Insect's, Bug's, Creepy Crawly's

I thought i would start this topic for anyone into being a Naturalist Cool

It covers HUGE topics of wildlife, nature etc.

When is a Spider not a Spider?

Every year at about this time we receive a truckload of questions about these creatures. "What sort of spider is this?" "Is it a tropical spider?" "Is it poisonous?" "Will it eat my children / dog / cat / grandmother?" (delete as appropriate) -you get the idea.

It looks like a spider. It is an arachnid. It does have eight legs (long ones), and it even moves in a spider-like way, but it's not actually a spider.

Although they're normally active at night you can probably find some of them around your own home right now. Just look outside under the window ledges.

We're talking about Harvestmen - sometimes referred to as 'daddy long legs' or 'opiliones'. Harvestmen get their name from the time of year they appear - harvest time.

They differ from spiders in that they have no fangs, and have a one part body. Spiders have two part bodies and insects have three part bodies. Fossil harvestmen have been found in the Aberdeenshire area (Rhynie) which show that the basic structure of these creatures has hardly changed over the last 400 million years.

Harvestmen do not produce silk, they have just two eyes and no venom glands. In fact they're relatively harmless. Their main defence mechanism is a pair of glands which produce a smelly odor. The stink glands are positioned at the sides of the eyes. If you pick one up you might see a drop of fluid forming in this area. Sniff your fingers to get the full effect.

They do have one other defensive action which involves losing a limb. Harvestmen are able to shed a leg. If you try to handle one you might find that a legs falls off in your hand. Although it can help the creature escape from its predators it can seriously reduce its survival potential.

The legs, especially the second pair, are the harvestman's sensory organs. They act as nose, tongue, ears and eyes. They're literally loaded with nerves, each containing thousands of tiny sense organs, all housed inside minute slits in the legs.

Harvestmen eat just about anything. Their diet includes everything from insects and fungi to decaying animals and bird droppings.

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Not to be controversial, you are right about them not being actual spiders, but they do have fangs. The fangs are just too small to penetrate human skin. I don't know where you got you information from, but it wasn't right about that part. Smile

Cheers.

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Using dial-up is like riding a tricycle at Indy.

well, are you sure your talking about the same spider ? i think your wrong.
Post your facts.

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Here is a qoute right from the > University of California Cool

Daddy-longlegs (Opiliones) - these arachnids make their living by eating decomposing vegetative and animal matter although are opportunist predators if they can get away with it. They do not have venom glands, fangs or any other mechanism for chemically subduing their food. Therefore, they do not have poison and, by the powers of logic, cannot be poisonous from venom. Some have defensive secretions that might be poisonous to small animals if ingested. So, for these daddy-long-legs, the tale is clearly false.

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Yes, we seem to be talking about two different spiders.

I remember watching Mythbusters when they were testing the myth that the daddy longlegs is the most venomous spider in the world. Obviously, the myth was busted, and I now know why there is this slight amount of confusion right now. It turns out, the cellar spider is also commonly known as a "daddy longlegs", hence the confusion.

Wikipedia - Opiliones

Misconception
An urban legend claims that the harvestman is the most venomous animal in the world, but possesses fangs too short or a mouth too round and small to bite a human and therefore is not dangerous. (The same myth applies to the cellar spider, which is also called a daddy longlegs.)This is untrue on several counts. None of the known species have venom glands or fangs, instead having chelicerae. The size of its mouth varies by species, but even those with relatively large jaws hardly ever bite humans or other large creatures, even in self-defense. The few known cases of actual bites did not involve envenomation, and had no lasting effect.

Wikipedia - Pholcus phalangioides(cellar spider)

An urban legend states that they are the most venomous spider in the world, but that because their fangs are unable to penetrate human skin, they are harmless to humans. However, recent research has shown that pholcid venom has a relatively weak effect on insects. No similar research has been conducted to determine its effects on mammalian biology. In the MythBusters episode "Daddy Long-Legs" it was shown that the spider's fangs (0.25mm) could penetrate human skin (0.1mm) but that only a very mild burning feeling was felt for a few seconds.

We were both right in a way, so confusion solved. Cool

Cheers?

(holds out hand to shake Dave's)

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Using dial-up is like riding a tricycle at Indy.

hands have been shakin Cool

Cheers

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A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
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I like this new section Dave!

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-Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day.

-Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming, "Wow, what a ride!!!"

Thanks S-kid Cool

feel free to post any cool info you might have or find.

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This is a pretty cool site, lots of info Cool

http://www.insects.org/

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Thought i would start posting some creepy crawlys. Cool

Insects are part of a bigger animal group called arthropods. The word Arthropod literally means jointed limbs. The arthropods are the first animal group to have jointed legs.

Insects have certain characteristics. They have six legs. They have three body parts, a head, a thorax and an abdomen. They have wings. They are by far the largest animal group. They also have an outer or exoskeleton made of a substance called chitin..

There are over 700, 000 species of insects. While they are relatively small in size compared to many animal groups, they are well adapted to their environments. Most insects live on land.

All insects grow from eggs. They go through various stages until they reach adulthood. This transformation through these stages is called metamorphosis. Insects undergo either complete or incomplete metamorphosis.

The dragonfly, termite, grasshopper and true bug undergo incomplete metamorphosis. In this process there are three stages called egg, nymph and adult. When the nymph hatches from the egg, it looks like the adult insect except it is smaller, has no wings and cannot reproduce yet. As the nymph grows it outgrows its outside skeleton and it is shed. It then regrows a new one. This happens several times before it finally becomes an adult.

Insects like the butterfly, bee, ant, beetle and fly undergo complete metamorphosis. This involves four stages: egg, larvae, pupae and adult. The larvae looks like a worm and hatches from the egg. As it grows, it also sheds it skin. It then grows into a pupa. While the pupa doesn't move around like the larva, it does eventually at this stage change from an immature form to adult form.

There is another group within the arthropods called the arachnids. The arachnids are spiders, scorpions, etc. The annelids are similar to insects. However, they have eight legs. Their wings are quite different from those of the insects.

Since this group is so very big, there are links below to pages on some of the biggest groups within the arthropods:

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Grasshopper
The grasshopper, praying mantis, cricket, katydid, locust and cockroach belong to this group of insects. Their mouth parts are specially designed for chewing with jaws that move back and forth rather than up and down. They have two pairs of wings. The front pair is long, narrow and stiff. The back wings are like cellophane with veins and are wider. The back wings fold up under the front wings when they are not in use.

In some of these insects such as the grasshopper, the rear legs are powerful and allow them to jump and spring forward. It also makes noises by rubbing its legs against its wing veins.

All insects in this group undergo incomplete metamorphosis. The grasshopper and cricket destroy crops but the praying mantis eats insects that are harmful to crops.

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Dragonflies
The dragonflies have very thin bodies and are sometimes called "needles". They have two pairs of very thin, see-through wings that stick straight out from their bodies atop one another.

The dragonflies have incomplete metamorphosis. The larvae live in water and live off of other larvae. The adults eat mosquitoes, gnats and other insects.

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The Beetles
The Japanese beetle, the potato beetle, wood-boring beetle, boll weevil, ladybug and carrion bug all belong to this group. This group has the following characteristics:

Two pairs of wings that lie straight down on their backs and are close to the body. The top pair are hard like a shell and the underside are thinner.
Chewing mouth parts
They make a complete metamorphosis with the larvae called grubs.
The ladybug eats harmful insects and is helpful to man, but the potato bug eats crops and is Harmful.

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Aphids

The aphid group of insects include the plant louse, the scale bug, the mealy bug, leaf hopper and cicada. They feed on the juices of plants and have sucking mouth parts. Some have two pairs of wings and some are wingless. Both pairs of wings are very thin and when they hold their wings over their bodies, they form an upside down V that looks like the roof of a house.

Most of these bugs do a great deal of damage to plants and crops.

These insects undergo incomplete metamorphosis.

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Butterflies and Moths
Butterflies and moths have some of the same and some different characteristics:

Many moths and all butterflies have a long, coiled tube to suck nectar that is inside flowers
They have two pairs of wings covered with colorful scales.
They undergo complete metamorphosis with their larvae called caterpillars or worms.
The butterflies have thin abdomens; the moths have thick abdomens.
The butterfly flies during the day; the moth flies at night.
The butterflies' wings are vertically positioned at rest; the moths' wings are horizontally positioned at rest.
Some butterflies and moth migrate during the year.

Moths can be harmful by eating clothing and the larvae of butterflies and moths can destroy crops.

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The flies include the common housefly, the tsetse fly, the stable fly and mosquito. They have sucking mouth parts and one thin, veined pair of wings. They have a complete metamorphosis.

The housefly does not bite, but has sticky feet that allow it to walk on ceilings. However, to stick it must not have dust on its feet. Thus the fly is always rubbing its feet to clean off dust and dirt. It has big eyes and small antennae. It has excellent wings and can fly very fast. It carries a lot of bacteria The fly lays its eggs in manure piles and the larvae that hatch are called maggots.

The mosquito does bite and suck on animal and human blood.. It injects a bit of its saliva in the animal it bites that causes the swelling of its bites. It lays its eggs in swampy water. Its pupae are different from other insects as they can move about.

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Bees
Bees are social insects. This means that they live together in colonies with different bees doing different jobs for the colony. Bees have two pairs of thin, veined wings with the front pair much bigger than the back pair. They have biting or sucking mouth parts. They undergo a complete metamorphosis. Their bodies narrow quite a bit between the thorax and abdomen.

There are three kinds of bees in a colony: a queen, a drone and a worker. The queen lays the eggs. She is the largest bee with a long pointed abdomen with a large egg-laying organ at the end of her abdomen. The queen can lay both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. Fertilized eggs become non egg laying worker bees. Unfertilized eggs become the males or drones. The queen becomes fertilized just once by the drone (male) and stores up the millions of sperm cells to be used over the rest of her life. There is usually just one queen bee per colony of bees.

The drones develop from unfertilized eggs. They are smaller than the queen but bigger than the worker bees. They have fat bodies. Big eyes and very powerful wings. Since they have small mouth openings, they are fed by the workers as their mouth openings are not big enough to get food for themselves. Although there are many drones, only one mates with the queen. When the supply of honey gets low, the worker bees don't feed the drones and they die off.

The workers make three kinds of things for the hive: wax, honey and propolis. The wax comes out of the bee's abdomen. It is made after the bee has eaten a lot of honey. Other workers take the wax, chew it and soften it and then use it for the honeycomb. The honeycomb is a structure composed of six sided cells that is used to store honey and a special bee food called beebread, which is a mixture of honey and bee saliva. The eggs are also placed in the honeycomb and later the larvae hatch and are cared for there. The honey from flowers' nectar is collected and stored in the bees' crops, also called honey stomachs. Propolis is a special kind of bee glue that is made from certain leaf buds. It is used to hold the hive together, to repair the hive and to even bury a dead animal in the hive.

Bees communicate by a series of dances that help them alert one another to where there is pollen and nectar.

The workers are females bees from fertilized eggs. They make up most of the bee colony. They cull nectar and pollen from the flowers. They build the hive and get the materials for the hive. They feed the queen, drones and larvae. They clean the hive, fan it and keep it cool.

Workers have a stinger at the tip of their abdomen that gives off a painful poison to its prey.

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Ants

Ants are social insects. There are many different kinds that come in different sizes and are located in different places. Ants' bodies definitely narrow between the thorax and abdomen. They have strong bites.

There are three kinds of ants in a colony: a queen, males and workers. The queens and males have wings while the workers don't. When the males and females mate, they fly up in the air and the male deposits huge numbers of sperm cells in the female. They then return to earth where the female tears off her wings and starts laying eggs. The males die soon after the mating.

An ant colony has many queens who all get on well. An ant colony also has soldier ants that defend the colony. If they defeat another ant colony, they take away the larvae and pupae of the defeated ant colony. These ants later become the slave ants for the colony, doing many jobs. Some jobs of the colony include taking care of the larvae and pupae, gathering food for the colony and building the anthills or mounds.

Some ants even have little "cows" called aphids, another type of insect. The ants care for the aphids during the winter. When the aphids go out during the spring, they feed on plants. The ants in turn stroke the aphids and the aphids give the ants a sweet liquid which the ants drink. Thus the aphids almost act like cows do for humans, giving a liquid for the ants.

Ants undergo complete metamorphosis. Their eggs are minute and usually white. The larvae have no legs and the pupae spin cocoons.

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Spiders
Arachnids

Spiders are a special group within the arthropods called arachnids that also includes scorpions, ticks and mites.. They are like the other arthropods in that they have an outside skeleton made of chitin, they have jointed appendages and the three body regions of the head, thorax and abdomen. They have bilateral symmetry.

However, the spiders' group is different from the insects' group. Spiders have eight legs instead of six. Spiders do not have antennae. The spider's head and thorax are joined. Spiders have simple eyes made up of just one lens where insects have compound eyes with many lenses. Spiders have two sets of appendages connected to their heads. One pair is hollow and spews forth poison from glands in the spider's head. The other pair of appendages is used as feelers for the spider. The males also use the these feelers to store sperm cells during reproduction.

Spiders have eight eyes arranged on their heads. They breathe through organs called book lungs, so named because of their shape. Spiders have from two to four book lungs. There is a little opening in their abdomen that allows the air in.

Spiders have three pairs of appendages called spinnerets on the underside of their abdomens. Each spinneret has thousands of tubes. Liquid silk flows from the spider's silk glands through these tubes into the air where it becomes hard and forms a thread. The spiders use the threads to build its web and to make cocoons for its eggs.

Spiders usually reproduce in the summer or early fall. The female is larger than the male and frequently eats the male after mating. The female lays a large batch of eggs and then spins her cocoon. Frequently she dies after this. The eggs hatch in the winter and live inside the cocoon. The young spiders frequently eat each other. The ones that are still alive in the spring leave the cocoon.

Spiders mostly eat off of other insects, not eating them whole, but sucking juices out of them.

Spiders help man because they kill harmful Insects.

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A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
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wow loved your knowledge on creepy crawlies.

I am sorry but I had to skip the spiders though. Shocked

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