Public and domesticated insects
Most insects are solitary. However, there is alsopublic insects ... These includetermites, bumblebees, wasps, bees, ants ... The community of these insects is one large, expanded family. Social insects share food with each other, jointly care for the larvae, and guard the nest.
Bees and ants are social insects
Bees.Social insects includehoney bee ... A large family of bees has up to 100 thousand individuals that live in the hive... In the hive, most insects areworkers bees. These are sterile females in which a modified ovipositor servessting ... They clean the hive, collect nectar, care for the queen and larvae, and guard the hive from enemies. They live one warm season (less than a year). In a bee family, the main bee isuterus , which lays eggs - up to 2000 per day. The queen is larger than worker bees. She lives for about five years. In the spring, in May - June, a new queen and several dozen males appear in the bee family from pupae, who are calleddrones: They do not take any part in the work, and their main task is to fertilize the uterus. In the fall, worker bees drive the remaining drones out of the hive and they die.
All the care of the hive lies with the worker bees: growing up, each worker bee changes several "professions". She builds combs, cleans the cells, feeds the larvae, takes food from the arriving bees and distributes it in the hive, ventilates the hive, protects it and, finally, begins to fly out of the hive for nectar. Bees communicate with each other in the same way as ants - through touch and secreted substances.
However, only bees have the "language of dance". With the help of special movements and movements, one bee can tell others where the rich in nectar are flowering plants ... The scout bee "dances" in the hive on the combs.
On the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee there are special glands that secretewax ... From it, bees, thanks to complex instincts, buildhoneycomb ... On the hind legs of bees there are areas surrounded by long chitinous hairs - baskets. The bees crawl over the flowers, and the pollen falls on the hairs of the insect's body. Then the bee cleans the pollen into a basket using special brushes on the legs. Soon a lump of pollen forms there - a pollen, which the bee transfers to the hive.Perga - pollen impregnated with honey - serves as a reserve of protein feed for the bee colony.
Worker bees have a peculiar expansion of the esophagus -honey goiter ... From the nectar collected from the flowers, which has passed through the honey goiter, the main food supply of the bee colony is formed -honey ... Cells are filled with honey, which the bees cover with a thin waxy layer. Up to 100 kg of honey can be obtained from one bee colony per year.
Although people have been breeding bees for a long time, collapsible frame hives were invented relatively recently - in 1814 by the Ukrainian beekeeper P. I. Prokopovich. Before that, in order to extract honey from a bee's nest, which, as a rule, was located in a hollowed-out block of wood, it was necessary to break the combs, that is, to ruin the bee colony. The surviving swarm of bees can live independently, without human help. This suggests that bees are not yet fully domesticated.
Ants- public hymenoptera. They have no sting, but a poisonous gland has survived, thanks to which they can defend themselves from enemies. Redheads forest ants are of great benefit to the forest. Ants from one anthill eat tens of thousands of insects per day and protect a forest on an area of 0.2 hectares from pests. They live in families.
The anthill consists of aboveground and underground parts. Most ants living in an anthill are wingless working individuals - these are sterile females. Their number sometimes reaches a million. In addition to them, the queen lives in the anthill. She also has no wings. She breaks them off after a mating flight. All her life she lays eggs, and all the care of the anthill lies with the working ants. They get food, repair and clean the anthill, feed the larvae and the queen, and defend the anthill in case of enemy attack. Once a year, at the beginning of summer, winged females and males appear in the anthill from pupae, which go on a mating flight. After mating, the males die, and the females shed their wings and establish a new anthill. They can also get into the anthill in which their development took place.
Most ants are predators. Some feed on the sweet secretions of aphids. To do this, the ants guard, "graze"these insects that feed on plants, and sometimes build shelters for them. Other species of ants breed mushrooms in underground chambers for their nutrition, bringing crushed plant leaves for this. There are herbivorous ants.
Ants communicate by touching each other with antennae, legs and head. In addition, they have a "chemical language" - they secrete special substances that mark their paths. Ants recognize relatives and enemies by smell.
WITH the false behavior of social insects is called instinctive, because instinct - a set of congenital moments of behavior, fixed hereditarily and characteristic of a particular type of animal. The behavior of bees, ants and some other animals is so amazing and complex that it makes many people think that it is reasonable. However, these actions of animals are instinctive, unconscious.
Domesticated insects
There is only one completelydomesticated insect not found in nature in the wild, -silkworm ; females of this species have even "forgotten how" to fly. The adult insect is a fat butterfly with whitish wings and a span of up to 6 cm. The caterpillars of this silkworm eat only the leaves of the mulberry or mulberry tree.
Scientists suggest that in the wild, the ancestor of the silkworm lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. The butterfly was domesticated in China around 3000 BC. NS. Nowadays, this insect is completely domesticated. It is bred in China, Japan, Indochina, Southern Europe, South America, Central Asia and the Caucasus - where the mulberry tree can grow. There are several dozen breeds of silkworms, differing in length, strength and color of the silk thread they produce.
Silkworm females lay eggs (each female - up to 600 eggs), which are calledgrenade ... Caterpillars emerge from them. These caterpillars are fed mulberry leaves in special rooms on stern shelves. When pupating, each caterpillar grows for three days
Insects are consumers of plants. The vast majority of insects feed on plant food, many of them - leaves, stems, roots, flowers of living plants. Are all these insects pests? No, not all of them. On the contrary, paradoxically, almost all insects - consumers of plants, with a few exceptions, are useful, since they are an irreplaceable link in the cycle of substances in nature.
By way of comparison, the following analogy is appropriate. Man has long been using domestic animals that eat plant foods - grass and hay, but for people these animals serve as a source of high-calorie proteins and fats. Insects in nature have a similar function, since they process plant tissues into fats and proteins of their body, and they themselves, in turn, serve as an irreplaceable source of food for many predatory animals (they are especially important for insectivorous birds, small reptiles, such as lizards, amphibians, such as frogs , etc.). This is the global significance of herbivorous insects, since without them many vertebrates and invertebrates would not be able to exist at present.
The question arises; what kind of insects - plant consumers are pests? Very few, mainly those that are able to periodically multiply in massive quantities and during these periods very intensively destroy vegetation, as is typical, for example, for locusts. Pests of agricultural crops, gardens and forests are especially dangerous during these periods. The vast majority of insects do not produce such outbreaks of mass reproduction, and the damage they cause to plants is easily compensated by these plants. From a practical standpoint, these species cannot be considered harmful.
A correct understanding of these complex interactions of phytophagous insects with vegetation is very important to justify modern principles nature protection.
Insects are plant pollinators. This is a classic example positive value insects in nature and on agricultural land.
The importance of bees, in particular the domestic bee, is well known for pollination of gardens, sowing forage legumes for seeds, etc. An example of the acclimatization of bumblebees in New Zealand, where the crops of red clover imported there, did not produce seeds due to the lack of insects capable of pollinate this plant.
Pollinators are not only bees and bumblebees, although these representatives of the order Hymenoptera are the main visitors to flowers. In fact, all insects that actively visit the flowers of plants, be they butterflies, beetles, flies, etc., to one degree or another transfer pollen adhering to their body from flower to flower, and thereby contribute to pollination.
Without pollinating insects, a huge number of plants would be doomed to extinction, since the process of seed formation would be disrupted.
Insects are soil formers and orderlies. It is well known that more or less loose soil, enriched with decaying organic matter, has the greatest fertility. That is why agricultural fields are plowed before sowing, the soil is loosened, fertilizers are introduced into it, including organic fertilizers of special value.
In nature, on a huge scale, loosening of the soil and the introduction of decomposing organic matter into its thickness is produced by invertebrates. The beneficial activity of earthworms is especially known. Insects living in the soil also make a significant contribution to increasing soil fertility. It has already been pointed out to positive influence on the soil of ants, which loosen it, constructing the underground part of the nest, and carry various plant particles, that is, decomposing organic matter, into the soil. Numerous insects, intensively processing fallen leaves, quickly return the organic and mineral substances lost by it to the soil.
The excrement of vertebrates is immediately populated by insects, which either feed on them (fly larvae), or bury them in the soil, constructing special burrows for this, and use them later as food for posterity (dung beetles). It should be noted once again that Australian pastures, overloaded with excrement from grazed sheep and other domestic animals, were cleared of manure thanks to the vigorous activity of dung beetles specially acclimatized for this purpose in Australia.
The same groups of insects (flies and beetles) attack the corpses of animals and very quickly destroy them; only dried remains of the skin and skeleton remain of them.
Animal excrement and their corpses are often breeding grounds for pathogens. Therefore, insects that destroy these debris are considered especially useful orderlies.
Nevertheless, one should not forget that the significance of insects in contact with carrion and excrement is twofold: the rapid destruction of waste is an example of their beneficial activity, but these same insects, flying to settlements, can spread pathogens.
Insects are pests of agriculture and forestry. In some years, characterized by mass reproduction of one or another pest, the resulting loss of crop yield can be very significant.
All plant organs suffer from pests: roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds. There are monophagous pests that feed on only one plant species. Especially dangerous are the so-called polyphagous pests that can damage a wide variety of cultivated plants. Most types of agricultural pests have switched to crops from wild plants- after all, on crops, the living conditions for pests are more favorable: there is plenty of food and a fodder plant in monoculture conditions, when only this species is sown, there is no need to look for it.
Insects imported from other countries constitute a special group of pests. If in new areas these species find favorable conditions for themselves, then they are able to reproduce in huge numbers... A typical example of an introduced species is the Colorado potato beetle, which came to Europe from North America. An equally dangerous pest, the corn moth, was introduced from Europe to North America, where it became the scourge of corn crops. There are many such examples.
In total, the list of agricultural pests includes about 700 species of insects, of which about 50 are serious.
There are also outbreaks of pest outbreaks in forests. These include primarily some butterflies, such as the Siberian silkworm, and beetles, such as bark beetles and lumberjacks.
A group of pine and leaf-gnawing pests weakens the trees by eating assimilating organs, and often the needles and foliage are completely destroyed. Damaged stands slow down growth, and with repeated attacks of the pest, they can die.
Weakened trees are attacked by stem pests that make holes in the thickness of the bark and wood that serve them as food. Stem pests not only completely lead the tree to death, but also spoil the wood, reducing its value.
The extermination of pests on agricultural crops and in forests is currently carried out mainly by the chemical method - dusting or spraying gardens, fields, vegetable gardens and individual forest areas with pesticides (insecticides). Getting on the surface of the body of an insect or together with food in its intestines, the insecticide poisons the pest, which dies.
However, as already noted, pesticides pollute the environment, with repeated use they accumulate in plant and animal tissues and ultimately can harm human health.
Therefore, it is important in the near future to solve the problem of exterminating pests using methods that are safe for humans and animals, as well as without dangerous pollution environment.
The most promising in this respect is the use of substances of plant origin against insects, from which insects die; animals and humans are usually immune to these substances. One of these substances - pyrethrum - has been known for a long time and is used against insect pests.
Of particular interest is the use of synthetic hormones to suppress harmful insects - substances that enter the insect's body in minute doses, disrupt the normal processes of its growth and development, as a result of which the pests die.
It should also be emphasized that high agricultural technology (especially the destruction of weeds) limits the survival of pests and reduces their number. Therefore, for all pest control systems, good agricultural technology belongs to universal preventive measures.
Periodically, 2 - 3 times a day, lice feed on blood, piercing the skin with a sharp proboscis, which is usually pulled into the head, but pushes out when sucking blood. The proboscis has complex structure and consists of three needle-shaped stylets, which serve to pierce the skin, and a suction apparatus.
The louse lives for 30 - 45 days. The female lays eggs by attaching them to hair or clothing. For the entire breeding period, on average, she lays 300 eggs. The larvae also feed on blood and reach maturity in 15 days.
If a louse, feeding on the blood of a person with typhus, gets on a healthy person, then it infects him not as a result of bloodsucking, but excreting feces on his body and linen, which contain pathogens. Through damaged skin or in contact with the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and eyes, pathogens of typhus and relapsing fever enter the human body, and a serious illness develops rapidly.
Unlike lice, fleas are less closely related to their host. To lay eggs, they move to various places littered with garbage, use dirty floor crevices, sawdust, and rags.
Flea larvae live in garbage and, unlike adult bloodsucking fleas, feed on various rotting debris.
Fleas are fully transformed insects that have a pupal phase in their life cycle. Flea development is usually slow: the larva lives for more than 3 months, and the pupal phase can last for more than 7 months. At favorable conditions temperature and humidity development is accelerated and a new generation of fleas appears after 3 - 4 weeks. Adult fleas live up to 1.5 years.
Plague is a disease mainly of rodents, in whose burrows fleas breed in huge numbers. V natural conditions it is associated mainly with gophers and marmots, in cities - with rats. If a flea has sucked the blood of a sick rodent, it can transmit the plague pathogen to humans and pets during subsequent bloodsucking. The rat, dog, cat and human fleas are especially dangerous.
The complex of blood-sucking dipterans, united by the name "gnus", is of serious medical and veterinary importance.
The main components of gnat in all natural zones of the country from the tundra to the deserts are blood-sucking mosquitoes, which are joined by midges, horseflies and biting midges. The gnat is especially harmful in the Siberian taiga and Far Eastern mixed forests. In addition to the damage caused to humans and animals as a result of a massive attack of bloodsuckers, it should be borne in mind that some Diptera, which are part of the gnat, can transmit various pathogens, including such serious diseases as malaria, anthrax, tularemia, etc.
Insects are pests of food supplies. Of this group of insects, beetles and butterflies that reproduce in grain and its processed products, most often in flour, are especially harmful.
Bread grinder beetle larvae have a characteristic C-shape. In grain and bread crumbs, they make passages, in flour they live in lumps. The development of the larvae of this beetle lasts up to 3 months. Grain and flour inhabited by a bread grinder are harmful to human health.
No less dangerous in granaries is the barn weevil - a beetle with its head elongated into a long tube. Its thick, whitish larva develops inside grains of wheat and other grains. The development of one generation of weevils is completed in 1.5 months, so its number in warehouses is growing rapidly. Flour made from grain damaged by a weevil is not good for food.
In stocks of flour in warehouses and at home, dark brown flat oblong beetles with a specific odor often appear. These are flour beetles. Their larvae live in flour. If the flour is sieved, the larvae remain on the sieve. Flour inhabited by a pest darkens, acquires an unpleasant odor and is not recommended for food.
Among butterflies, there are also serious pests of grain and flour. The barn moth caterpillars live in flour in silky tubes, contaminating it with excrement. Flour is held together by silk threads into lumps, rots and loses its baking qualities.
Domesticated insects. Some species of insects have long been bred by humans in order to obtain honey, wax, silk, a number of medicinal and other useful substances. Like pets that can no longer live in natural conditions, some domesticated insects, such as the silkworm, are also no longer found in natural communities.
Of the other insects that a person breeds in order to obtain valuable products, the worms should be mentioned - a group related to aphids. Valuable natural dyes are made from worms, for example, carmine, substances used in electrical engineering as insulators are obtained, etc.
Insects and aesthetic education. Many large and beautiful insects, primarily butterflies and beetles, like the bright and attractive flowers of plants, decorate nature, evoke a sense of admiration in humans and encourage us to take care of all the animals and plants around us.
Meanwhile, it was the large and beautiful insects that for a long time served as the object of intensive collecting, exchange and even sale, which, in principle, contradicts the tasks of aesthetic education. Modern approaches to nature protection and the relevant legislation excludes irresponsible extermination of insects, except for cases caused by production needs or scientific problems.
Insects should be collected without removing them from nature. In the best way for this is photography, especially color.
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The insect class has two subclasses: primary wingless and winged.
TO subclass primary wingless Insects are insects whose ancestors never had wings (sugarcane, springtails, etc.). Silverfish lives in sheds, closets. basements. It feeds on decomposing substances, harmless to humans. V flower pots with excessive watering, wingless insects often appear - springtails. They feed on decayed plants or their lower plants. A reliable fight against them is to reduce watering.
Subclass of winged subdivided into insects with incomplete transformation and insects with complete transformation.
The distribution of species by orders is carried out taking into account such characteristics as the nature of development, structural features of the wings, structure oral apparatus The main features of some orders of insects are presented below.
| Detachments | Development type | Number of pairs of wings | Oral apparatus | Wing development feature | Some representatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cockroach | Incomplete transformation | Two pairs | Gnawing | Elytra | Red and black cockroaches |
| Termites | Incomplete transformation | Two pairs | Gnawing | Mesh | Termite |
| Orthoptera | Incomplete transformation | Two pairs | Gnawing | Elytra | Locusts, grasshoppers, crickets |
| Lice | Incomplete transformation | No wings | Thrusting | Wingless | Head louse, clothes louse |
| Bedbugs | Louse | Two pairs | Thrusting | Elytra | Bug-turtle, bug-gladun, bug-water strider |
| Isoptera | Incomplete transformation | Two pairs | Thrusting | Mesh | Cicadas |
| Grandmas | Incomplete transformation | Two pairs | Gnawing | Mesh | Watcher grandma, rocker grandma |
| Beetles, or coleoptera | With complete transformation | Two pairs | Gnawing | Elytra are firm | May beetle, Colorado potato beetle, gravedigger beetles, bark beetles |
| Butterflies, or Lepidoptera | With complete transformation | Two pairs | Sucking | Mesh with scales | White cabbage, hawthorn, silkworm |
| Hymenoptera | With complete transformation | Two pairs | Gnawing, lapping | Mesh | Bees, bumblebees, wasps, ants |
| Diptera | With complete transformation | 1 pair | Prickly-sucking | Mesh | Mosquitoes, flies, gadflies, midges |
| Fleas | With complete transformation | No | Prickly-sucking | Wingless | Human flea, rat flea |
Insects with incomplete transformation
The most common are: cockroach squad- a typical representative - red cockroach... The appearance of cockroaches in dwellings is a sign of slovenliness. They come out of their hiding places at night and feed on carelessly stored food, contaminating it. At the end of the abdomen, female cockroaches carry a brown egg "case" - oothecu... They dump it in the trash. Eggs develop in it, from which larvae are born - small white cockroaches, similar to adults. Then the cockroaches turn black, molt several times and gradually turn into adult cockroaches.
Squad of termites- this includes social insects living in large families in which there is a division of labor: workers, soldiers, males and females (queens). Termite nests - termite mounds, can be of considerable size. So, in the African savannas, the height of termite mounds reaches 10-12 m, and the diameter of their underground part is 60 m. Termites feed mainly on wood, they can damage wooden buildings, agricultural plants. There are about 2,500 known termite species.
Orthoptera squad- most of the representatives of the order are herbivorous, but there are also predators. These include grasshoppers, cabbage, locust... The green grasshopper lives in the grass in the meadows, in the steppes. Has a long, clavate ovipositor. Kapustyanka - has burrowing legs, flies and swims well. Causes great damage to underground parts garden plants, for example, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, etc. Some locust species are prone to mass reproduction, then they gather in huge flocks and fly a considerable distance (up to several thousand kilometers), destroying all green vegetation in their path.
Squad of bedbugs- this includes known pests of agricultural crops - bug-turtle sucking out the contents of the caryopsis of cereal plants. Found in dwellings flea bug- a very unpleasant insect for humans. In fresh water bodies or on their surface, a water strider bug lives, feeding on insects that fall into the water. Predatory bedbug attacks various invertebrates and fish fry.
Homoptera squad- all its representatives feed on plant juices. Many kinds aphids cause great harm to cultivated plants. Many Homoptera are carriers of viral plant diseases. This includes a variety of cicadas, the size of which is from a few millimeters to 5-6 cm. They live in the crowns of trees.
Grandma squad are exceptional predatory insects. Adults attack prey in flight. The best flyers. Their flight is highly maneuverable: they can hover in the air, be mobile and can reach speeds of up to 100 km per hour. These include rocker head, watch grandmother and etc.
Insects with complete transformation
Squad of beetles, or coleoptera, are the most numerous order of insects, up to 300,000 species. Beetles are common in a wide variety of terrestrial and freshwater environments. Their sizes range from 0.3 to 155 mm in length. Many beetles cause great harm to cultivated plants. One of the pests of potatoes and other plants is Colorado beetle brought to us from America. Kuzka beetle- a pest of cereals; Chafer- its larvae damage tree roots and potato tubers; beet weevil- affects sugar beets. It also includes bark beetles carving tunnels in the bark and bast fibers of valuable tree species, and the larvae goldfish and i live in dead wood, cause great damage to forestry.
Many beetles spoil stocks food products: pea weevil, bread beetle, skin-eating beetle damaging leather, woolen products. A small beetle belongs to the order of beetles. tube-runner... The biology of these beetles is very interesting. In the springtime, the pipe-runner cuts the leaf in a special way up to the main vein. The incised part of the sheet fades and loses its elasticity. Then the beetle rolls it up in a bag and lays its eggs there. Something like a cigar is formed. This is how the pipe-worker expresses concern for the offspring.
Some beetles feed on the remains of plants and animals and play the role of orderlies in nature, for example: pus beetles and coffers... Some can be used to control harmful insects. So, ladybug destroys aphids, and large green paint beetles- caterpillars.
Beetles are extremely beautiful, large in size, for example stag beetle, or stag, listed in the Red Book, reaches a length of 8 cm, its larvae develop in rotten stumps for about five years and grow up to 14 cm long. In reservoirs, beetles of various sizes and methods of feeding live - a swimming beetle, and a black water lover. The swimming beetle is a predator, the black water lover is herbivorous.
Butterfly squad, or lepidoptera, - representatives of this order differ in the varied colors of their wings. These include hives, cabbage butterfly, silkworm etc. Among the species living on Far East, there are very large moths, which in the wingspan correspond to the width of an unfolded notebook. The wings of butterflies are covered with modified hairs - scales that have the ability to refract light. The iridescent color of the wings of many butterflies depends on this phenomenon. The butterfly larvae are called caterpillars... They have a gnawing apparatus, a long body. Their salivary glands, in addition to saliva, also secrete silk threads, from which a cocoon is weaved before pupation. Adult butterflies are very good plant pollinators. Caterpillars of most butterflies are herbivorous, eating leaves of plants, causing significant harm, for example, cabbage whitelet, apple moth, goldtail, ringed silkworm, etc. The caterpillar of the room moth feeds on woolen products, damaging them, some caterpillars spoil flour and other food products.
Mulberry and oak silkworms- for a long time they have been bred by humans in order to obtain silk (from cocoons). Many large butterflies are extraordinarily beautiful, for example swallowtail, Apollo and others. A large butterfly is very interesting night peacock, on the wings of which there are ocular spots. Its caterpillar is large, fleshy, green in color; before pupation, it weaves a cocoon the size of a hen's egg.
Large moths with acute-angled wings, characterized by a very fast flight - hawk makers, - so named because they willingly feed on fermented and odorous sap of trees, especially birch, protruding on wounds and stumps.
Hymenoptera detachment- unites a variety of insects: bees, bumblebees, wasps, riders, sawflies etc. The lifestyle of these insects is varied. Some of them are herbivorous, as their larvae (very similar to caterpillars) cause great harm to grains and other plants, for example bread and pine sawflies... Sawfly larvae feeding on foliage become so similar to butterfly caterpillars that they are called false caterpillars. A striking device is the ovipositor of sawflies, which serves to cut out pockets in plant tissues, into which female sawflies hide their eggs, thereby showing original care for the offspring.
Excellent plant pollinators are bumblebees... It is a social insect. The bumblebee family has only existed for one summer. Nests are built in mouse holes, hollows, squirrel nests, in birdhouses. The nest is built by the female, equipping wax cells in it for laying eggs. A supply of food is placed in the cell - a mixture of pollen with honey. The larvae that emerge from the egg eat food and after two to three weeks weave silk cocoons, turning into pupae. Working bumblebees, females and males hatch from pupae. By the end of summer, there are up to 500 bumblebees in large nests. In the fall, the old queen, males and workers die, and the young queen hides for the winter.
Lifestyle wasps looks like a bumblebee. They also exist for one summer. Wasps are beneficial by destroying harmful insects, and the damage from spoiling fruits by them is small. More harm from hornets(one of the species of swarm wasps): they gnaw the bark of young trees and eat bees. Having settled near the apiary, they kill thousands of bees over the summer.
Of the social insects of the Hymenoptera order, it is of great benefit honey bee... She is also a wonderful pollinator of plants, and produces an exceptionally useful food product - honey, as well as wax, royal milk, which are widely used by humans in perfumery. medicine, for the manufacture of varnishes, paints, etc.
A bee family is a surprisingly complex whole in which all members of the family are very closely related to each other. Life and prosperity of the whole race are equally impossible without a queen and without drones, without working bees. Using knowledge about the life of all members of the bee family, beekeepers have learned how to create specialized houses for bees - hives, conditions for feeding bees (they are taken out to those fields where honey plants are grown) and at the same time receive not only honey good quality but also quantity.
Representatives of the order Hymenoptera are used as biological method control of harmful insects. These include various riders, as well as trichogramma, which is artificially derived
Diptera squad... This includes the well-known insects: flies, mosquitoes, midges, gadflies, horseflies and other insects similar to them, possessing one pair of transparent wings. The second pair of wings became the so-called halteres. The common mosquito lives in swampy and damp areas. Mosquitoes are especially numerous in the middle of summer. The inhabitants of the taiga and tundra call their clusters vile... Mosquitoes pierce the skin of a person with stabbing mouth parts and suck his blood. The worm-like mosquito larvae live in stagnant water. While feeding, the larvae grow, molt and turn into mobile pupae. Pupae of mosquitoes also live in water, they cannot feed, therefore they soon turn into an adult.
The malaria and common mosquito are distinguished by planting.
Common mosquito (squeak) keeps his body parallel to the surface on which he sits, and malarial- at an angle to it, raising the rear end of the body high. Malaria mosquito lays eggs in a reservoir one by one, ordinary - in packs, floating on the surface in the form of rafts. The larvae of mushroom mosquitoes live in the fruiting bodies of the cap mushrooms.
Flies as opposed to mosquitoes. have short antennae. Their larvae are white, as a rule, legless and headless. In the house fly, worm-like larvae live and develop in kitchen waste, in heaps of manure and sewage, where the fly lays its eggs. Before pupation, the larvae crawl out of the sewage, penetrate the soil and turn into pupae.
Adult flies hatched from pupae fly everywhere in search of poverty. From latrines and cesspools, they fly over to openly lying food and pollute it. Flies transfer bacteria of gastrointestinal diseases and ascaris eggs to human food. Therefore, it is very important to fight the flies. Food is protected from flies with gauze or caps, vegetables and fruits are washed before use.
Midges- long-wattled bloodsuckers small size, the larvae of which develop at the bottom of reservoirs with running water. In the tropics and subtropics, in the Crimea, there are very small mosquitoes - mosquitoes... Their larvae develop in moist soils, rodent burrows, etc. Mosquitoes are carriers of many diseases (malaria, etc.). We have a "Hessian fly" that destroys cereal plants.
Gadflies, horseflies cause great harm to humans and pets with their bites, as well as the ability to tolerate pathogens of such dangerous diseases as tularemia, anthrax.
At the same time, flies are pollinators of many plants.
Rat flea can transmit the plague pathogens from sick rodents - a very dangerous disease that once claimed thousands of lives.
»Arthropods» Beneficial insects
Insects, like all living organisms without exception, play an important role in nature. Representatives of this superclass (both large beetles and tiny flies) exist everywhere and take their place in the biosphere. There are practically no places on Earth where they are not at least one or even several of the most important links in the food chain. Some of the insects eat plants, some of their own kind, but the first and the second serve as food for larger animals. From this point of view, tiny arthropods are no less significant element of the fauna than, for example, animals or fish.
Do not forget that insects pollinate flowering plants, and this is the primary foundation that ensures the functioning of most of the world's flora. What is a man? What does he get from beetles, butterflies, ants, grasshoppers and the like? It turns out that insects take an active part in our lives.
Domesticated insects
Throughout his existence, man has constantly tamed animals, in particular those that were of obvious benefit to him, were easily kept in captivity and amenable to training. There are such pets among mammals, birds and even fish. Insects also did not stand aside: the honey bee and the silkworm are domesticated. True, these species are practically the only ones. In addition to them, only the inhabitants of exotariums and all kinds of exhibitions (stick insects, outlandish beetles and other tropical six-legged creatures) come to mind, but it is a stretch to consider them domesticated.
In the service of man
Even if we leave aside the production of silk and the storehouse of products that striped hive workers give, the benefits of insects for humans are still undeniable. Pollination has already been mentioned above and its significance for wildlife, but it is obvious that this phenomenon is no less important for cultivated plants, and therefore for the world Agriculture and the economy as a whole. In addition, since some representatives of the superclass are pests, then in the fight against them who, if not their potential enemies ( carnivorous species) will become the most formidable weapon? It is for these purposes that, for example, odorous beauties (Calosoma sycophanta), wasps-riders and other predators are used. no less valuable is the cochineal scale insects (Dactylopius coccus) - they extract the dye carmine, as well as dried gold beetles, click beetles and some other beetles - they are used for making jewelry... Finally, do not forget that many insects can be eaten.
Look at pictures 166, 167, 171 with the structural features of the honey bee and silkworm. How are these insects useful?
Types of domesticated insects. Of all the known insects, only the honey bee and the silkworm have been domesticated by man. Bees were bred for honey and wax, and silkworms were bred for silk. Subsequently, the branches of the economy developed - beekeeping and silkworm breeding.
Honey bee. This insect lives in large families: wild - in the hollows of trees, domestic - in hives. Each family has a female - a queen, several hundred males - drones and up to 70 thousand worker bees (Fig. 166).
The queen is the largest bee in the family. Since spring, she lays eggs day and night (up to 2000 per day). Drones - bees average size with large eyes touching at the back of the head (they live in a family from the time they emerge from pupae until autumn). Worker bees are smaller than the rest of the family and differ from them in a number of structural and behavioral features.
On the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee, there are smooth areas without hairs - mirrors. Wax is released on their surface. Bees make hexagonal cells out of it - honeycombs: large, medium and small. On outside the hind legs of worker bees are noticeable by one depression surrounded by long hairs. These are baskets. The hind legs also have brushes — wide segments with hard bristles (Fig. 167). With their help, bees collect adhering pollen from their bodies, moisten it with nectar and place them in baskets. The resulting lumps of pollen are called pollen. Arriving in the hive, the bees place them in a honeycomb. Other worker bees compact the pollen and soak it with honey. Perga is formed - a supply of protein feed.
The nectar collected from the flowers is accumulated by bees in the expansion of the esophagus (honey goiter), and then secreted into the cells of the combs. The nectar mixed with the secretions of the pharyngeal glands of the worker bee turns into honey. So a supply of sugary food is formed in the hive. In the special glands of worker bees, "milk" is produced. They feed them to the uterus and white worm-like larvae developing from the eggs laid by the uterus.
At the end of the abdomen of worker bees there is a retracted serrated sting. This is a modified ovipositor. There is a poisonous gland at the base of the sting. With the help of a sting, the bee stings its enemies. A bee that has stung a person cannot pull the sting out of his skin, and it comes off with part of the internal organs. This leads to death of the bee.
Worker bees also do other work: they ventilate the hive, clean it, and cover up the cracks.
Bee development. The uterus lays fertilized eggs in large and small cells, unfertilized eggs in medium cells. The worker bees feed the larvae hatched from the eggs with "milk". Then "milk" is received only by the larvae developing in large cells, the rest - pollen and honey (Fig. 168). Queens emerge from large cells, drones emerge from medium cells, and worker bees emerge from small cells.
Swarming. Before leaving the cell, the young uterus makes sounds. The old queen tries to kill her, but this is prevented by the guarding young worker bees.
Soon after, the old queen with some of the worker bees leaves the nest. A swarm of bees that has flown out lands somewhere on a branch (Fig. 169) or at the base of a tree, and then, having found a hollow, the bees settle in it. The mating flight. A young queen emerging from the cell looks for the sealed cells in which other queens are developing and kills them. A few days later, she flies out of the hive, rushes up, and several dozen drones fly after her. This is the mating flight of the female and the males. After fertilization, the female returns to the hive and begins to lay eggs.
Only the queen and worker bees spend the winter in the apiary in the hives (Fig. 170). Drones are driven out of the hive by worker bees in the fall, and they die.
Silkworm. The silkworm is a medium-sized white butterfly (Fig. 171). Before pupation, its caterpillars weave cocoons from a silk thread, which is formed when the liquid secreted on the lower lip from the silk gland solidifies.
Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication, from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding, which laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings. As a result of long-term selection, the silkworm females stopped flying, which made their maintenance easier. The selection of large cocoons led to the fact that their thread became long - up to 1000 m or more.
The spread of sericulture is associated with the growing places of the mulberry tree, or mulberry, the leaves of which feed on the caterpillars of the silkworm. Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, the length and strength of the thread.
Silkworm females lay 300-600 eggs. The eggs are covered with a dense, chitinized shell and are called green beans. Caterpillars are grown on special shelves with canvas shelves. They are fed with mulberry leaves.
Caterpillars grow, molt. After the fourth molt, brooms made of dry twigs - cocoons - are placed on the shelves. Caterpillars crawl on them, weave cocoons and pupate.
The cocoons are collected and some of them are sent to special stations for receiving grins, and the rest are sent to factories, where they are treated with hot steam and unwound on special machines. The threads are used to make silk, and the frozen pupae are used to feed farm animals.
➊ What insects and for what purpose were domesticated by humans? ➋ What is the composition of the bee colony? ➌ What kind of work do worker bees do in the family? ➍ What devices do worker bees have for collecting pollen and nectar, for building honeycombs, for feeding larvae? ➎ When do queens hatch from eggs laid by a queen, and when do drones and worker bees hatch? ➏ What is a swarm of bees and how is it formed? ➐ What is the significance of the honey bee in nature and in human life? ➑ For what purpose is the silkworm bred? ➒ What changes have occurred to the silkworm during domestication? ➓ How are silkworm caterpillars grown?
Using Figure 77, recall what types of animals you studied and what main classes they combine. Trace from type to type, in which animals these or those systems of organs appeared, how they were improved in the course of the historical development of the animal world.
In order for 100 g of honey to form in the hive, a worker bee must visit about 1,000,000 flowers. A person receives from bees not only honey and wax, but also poison, royal jelly, propolis (the glue with which bees cover the cracks in the hive), which are widely used in medicine.
In silkworm farms, 70-80 kg of cocoons are obtained from 25 g of grenes.
Types of domestic insects.
A family of bees.
Worker bees also do other work: they ventilate the hive, clean it, cover up the cracks, etc. Each of them during its life goes through all kinds of activity as it develops certain glands.
Bee development.
Silkworm.
Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, the length and strength of the thread.
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PІDTSARSTVO MULTI-CELLULAR ANIMALS
MEMBER TYPE
DOMESTIC INSECTS
Types of domestic insects. For a long time, man has been breeding certain types of insects to obtain valuable products from them. First of all, it is a honey bee that gives a person honey, propolis, bee bread, with royal milk, wax. The cultivation of the silkworm in order to obtain natural silk is an important branch of the national economy of many countries.
Honey bee. Bees are social insects. They live in large families: wild ones - in hollows of trees, domestic ones - in hives. Each family has a female - a queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time of hatching until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen bee is the largest bee in the family, whose function is to lay eggs. Since spring, the uterus lays about 2 thousand eggs per day. Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes that touch on the back of the head. It is the drones that fertilize the uterus. All the work in the hive is done by worker bees - underdeveloped females incapable of reproduction. They are smaller than other family members.
Features of the structure and behavior of worker bees. On the underside of the abdomen of a working bee there are smooth, hairless areas - mirrors, on the surface of which wax is released, from which it makes hexagonal cells - honeycombs (large, medium and small). On the hind legs of the bees there is one "basket" and one "brush", with the help of which they collect pollen. Arriving in the hive, the bees place it in the cells of the honeycomb. Other worker bees tamp the pollen and soak it with honey. Perga is formed - a supply of protein feed. The nectar collected from the flowers is regurgitated by bees into the honeycomb from the honey crop. Here it turns into honey - a supply of sugary food. In the special glands of worker bees, "milk" is produced. They feed them the uterus and larvae.
At the end of the abdomen of worker bees is a retractably serrated sting that is associated with a venom gland and is used for protection.
In addition, worker bees ventilate the hive, clean it, cover up cracks, etc. Each of them, during its life, goes through all kinds of activity to the extent of the development of certain glands in it.
Bee development. The uterus lays fertilized eggs in large and small combs, and unfertilized eggs in the middle ones. The larvae developed from the eggs are fed by the worker bees with "milk". Then the "milk" is received by the larvae of only large WTO, and others - pollen and honey. After the last moult of the larvae, worker bees seal the combs with wax. Soon the larvae turn into pupae, and later into adult insects. They gnaw through the wax lids and crawl out to the surface of the WTO. From large WTOs queen bees emerge, from medium ones - drones, and from small ones - worker bees.
Mulberry silkworm. It is a medium-sized white butterfly. Zalyalkovuyuchis, its caterpillar wraps itself with a thin thread that is secreted by the spinning glands. By unwinding these cocoons, a person gets natural silk. Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication, from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding, they laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings, and large cocoons were woven from their caterpillars (their thread reached a length of up to 1000 m or more).
In recent decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differ in the size of the cocoons, their color, the length and strength of the thread.
Of all the known insects, only the honey bee and the silkworm have been domesticated by man. When breeding bees, you could have honey and wax, and when breeding a silkworm, you could have silk.
Bee family
Honey bees live in large families: wild bees in tree hollows, domestic bees in hives. Each family has a female - a queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time of hatching until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen is the largest bee in the family. Since spring, she lays eggs (up to 2,000 per day). Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes touching at the back of the head. They fertilize the uterus. All the work in the hive is done by worker bees. They are smaller than the rest of the family.
Honey bees
Families honey bees can be attributed to the pronounced social colonies. In the family, each bee performs its own function. The functions of a bee are conditionally determined by its biological age. However, as established, in the absence of older bees, bees can perform their functions more than younger ages.
It is necessary to distinguish between the actual and biological age of the bee, since during the bribe the worker bee lives from 30 to 35 days, and during the wintering the bee remains biologically young for up to 9 months (the Central Russian gray bee in the conditions of the north of Russia and Siberia). When specifying the life span and development periods, bees are usually guided by the life span of the bee at the time of feeding.
Features of the structure and behavior of worker bees. On the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee there are smooth areas - mirrors. Wax is released on their surface. Bees make hexagonal cells out of it - honeycombs: large, medium and small. On the hind legs of the bees there is one "basket" and one "brush". With their help, they collect pollen. Arriving in the hive, the bees place it in the cells of the honeycomb. Other worker bees compact the pollen and soak it with honey. Perga is formed - a supply of protein feed. The bees' nectar collected from the flowers is regurgitated into cells from the honey goiter. Here it turns into honey - a supply of sugary food. In the special glands of worker bees, "milk" is produced. They feed them the uterus and larvae. At the end of the abdomen of worker bees there is a retracted serrated sting associated with a poisonous gland and used for protection.
Worker bees also do other work: they ventilate the hive, clean it, cover up the cracks, etc. Each of them during its life goes through all kinds of activity as it develops certain glands. Young worker bees (up to 10 days old) form the retinue of the queen, feed her and the larvae, since the young bees excrete royal jelly well. From about 7 days of age, wax glands begin to work on the lower abdomen of the bee and wax begins to stand out in the form of small plates. Such bees gradually switch to construction works in the nest. As a rule, in the spring there is a massive detachment of white honeycombs - this is due to the fact that overwintered bees by this period massively reach biological age corresponding to the deconstructing bees.
By about 14-15 days, the productivity of the wax glands drops sharply and the bees switch to the following activities for caring for the nest - they clean the cells, clean up and take out the garbage. From the age of about 20 days, the bees switch to ventilation of the nest and guarding the entrance. Bees over the age of 22-25 days are mainly engaged in honey collection. To inform other bees about the location of the nectar, the collecting bee uses visual biocommunication. Bees over 30 days old switch from honey collection to collecting water for the needs of the family. Such a life cycle of a bee is intended for the most rational utilization of nutrients and the use of the available number of bees in a colony. The largest number the body of the bee contains excess nutrients just when it leaves the cell. At the same time, most of all bees die when water is taken from natural reservoirs. Much less of them die during honey collection from flowers and when approaching the hive.
Bee development. The uterus lays fertilized eggs in large and small cells, and unfertilized eggs in medium cells. The worker bees feed the larvae hatched from the eggs with "milk". Then only the larvae of large cells receive "milk", the rest - pollen and honey. After the last moult of the larvae, worker bees seal the cells with wax. Soon the larvae pupate, and then adult insects emerge from the pupae. They gnaw through the wax lids and crawl out onto the surface of the combs. Queens emerge from large cells, drones emerge from medium cells, and worker bees emerge from small cells.
Silkworm
The silkworm is a medium-sized white butterfly. Its caterpillars weave silk cocoons before pupation. Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication, from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding, which laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings, and their caterpillars weaved large cocoons (their thread became up to 1000 m or more).
Silkworm
The silkworm belongs to the class of insects, a representative of the arthropod type. This silkworm is an example of a domesticated insect. As a domestic insect, people have bred the silkworm for several millennia, it has lost the properties of its wild ancestors and can no longer live in natural conditions. He has developed a number of devices that greatly facilitate his breeding. For example, silkworm butterflies have essentially lost their ability to fly. Females are especially inactive. The caterpillars are also inactive and do not creep.
The silkworm, like other butterflies, develops with complete transformation. The silkworm butterfly has a wingspan of 40 to 60 mm. The coloration of its body and wings is off-white with more or less distinct brownish bands. In appearance, the female silkworm is fairly easy to distinguish from the male. She has a more massive abdomen than the male, and the antennae are less developed. On the first day after emerging from the cocoon (silk shell), the female insect lays eggs, the so-called green. In a clutch, there are on average from 500 to 700 eggs. Oviposition lasts three days.
A caterpillar emerges from the egg. It grows rapidly, sheds four times. Caterpillars develop within 26 to 32 days. The duration of their development depends on the breed, temperature, air humidity, quantity and quality of food, etc. The silkworm caterpillar feeds on mulberry leaves. At the end of development, a pair of silk glands develops strongly in the caterpillar. They vigorously secrete liquid, which quickly thickens in air, turning into a silk thread. From this thinnest thread, reaching 1000 m in length, the caterpillar twists a cocoon. In the cocoon, the caterpillar turns into a pupa. The co-con shell protects the pupa from various adverse conditions.
Cocoons are of various colors: pink, greenish, yellow, etc. But for the needs of industry, at present, only breeds with white cocoons are bred. A butterfly is formed from the pupa.
It secretes a special liquid that dissolves the cocoon's sticky substance. With its head and legs, the butterfly pushes the silkworms and leaves the cocoon through the hole formed. Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, the length and strength of the thread.
Types of domestic insects.
Of all the known insects, only the honey bee and the silkworm have been domesticated by man. When breeding bees, you could have honey and wax, and when breeding a silkworm, you could have silk.
A family of bees.
Honey bees live in large families: wild bees in tree hollows, domestic bees in hives. Each family has a female - a queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time of hatching until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen is the largest bee in the family. Since spring, she lays eggs (up to 2,000 per day). Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes touching at the back of the head. They fertilize the uterus. All the work in the hive is done by worker bees. They are smaller than the rest of the family.
Features of the structure and behavior of worker bees.
On the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee there are smooth areas - mirrors. Wax is released on their surface. Bees make hexagonal cells out of it - honeycombs: large, medium and small. On the hind legs of the bees there is one "basket" and one "brush". With their help, they collect pollen. Arriving in the hive, the bees place it in the cells of the honeycomb. Other worker bees compact the pollen and soak it with honey. Perga is formed - a supply of protein feed. The bees' nectar collected from the flowers is regurgitated into cells from the honey goiter. Here it turns into honey - a supply of sugary food. In the special glands of worker bees, "milk" is produced. They feed them the uterus and larvae. At the end of the abdomen of worker bees there is a retracted serrated sting associated with a poisonous gland and used for protection.
Worker bees also do other work: they ventilate the hive, clean it, cover up the cracks, etc. Each of them during its life goes through all kinds of activity as it develops certain glands.
Bee development.
The uterus lays fertilized eggs in large and small cells, and unfertilized eggs in medium cells. The worker bees feed the larvae hatched from the eggs with "milk". Then only the larvae of large cells receive "milk", the rest - pollen and honey. After the last moult of the larvae, worker bees seal the cells with wax. Soon the larvae pupate, and then adult insects emerge from the pupae. They gnaw through the wax lids and crawl out onto the surface of the combs. Queens emerge from large cells, drones emerge from medium cells, and worker bees emerge from small cells.
Silkworm.
The silkworm is a medium-sized white butterfly. Its caterpillars weave silk cocoons before pupation. Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication, from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding, which laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings, and their caterpillars weaved large cocoons (their thread became up to 1000 m or more).
Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, the length and strength of the thread.
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