease.
The American dog tick also has a wide, oval body with a flattened top. Females are generally larger than males, measuring about 5 mm long when not engorged (with blood), and 15 mm long and 10 mm wide when engorged. Males measure just 3.6 mm long when not engorged.
Deer ticks (also called blacklegged ticks) are much smaller than Wood ticks and can be distinguished by their—you guessed it—black legs.
Wood ticks are a three-host species of tick that goes through four distinct lifecycles: eggs, larvae, nymph, and adult.
After hatching from its egg, a tick must feed on the blood of a host at every life stage in order to survive. The newly hatched tick is called a larva, or seed tick. Tick larvae have just six legs and are about 1/8 inch in size.
Since ticks can’t jump, the larva must stand on blades of grass or perch on vegetation until a warm blooded mammal walks by, at which point it latches on. This behavior is called “questing,” and looks like the tick is trying to stand up to grab the sky. Once the larva has fed on its initial host, it will drop to the ground and molt into an eight-legged nymph.
Nymphs then lie in wait until a second warm-blooded host wanders by, like a raccoon, possum, or other large animal. The nymph will then feed for a few days until it becomes engorged with blood. It again drops to the ground and molts into an adult tick.
Adult ticks will hunt for a third and final host, preferring large animals like deer or dogs, where they will be able to feed, breed, drop off, and lay eggs. Once the female has laid a few thousand eggs she dies.
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A tick "questing"
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Found only in North America, the luna moth starts out as a very hungry caterpillar. Newly hatched, this caterpillar constantly munches on the leaves of walnut, hickory, sweet gum, and paper birch trees. After about a month of filling up on these plants, the caterpillar builds a cocoon. The insect lives inside for about three weeks, then emerges as a moth.
The eye-catching critter is easily recognizable because of its wings. But that's not the luna moth’s only interesting feature. The insect doesn’t have a mouth or a digestive system. That's because it only lives for about a week after leaving the cocoon, and it doesn't ever eat.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The reason these moths are often dubbed as ‘Vampire Moths’ is because of their distinct proboscis than is used to puncture skin of animals and fruit alike and drain the inner fluid. Moths species of moths are no threat to humans and the same is true of the Vampire Moth’s as they are no believed to carry harmful diseases like other blood sucking insects such as mosquitoes.
Only the males of the species drink blood and compared to a mosquito bite the Vampire Moths bite is more irritating and can be swore for a couple of hours before settling down. The reason the Vampire Moths bites are more ‘severe’ is likely because of the rocking motion that the moth uses to puncture the skin and unlike a mosquito there is no sucking involved, the Vampire Moth uses the animals own blood pressure to force the blood up its proboscis. These moths can even suck tears from the eyelids of cattle.
This is a moth native to Japan, Korea, China as well as Malaysia.
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The Antilles Pinktoe Tarantula is a member of the genus Avicularia that is the most widespread group of spiders in the Americas, comprising of around 20 species. These spiders are extremely popular as pets especially because of their vibrant coloration, docile temperament, and very high longevity.
These tarantulas are arboreal (tree-dwelling). They spin intricate funnel webs in which they spend the majority of their lifetime.
The spiderlings of this species spend most of the time with their mother until they are ready to separate and can independently hunt for their own food. The slings are metallic steel to bright blue with a black tree-trunk pattern on the abdomen. As they begin to age, they gradually lose their blue hue, getting their adult coloration.
Although very docile and rarely bite, they do not prefer being handled much. Even if they bite, it is not poisonous and is no worse than a plain bee sting.
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An arthropod everyone hates - mosquitoes.
The slender, elongated body of the adult is covered with scales as are the veins of the wings. Mosquitoes are also characterized by long, fragile-looking legs and elongated, piercing mouthparts. The feathery antennae of the male are generally bushier than those of the female. The males, and sometimes the females, feed on nectar and other plant juices. In most species, however, the females require the proteins obtained from a blood meal in order to mature their eggs. Different species of mosquitoes show preferences and, in many cases, narrow restrictions as to host animals.
There are three important mosquito genera. Anopheles, the only known carrier of malaria, also transmits filariasis and encephalitis.
The genus Culex is a carrier of viral encephalitis and, in tropical and subtropical climates, of filariasis.
The genus Aedes carries the pathogens that cause yellow fever, dengue, Zika fever, and encephalitis.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing is the largest butterfly on the planet. Famous for its ability to grow up to 11 inches in wingspan, this magnificent creature also has an enthralling historical foundation.
The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae) was first discovered in 1906 by Albert Stewart Meek. The naturalist, who was employed by Walter (((Rothschild))) to seek out butterflies, recounted his discovery in Papua New Guinea in a 1913 book.
Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing butterflies live in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea, an island off the northern coast of Australia.
The orb-weaving spider and several types of small birds are the only natural enemies of the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing. The pipevine plant that the larvae feed on is poisonous, so it is thought that the adult butterflies are also poisonous.
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Neotibicen superbus, the superb dog-day cicada, is a species of cicada in the family Cicadidae. It is the greenest cicada in the neotibicen genus. It has reduced black patterning and looks different than most other cicadas in its genus. Its song is a soft buzz that reaches a crescendo.
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Rubber ducky isopods have a pair of lips that look similar to a duck. And from that, the naming has been done. Other than having a “ducky” look, they have a round, segmented body, typically brown or grey. Their exoskeleton is hard, providing them with protection from predators and the elements.
On average, rubber ducky isopods can reach up to 2 cm or 0.8 inches in length. Even though rubber ducky isopods can survive up to a few years, as they’re slow growers, they become only a couple of centimetres in length.
Rubber ducky isopods are found all over the world. However, they are most commonly found in damp, shady areas such as leaf litter, rocks and logs, and soil. They are also found in gardens, parks, and in greenhouses.
There’s an interesting reason behind isopods living around wet and moist places. In order to respire and survive, isopods need to keep their respiratory organs wet. That’s why you often see them living or roaming around damp places.
Rubber ducky isopods are decomposers, and their diet mainly consists of organic matter such as leaves, wood, and soil. They are also known to feed on dead insects, algae, and other plant material.
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Coccinellidae is a family of small, rounded (hemispheric), usually bright colored, short-legged beetles, known variously as ladybugs (North American English), ladybirds (British English, Australian English, South African English), or lady beetles (preferred by some scientists).
Unlike most insects, ladybugs have caught people's imagination and are generally held in high regard. In some cultures, they are considered a sign of good luck, whose killing brings bad luck. Their very name (ladybug or ladybird) is believed to be a dedication to the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.
It is believed that coccinellids are often brightly colored to ward away potential predators. This defense works because most predators associate bright colors (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 poisonous 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 hemolymph from their leg joints, releasing their oily yellow toxin with a strong repellent smell. This becomes quite obvious when one handles a coccinellid roughly.
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Although they look like really small scorpions, Pseudoscorpions lack a tail or stinger. They have venom glands in their claws meant to kill tiny mites and springtails. They are so small, however, they pose no threat to humans and would require a magnifying glass in order to get a really good look at them. Because they do not have wings, traveling long distances can be difficult. Their minute stature allows them to catch free rides on oblivious larger insects, like beetles and even flies. Some species are blind, but even those with sight are not able to see well. They use their claws like antennae, feeling and touching their surroundings to find their way around.
Pseudoscorpions can make their own silk, but they do not spin webs or use it to catch prey like a spider would. Instead, they build cocoons to shelter in during cold winters. Look for them in a variety of places: between book pages, at the water's edge, in caves, woods, under rocks, and maybe even in a house (bathroom, laundry room, etc.).©InsectIdentification.org
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Millipedes have hard, cord-like bodies made up of multiple segments; each segment has a pair of legs. Because of their many pairs of closely arranged legs, millipedes tend to move slowly, with their legs pushing in a wave-like pattern. When alarmed, millipedes coil up in a tight spiral shape. Size varies greatly by species, with the smallest millipedes measuring about 2 cm in length. While tropical millipedes may measure as long as 30 cm, most Canadian millipede species only reach a length of about 8 cm. Most millipedes are entirely black, though some species may appear dark brown or reddish. They have short but visible antennae made up of 7 segments.
Millipedes are ground-dwelling arthropods that live outdoors and thrive in dark habitats with plenty of moisture. Known to feed on decaying plant matter, millipedes often reside directly within sources of food, like piles of leaf litter or rotting logs. The arthropods also commonly burrow in areas where soil stays moist, like under rocks or piles of mulch.
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The Brazilian treehopper (Bocydium globulare) is a species of insect belonging to the treehopper family (Membracidae). It has unusual appendages on its head. While Bocydium can be found throughout the world, they are most prevalent in Africa, North and South America, Asia and Australia. They exhibit limited movement and their primary food source is from the underside of leaves.
This species has very apparent, globular appendages coming out of its thorax. Entomologists are still not certain about why these treehoppers have these appendages, however, it has been proposed that the adaptation deters their predators.
The nymphs feed on the underside of leaves. They are deemed "sap sucking" insects because the nymph gets its nutrition from the sap of the leaves.
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Creatonotos Gangis is the scientific name for a peculiar type of moth from Australia and Southeast Asia. They usually come with abdomens that are either yellow or red.
They have four coremata sticking out from their abdomen that are but are usually retracted, they are pushed out during the breeding season. The coremata release pheromones which attract females and show that the male is ready to breed. When the coremata are fully extended, they can become longer that the actual body itself which is typically around four centimetres.
They are found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia and are found in some parts of South-east Asia. Their diet is also quite peculiar, as it eats a variety of PA rich leaves. PA (pyrrolizidine alkaloides) are usually foul tasting, toxic chemicals that would usually deter insects, but Creatonotos gangis loves plants with this strange chemical inside. This "diet" consists of plants such as pomegranate trees, rice plants, soybeans and maize. This diet is primarily during its caterpillar stage but is sometimes consumed by the adult moths.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
Neocaridina davidi has a similar anatomy to marine shrimp (ocean dwelling). The differences lie in the shape of certain structures. Belonging to the order Decapoda, Neocaridina davidi have five pairs of walking legs called periopods. The first two pair of legs are modified structures called chelate, which are claw-like appendages used for grabbing food. In front of the periopods are three pairs of maxillipeds or jaw legs used for feeding. Under the abdomen are five pairs of limbs that are used for swimming called pleopods. In female shrimp, these limbs are also used for egg holding. The rostrum, or beak, of the cherry shrimp has a more squared shape compared to the more pointed shape found in saltwater shrimp species. Like most shrimp species, ornamental shrimp are detritivores and opportunistic feeders. They will graze on algae, biofilms, and dead plants and animals on the bottoms of rivers.
Neocaridina davidi spends the majority of its time grazing on biofilms that form on leaf litter. Like most crustaceans, shrimp play a crucial role in the aquatic ecosystem by serving as a food source for other organisms and by recycling nutrients through feeding on decaying vegetation. This helps keep the water clean.
Unlike most crustaceans, this shrimp does not have a larval stage. The young of this species emerge from the eggs as miniature versions of the adult, they are only around 1 to 2 millimeters in length. As with all arthropods, Neocaridina davidi grows by molting their exoskeleton (Figure 5). They will feed on their molted exoskeleton to reabsorb valuable nutrients. Sexual maturity is reached at around 30 days.
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Carpenter ants live in large colonies with hundreds of workers (all sterile females), several males and females that reproduce, and one or more queen. When part of an established colony goes into a nearby structure, it sometimes establishes a smaller satellite colony there. Some experts believe this is the main way carpenter ants invade houses.
Carpenter ants don’t actually eat the wood they excavate (unlike termites), lacking the digestive enzymes to break down cellulose. Instead, they forage on a wide variety of plant and animal materials, including sweet substances, like honeydew produced by aphids. They also eat the body fluids and proteins of both dead and live insects. Most of this foraging is at night, kept somewhat hidden by the underground tunnels they use. Carpenter ants have a painful bite, but cannot sting.
Hilltopping: When the winged swarmers emerge in spring to mate, they often gather at pronounced points on the landscape, like a large tree or lone building or top of a hill, thus the term, “hilltopping.” The swarms can turn into rolling clusters of males trying to mate with a single female.
Exploding ants: Some Malaysian carpenter ant species make the ultimate sacrifice to defend against attackers. They can explode their bodies, spraying a sticky and caustic fluid from inside a special jaw-to-abdomen-length gland, which immobilizes the enemy.
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Saddleback caterpillars, Acharia stimulea, have a brown saddle-shaped spot on the middle of their green backs. They are called slug caterpillars because the abdominal legs lack tiny hooks that most other caterpillars have, and because the six jointed legs are so short. Saddleback caterpillars are one of the stinging caterpillars that bear urticating hairs on four prominent knobs at the front and rear as well as smaller knobs along the sides. These caterpillars are about 3/4 inch long when mature and spin tough silk cocoons in which they overwinter. Saddleback caterpillar moths are fuzzy and dark brown with some cinnamon spots and tiny white spots. These moths emerge from the cocoons the following spring and summer and lay 30 to 50 tiny, flat eggs that overlap like fish scales on the upper surface of leaves of various trees and shrubs. From the eggs hatch tiny, almost transparent caterpillars that already display yellow, spine-covered knobs around their bodies. Aside from tiny parasitic wasps that plague saddleback caterpillars, other mortality factors such as diseases and predators usually keep the numbers of these caterpillars low.
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A brown recluse’s venom can destroy blood vessels, tissue, and nerves. As a result, the skin tissue can die, a phenomenon called skin necrosis.
In the mature brown recluse spider as well as some other species of recluse spiders, the dark violin marking is well defined, with the neck of the violin pointing toward the bulbous abdomen.
Brown recluses have six eyes instead of the usual eight. These eyes are arranged in a horizontal row of 3 pairs on the face.
Only a few other spiders have 3 pairs of eyes arranged this way, such as the Spitting Spiders (scytodids). Brown Recluse Spiders can be distinguished from scytodids as recluse spiders abdomens have no coloration pattern nor do their legs, which also lack spines.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
House flies feed and breed in the things we revile: garbage, animal dung, sewage, human excrement, and other nasty substances. Musca domestica is probably the best known and most common of the insects we collectively refer to as filth flies. In suburban or rural areas, house flies are also plentiful in fields where fish meal or manure is used as fertilizer, and in compost heaps where grass clippings and rotting vegetables accumulate.
House flies have sponge-like mouthparts, which are good for soaking up liquefied substances but not for eating solid foods. So, the house fly either seeks out food that is already in puddle form, or it finds a way to turn the food source into something it can manage. This is where things get kind of gross. When a house fly locates something tasty but solid, it regurgitates onto the food (which may be your food, if it's buzzing around your barbecue). The fly vomit contains digestive enzymes that go to work on the desired snack, quickly predigesting and liquefying it so the fly can lap it up.
How do flies decide something is appetizing? They step on it! Like butterflies, house flies have their taste buds on their toes, so to speak. Taste receptors, called chemosensilla, are located at the far ends of the fly's tibia and tarsa (in simpler terms, the lower leg and foot). The moment they land on something of interest – your garbage, a pile of horse manure, or perhaps your lunch – they start sampling its flavor by walking around.
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@kho wtf, the local ones don't have these two horns thing
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The Picasso bug measures only 8 millimeters in length. And like everything in nature, the intricate patterns on the tiny insect’s shell are not there by chance, but are a warning to its predators; anyone who ventures to disturb these insects will smell the consequences. When they feel threatened, they emit a noxious odor that helps scare off predators.
The Picasso bug lives mainly in tropical and subtropical Africa, so it can be found in countries such as Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia, to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful insects in the world, revealing how intricate nature can be, regardless of its small size.
This insect also goes by the alternate common name of the Zulu Hud Bug.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
With eight spindly yellow legs holding up what appears to be a big black dog’s head, the bunny harvestman is both terrifying and oddly cute.
Although the bunny harvestman spider has eight legs as any spider would, it actually belongs to a different order of animals known as Opiliones — or as they’re commonly referred to, daddy longlegs.
So while this creature looks like a spider and falls in the same Arachnida family, it is technically not a spider (though it’s widely referred to as such) and is instead a daddy longlegs.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
"Murder hornets"
V. mandarinia is the largest hornet in the world. A female worker may grow to a length of nearly four centimeters (an inch and a half), and the insect has large biting mouthparts that enable it to decapitate its victims. Hornets are usually solitary hunters. But between late summer and fall, V. mandarinia workers may band together to conduct mass attacks on nests of other social insects, notably honeybees. This behavior even has a name: the slaughter and occupation phase. U.S. beekeepers supply billions of honeybees each year to help pollinate at least 90 agricultural crops.
This gigantic, voracious predator has a quarter-inch stinger (6.35mm)! People are usually not the Japanese giant hornet's prey, but those who have felt its sting describe the pain as excruciating and very painful. Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University, near Tokyo, said it's "like a hot nail through my leg."
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@coolboymew the bunny ear ones live in Equador in rainforests :nttwomanbunnyears:
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
The ghost crab is aptly named due to its nocturnal activity and sandy colouration, making the crab perfectly camouflaged into the beach backdrop. These crabs are found on sandy beaches and live in burrows. The narrower and shorter the burrow the smaller the crab. Their burrows serve a number of purposes: protection from predation, storage of their food, protection from drying out and other extreme weather conditions as well as a place to mate (although not all ghost crabs mate in burrows).
Young crabs and female crabs create burrows with sand scattered everywhere, with young crabs preferring to create burrows nearer to the water, whilst male crabs have burrows with a neat mound of sand outside – the larger the crab the larger the mound. Males produce mating sounds, squeaking noises, in a variety of ways; by rubbing their right claw on their leg, by rubbing their legs together, or by using their gill chambers, which they keep moist with saltwater.
After mating the females store thousands of eggs inside an abdominal flap. She will then venture into the sea when the eggs are ready to hatch. Since ghost crabs cannot swim the female will float upside down in the water allowing the eggs in her abdomen to breathe. Upon contact with saltwater the larvae are released and after two months return to land.
The exoskeleton of a ghost crab is water tight, which prevents the crab from drying out in the arid and salty conditions on the beach. All ghost crabs have eye stalks with the males additionally having horns. These eyestalks enable the crab to see in any direction and can be stored in groves on their shells. The ghost crab’s eye sight is so good that they are able to catch insects’ mid-flight. They also have a well-developed sense of smell. They are very agile, capable of moving at 10mph, which makes them the fastest of all crustaceans.
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Phymateus viridipes Stal, aka Green Milkweed Locust or African Bush Grasshopper, belonging to the family Pyrgomorphidae (Gaudy Grasshoppers), is an African locust about 70 millimetres (2.8 in) long at maturity and capable of long migratory flights. Its body and forewings are green in colour while the hindwings are bright red and blue, presenting a striking appearance in flight.
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Today's arthropod:
At over 6 inches long, the Titan Beetle is the largest beetle in the world, and one of the largest insects that we know of. They have strong mandibles and sharp spines to help them defend themselves. While they are large and imposing, these beetles are not aggressive and only act in defense when threatened.
Even though they are very large, adult Titan Beetles do not eat anything. They can fly but only do so for short bursts to conserve energy.
They have curved mandibles at the front of their head, used to snap and bite. These mandibles are sharp and strong enough to bite people when they feel threatened. They aren’t naturally aggressive but do possess plenty of defensive mechanisms, including their bite, that they can use if they are threatened.
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🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨
House crickets are distantly related to grasshoppers and were most likely introduced to the U.S. between 1950 and 2000 when they became the standard feeder insect for the pet and research industries. They are known for their loud chirping which is caused when males rub their front wings together to attract females.
House crickets are omnivores. In nature, house crickets eat rotting leaves, rotting fruit, vegetables and insects. Once inside a home or other building, house crickets will feed on a variety of fabrics and wallpaper glue. House crickets prefer fabrics made of natural fibers like wool and silk.
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Arthropod of yesterday I forgot to post it here:
The western pygmy blue (Brephidium exilis or Brephidium exile) is one of the smallest butterflies in the world and the smallest in North America. It has reached Hawaii, as well as the Persian Gulf, including eastern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Males establish a territory in which they look for receptive females to mate with. After mating, females lay eggs on all parts of the host plant, oftenmost on the uppersides of leaves. The caterpillars eat all parts of the plant; host species include Pigweed (Chenopodium album), saltbush species (Atriplex), and others in the goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae). Adult imagos appear in July–September in the north, while it appears year round in South Texas. Adults feed on nectar only.
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and the arthropod of today:
Dermatobia hominis, commonly known as the human botfly, is a species of fly found in Central and South America. The genus name, Dermatobia, is derived from the Greek words derma, meaning "skin," and bios, meaning "life," referring to the fly's habit of laying its eggs on the skin of its host. The species name, hominis, is Latin for "human," referring to the fly's primary host species.
It is a large fly, measuring up to 8 mm in length, with a yellowish-brown body and a black head. It is distinguished by its long, curved proboscis and its two pairs of wings. It is a parasite, laying its eggs on the skin of mammals, such as cattle, horses, and humans. The eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on the host's tissue. The larvae can live up to two months before dropping off the host and pupating in the soil. The adult fly lives for up to two weeks. The current population of Dermatobia hominis is unknown, but it is believed to be widespread in its range.
After the eggs are laid by the female botfly, the larvae hatch after about six days, and rapidly penetrate the skin, even when the skin is intact and healthy. They can cause some symptoms such as:
Formation of wounds on the skin, with redness and slight swelling on the region;
Release of a yellowish or bloody fluid from the sores on the skin;
Sensation of something stirring under the skin;
Pain or intense itching at the wound site.
https://youtu.be/NzwV7wvJVrc?t=52
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Forgot to post it here again, but here is the arthropod of yesterday:
The robber fly is a predator of almost all flying insects. It injects a fluid into its victims that breaks down the muscle tissue. A few species of the genus Promachus are serious pests of apiaries because they feed on bees. Each species has a characteristic habitat—e.g., tree trunk, foliage, grass, low plant, dead twig, gravel, or beach sand.
Adults lay eggs in the soil or in plants. Eggs hatch into slender, shiny, white, legless larvae that develop through several stages before pupating. The life cycle usually requires more than one year to complete.
Adults have piercing-sucking mouthparts. Adult robber flies perch on stems of low plants or other objects and attack prey in the air. They feed on bees, beetles, dragonflies, other flies, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, wasps, and other insects. Larvae live in the soil, in wood and other habitats, feeding on organic matter, other arthropods such as white grubs, beetle pupae and grasshopper egg masses, and they may be carnivorous.
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Epimeria rubrieques sp. n., belonging to the cold water family Paramphithoidae, occurred relatively often in Agassiz and bottom trawls taken during several German Antarctic Expeditions into the eastern Weddell Sea since 1983. Although this species is very conspicuous because of its long mid-dorsal teeth, bright pink-red colour and large size (up to 70 mm), it has only been recorded in the Weddell Sea. The new species is compared to its closest relatives Epimeria macrodonta and E. similis, and an updated key to the 14 species of Antarctic Epimeria is provided. Observations on the general and feeding behaviour of living specimens of Epimeria rubrieques sp. n. in aquaria showed the species to be an ambush predator and a weakly motile epibenthic walker, which swims only rarely.
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With its iconic orange and black markings, the monarch butterfly is one of the most recognizable species in North America. Monarchs are particularly remarkable because they migrate each year, flying from as far as Canada and across the United States to congregate at a few forested overwintering sites in the mountains of central Mexico and coastal California. These sites are an amazing phenomenon: thousands of monarchs cluster in the trees in California, and millions of monarchs drape large swathes of forest in Mexico.
This butterfly is notorious for the beauty of its orange, white and black wings, its long migration, and its toxicity. The butterfly lays its eggs almost exclusively on milkweed plants, which are poisonous. As the caterpillar eats the leaves of the plant, it collects toxins called cardiac glycosides which persist mostly in the wings and the abdomen of the adult. Some clever predators seem to know this and avoid those parts of the butterfly. A monarch butterfly that feeds from butterfly weed, which is a popular plant people put in their gardens to attract butterflies also collects toxins.
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Earwigs are generally harmless bugs with a bad reputation. Despite what you may have heard, they are not known to climb into your ears, although there have been cases of earwigs being found in the ear. The name is inaccurate. The bug’s name comes from the Old English words ear wicga, which roughly translates to “ear wiggler” or “ear creature,” which is how the myth began about this type of insect crawling into your ears while you sleep. Even more disturbing, the mistaken belief held that once in the ear, these insects can tunnel into your brain and lay eggs there. This, too, is false. These bugs aren’t even interested in entering the human ear.
The adult earwig is brownish-black and about three-quarters of an inch long. The male’s forceps are curved and the female's are straight. Earwigs have a tiny pair of rear wings that look like fans when they’re open. Even though it has wings, the insect isn’t big on flying.
Looks are deceiving when it comes to earwigs. Their claw-like forceps, called cerci, can seem menacing at first glance. But they use their pincers for protection from other animals and to capture prey, not to pinch or bite people.
All in all, earwigs aren’t dangerous. They don’t usually bite people or spread disease. But you could get pinched by their “claws” if you pick up an earwig. The pinch might hurt, but their pincers don’t have venom. But they can wreak havoc on gardens, fruit, and leaves and stunt the growth of young seedlings.
kho
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