Tag Archives: Insect

Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly

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Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly

Big orchard swallowtail butterflies flying through the sky.

  • ‘Orchard swallowtail butterflies’ are also known as ‘large citrus butterflies’, and are often the largest butterfly found in their native environment.
  • The scientific name of orchard swallowtail butterflies is Papilio aegeus and they are from the family Papilionidae, which is the family of swallowtail butterflies.
  • Orchard swallowtail butterflies are native to Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia.
  • Orchard swallowtail butterflies are sometimes considered pests, since the larvae (caterpillars) eat citrus leaves.
  • Orchard swallowtail butterflies have a wingspan ranging from 10 to 14 centimetres (4 to 5.5 inch), with females being slightly larger than the males.

Orchard swallowtail butterfly, brown, Wings out, wingspan, Ten Random Facts, Australia

  • Orchard swallowtail butterflies have orange-red and blue markings on their white and black coloured wings.
  • Orchard swallowtail butterfly caterpillars have a concealed forked organ that appears and repels a foul smell when threatened.
  • Orchard swallowtail butterflies generally flutter slower than most butterflies, but can move quickly if needed.
  • New orchard swallowtail butterfly larvae are camouflaged white, grey and brown, taking on the appearance of bird waste.
  • Male orchard swallowtail butterflies pursue black and white creatures, including birds, that move in their territory.
Bibliography:
Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly – Papilio aegeus, 2013, Brisbane Insects, http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_butters/Orch_butt.htm 
Papilio Aegeus, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_aegeus

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Cicada

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Cicada

Buzz… Buzz… Buzz Buzz Buzz… BuzzBuzzBuzz… go the cicadas.

  • ‘Cicada’ is a Latin word meaning ‘tree cricket’, and the insect is also known as ‘cicala’ or ‘cicale’, and is sometimes mistakenly called a ‘locust’.
  • Cicadas are from the family Cicadoidea, which is within the order Hemiptera, the family of true bugs such as aphids.
  • There are 2500 official species of cicadas, with more of the insects that still need to be classified, and they are found on every continent excluding Antarctica.
  • Cicadas are often coloured in dark shades like brown and black, although other colours exist in some species including green, blue and orange.
  • Cicadas generally have two sets of wings, widely placed eyes, three ocelli (small eyes) and two antennae, and a sharp proboscis used to drink tree sap.

Yelow Cicada, Live, Adult, Ten Random Facts, Insects, Single, Australia, Cool, Professional, Stick, Climb, Antennae, Ocelli, Red eyes

  • Cicadas can affect the growth of the trees they feed on, and can cause damage from the laying of their eggs.
  • Cicadas are eaten all around the world, particularly China, Malaysia, Burma, Latin America, Congo and, historically, Ancient Greece.
  • Male cicadas can make very loud buzzing songs, used as a warning or mating call, by rubbing their musical membranes, or tymbals, and perform the most and the best on hot months and hot days.
  • Cicadas live most of their life, which can be 2-17 years depending on the species, burrowed underground as a nymph that feed on the juice of roots, and later they emerge to the surface, malt and generally live for 2 to 6 more weeks.
  • Cicadas are preyed on by birds, squirrels and bass fish, along with wasps who use them to feed their young.
Bibliography:
Britton D, Cicada: Superfamily Cicadoidea, 2012, Australian Museum, <http://australianmuseum.net.au/Cicadas-Superfamily-Cicadoidea>
Cicada, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada>

Ladybug

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Ladybug

A beetle… not a bug, or a bird.

  • Ladybugs are also known as ‘ladybirds’, ‘lady beetles’, ‘lady clocks’, ‘lady cows’, ‘lady flies’ and ‘god’s cows’.
  • ‘Ladybugs’ is one of the common names of the family Coccinellidae, which is a family of beetles, and this name is derived from the Latin word for scarlet, ‘coccineus’.
  • Ladybugs have mainly yellow, orange or red elytra, or hard wings that cover the true wings, with typically black spot markings, although some species of the beetles can be a single colour, like black, brown or grey, or have different coloured spots, or have stripes instead.
  • Ladybugs grow from 1 to 10 mm (up to 0.4 inches) in length, have short legs, and are usually a round or oval shape.
  • There are more than 5,000 different species of ladybug, and the most common type is the seven-spotted ladybug.

Lady bird, orange, spot, wonky, black, plant, stalk, green ,background, leave, plant, vegetation, small, one, little, Australia, Ten Random Facts, dangle, eat, splode, blade, grass, animal,insect, beetle

  • Contrary to popular belief, the spots position, amount and size on ladybugs do not contribute to age but to species.
  • Most farmers like ladybugs as there are many species that eat aphids, scale insects, and other pests without any damage to the plant, although there are a few species of the beetle that eat and destroy crops.
  • The name ‘ladybug’ was named after Virgin Mary, also known as ‘Our Lady’, who was often painted with a  scarlet cloak, and farmers believed the beetle to be a miracle bug from God, because of its ability to eat and control pests, and some prayed to Mary to protect there crops.
  • Ladybugs can withdraw their head into their body for protection and can be prey to birds, frogs, wasps, dragonflies and spiders, although the bright colours of ladybugs warn predators to stay away.
  • A ladybug has an average lifespan of one to two years, which starts as an egg, develops into a larva, transforms into a pupa, and emerges as a ladybug, with a female laying up to 2,000 eggs in its lifetime.
Bibliography:
Coccinellidae, 2013, Wikipedia, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae >
Ladybugs, 2013, National Geographic Kids, <http://kids.nationalgeographic.com.au/kids/animals/creaturefeature/ladybug/>

Amazon:    Fishpond: Ladybugs (Creepy Critters (Paperback))  Incredible Ladybugs (Incredible World of Insects)

Common Grass Yellow Butterfly

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Common Grass Yellow Butterfly

Flutter around, dance around.

  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies are commonly know as ‘Common Grass Yellows’ and are also known as ‘Large Grass Yellows’ or ‘Grass Yellows’.
  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies are small to medium butterflies that are found in Africa, Asia, South Pacific islands and Australia.
  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies are from the family ‘Pieridae’, a family that has mainly white, yellow and orange butterflies, sometimes with black spots.
  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies are bright lemon yellow in colour, and have black markings at the tips and borders of the butterfly’s wings and a narrow black band on the hind wing, and the underside of the wings are paler yellow with brown speckles.
  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies lay tiny white eggs that hatch, and become green caterpillars that grow to 24 – 30 mm (0.95 – 1.2 inches) in length, and then become smooth green pupae.

common Grass Yellow Butterfly, sitting, Closed wings, flower, plant, australia, beautiful, cool, amazing, Ten Random Facts

  • The scientific name of the Common Grass Yellow butterfly is ‘Eurema hecabe’, and they have a wingspan of 35 to 45 mm (1.4 to 1.8 inches).
  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies like to fly quickly, close to the ground, are found in open grassy or bushy terrain, hence their name.
  • Common Grass Yellow butterfly larvae feed on a variety of plants, depending on the region, although they often include plants from Euphorbiaceae, the family of spurges, and Fabaceae, the family of legumes, peas and beans.
  • Common Grass Yellow butterflies have different colouration in their wings depending on the season, known as ‘seasonal polyphenism’, resulting in generally darker wing colours in summer.
  • Common Grass Yellow male butterflies are often seen in large groups, and the females usually fly about by themselves to find nectar from a wide variety of plants.
Bibliography:
Eurema Hecabe, 2012, James Cook University, <http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/discovernature/insects/JCUDEV_005698>
Eurema Hecabe, 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurema_hecabe>
Eurema Hecabe Conterbernalis, 2013, Butterfly Circle Checklist, <http://www.butterflycircle.com/checklist%20V2/CI/index.php/start-page/startpage/showbutterfly/25>

Spitfire Grubs

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Spitfire Grubs

Tap… Tap, Tap, Tap… TapTapTapTapTapTapTap

  • Spitfire grubs look similar to the caterpillars of buttterflies and moths, however they are the larvae of a species of sawfly, the adult having a saw-like egg laying system, and are a relative of the wasp.
  • Spitfire grubs, also known as ‘sawfly larvae’, are an Australian species of Perga from the sub family Perginae, from the family Pergidae (sawflies), which comes from the order of Hymenoptera, which includes sawflies, wasps, bees and ants.
  • Spitfire grubs are the babies of the sawfly species that includes the Steel Blue Sawfly (Perga dorsalis), Large Green Sawfly (Perga affinis), and the Eucalyptus Sawfly (Perga kirbyi), and the adult sawflies are rarely seen and are said to only live for about a week.
  • The most well known spitfire grubs, the Steel Blue Sawfly larvae, have black bodies and white hairs, with yellow ‘tails’ and a shiny black head, and the Large Green Sawfly larvae also look the same.
  • Spitfire grubs are herbivores and generally eat the leaves from Eucalyptus trees, and can sometimes strip the tree of all its leaves, although some species feed on Melaleuca, Callistemon and Angophora trees.

 Spitfire Grub, Sawfly larvae, black, yellow, thump, tree, hairy, eucalyptus, Australia, Ten Random Facts

  • Spitfire grubs are said to be harmless although they can kill a young tree by eating all of its foliage, and the adult sawfly does not sting.
  • Spitfire grubs feed during the night, usually alone, and during the day they cluster together in large groups of 20-30 (sometimes more) as a defence against potential predators.
  • Spitfire grubs have three pairs of front legs, and none at the back, with a ‘tail’ that they thump up and down or tap, with which they use to communicate to others in the group.
  • Spitfire grubs grow up 80 mm (3 inches) in length and when they have finished growing they burrow into the soil to pupate and become an adult sawfly.
  • As a defence, spitfire grubs squirt from their mouths a yellow liquid made from eucalyptus oil then they are attacked or threatened, hence the name ‘spitfire’.
Bibliography:
Sawfly Larvae, n.d, University of Sydney, <http://bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/learning/resources/Entomology/internalAnatomy/imagePages/sawflyLarvae.html>
Bug of the month – Steel Blue Sawfly, 2012, Museum Victoria <http://museumvictoria.com.au/about/mv-blog/jul-2012/bug-of-the-month-steel-blue-sawfly/>
Spitfires – Defoliating Sawflies, 1992, PIRSA Forestry, <http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/forestry/forest_health/forest_health_fact_sheets/factSheets/spitfires_-_defoliating_sawflies>
Sawflies, Spitfire Grubs – Suborder Symphyta, family Pergidae, 2010, Brisbane Insects, <http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_sawflies/index.html>

Mosquito

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Small but pesky.

  • Mosquitoes are insects from the family Culicidae, which is the mosquito family.
  • Many species of mosquitoes suck blood from vertebrates, such as humans and animals, which is a method of transferring disease to their hosts, although some are harmless as they are not blood feeders.
  • The term ‘mosquito’ comes from the Spanish or Portuguese words ‘mosca’ and ‘ito’ meaning ‘little fly’.
  • There are over 3,500 species of mosquitoes.
  • Most female mosquitoes lay there eggs near or in water.

Mosuito, House, Killed, Dead, Hand, Indoor, Australia, Ten Random Facts

  • Mosquitoes often mate as soon as possible although the female mosquitoes won’t lay eggs until the climate has the right conditions.
  • Most mosquitoes live up to one to two weeks after they have become an adult.
  • Most mosquitoes need blood to produce eggs and they need sugar for energy, so they feed on nectar and other plant material.
  • Mosquitoes can be found nearly anywhere in the world, although they are absent from Antarctica.
  • Some mosquitoes carry life threatening diseases like malaria, dengue fever, or other viruses, and it is estimated that over two million people, every year, die from mosquito borne diseases.
Bibliography:
Mosquito, 2013 Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culicidae>
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