Hello folks who secretly wish we had ice cream flowing from our tap instead of water during summer,
Host specific insects are fascinating because once you know how to identify their host plant, it is easy to know where to look for them.
Likewise in order to spot a hipster in its natural environment, go to a cafe and observe someone eating a $14 Avocado Toast and sipping the iced coffee from a mason jar.
Over here, you will find a beetle dominant on the Coyote Brush commonly called as Coyote Brush Leaf Beetle, it spends its larval and adult stage devouring the leaves of that plant.
Like Lady Beetles, they keep their wings hidden under the elytra and will unfold them before flying away.
Host specific insects are fascinating because once you know how to identify their host plant, it is easy to know where to look for them.
Likewise in order to spot a hipster in its natural environment, go to a cafe and observe someone eating a $14 Avocado Toast and sipping the iced coffee from a mason jar.
Over here, you will find a beetle dominant on the Coyote Brush commonly called as Coyote Brush Leaf Beetle, it spends its larval and adult stage devouring the leaves of that plant.
Like Lady Beetles, they keep their wings hidden under the elytra and will unfold them before flying away.
European Paper Wasps have learnt not only to survive in North America, but thrive in it's non-native habitat due to its short development time and diversity of food fed to the larvae. There is a high probability that if you see a nest in a sheltered location, it would be a European Paper Wasp colony.
Their nest is interesting because it is made of wood fibers mixed with the saliva of the wasp, which gives it a paper like texture and appearance. Their saliva provides a waterproof coating to the nest.
The larva are constantly being fed a diet of protein, but when it's time to pupate, the cell will get sealed so the larva can introspect and decide what it wants to do with its life.
In humans, this transition happens when a child no longer wishes to use the Netflix password of their parents.
Once the transition from pupa to adult has taken place, they will chew their way out of the cell, ready to be part of the workforce.
Over here, you can see one adult female wasp, emerging from a sealed cell excited to start working and ready to make an impact in the colony.
And finally, the reason wasps can sting you multiple times without losing their stinger is that the honey bee stinger has outward facing barbs.
Like a screw it is easy to insert but hard to pull out without much force at which point it will tear its rear end and leave her to die.
Here is a comparison between a Honey bee stinger and an European Paper Wasp stinger.
Honey Bee stinger
European Paper Wasp stinger
Very cool bugs Karan. I especially like the tidbit about the beetle wings. Are all beetles like this, or just this one and the lady beetle?
ReplyDeleteMost Beetles have similar kind of wing concealed beneath the Elytra, but some beetle families like the Darkling beetles have wings that are fused and hence can't fly. But I think the real reason is they suffer from motion sickness during flight.
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