Top Ten Insects

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the European honey bee, for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea and are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila.

Ants communicate with each other using pheromones, sounds, and touch. The use of pheromones as chemical signals is more developed in ants, such as the red harvester ant, than in other hymenopteran groups. Like other insects, ants perceive smells with their long, thin, and mobile antennae.

Beetles are the most common type of insect. Beetles are everywhere. But beetles can be confused with other kinds of insects, especially some true bugs.

Mosquitoes are small, midge-like flies that constitute the family Culicidae. Females of most species are ectoparasites, whose tube-like mouthparts (called a proboscis) pierce the hosts' skin to consume blood. The word "mosquito" (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito) is Spanish for "little fly".

Honey: You drink it in your tea and spread it on your bread, but what is honey, really? A thick, golden liquid produced by industrious bees, honey is made using the nectar of flowering plants and is saved inside the beehive for eating during times of scarcity.

Hornets (insects in the genera Vespa and Provespa) are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to 5.5 cm (2.2 in) in length.

Fleas are small flightless insects that form the order Siphonaptera. As external parasites of mammals and birds, they live by consuming the blood of their hosts. Adults are up to about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and usually brown.

Fly, (order Diptera), any of a large number of insects characterized by the use of only one pair of wings for flight and the reduction of the second pair of wings to knobs (called halteres) used for balance. The term fly is commonly used for almost any small flying insect.

Fire ant is the common name for several species of ants in the genus Solenopsis. They are, however, only a minority in the genus, which includes over 200 species of Solenopsis worldwide. Solenopsis are stinging ants and most of their common names reflect this, for example, ginger ants and tropical fire ants.

Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight.

Subterranean termites are insects that feed on wood, frequently becoming pests of homes. There are two types of termites commonly encountered by homeowners: the worker and the swarmer. Worker termites are creamy colored, 3-4 mm long, and typically only seen when a mud foraging tube is broken, or infested wood is broken open.

The Japanese giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia japonica) is a subspecies of the world's largest hornet, the Asian giant hornet (V. mandarinia). It is a large insect, with adults frequently growing to greater than 4.5 centimetres (1.8 in) long, with a wingspan greater than 6 centimetres (2.4 in).

A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, infraorder Anisoptera (from Greek ἄνισος anisos "uneven" and πτερόν pteron, "wing", because the hindwing is broader than the forewing).

Entomologists widely prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as these insects are not classified as true bugs. The majority of coccinellid species are generally considered useful insects, because many species prey on herbivorous homopterans such as aphids or scale insects, which are agricultural pests.

Bedbugs may live up to a year without feeding, so keep the cover on your mattress for at least a year to make sure all bugs in the mattress are dead. Repair cracks in plaster and glue down peeling wallpaper to get rid of places bedbugs can hide. Get rid of clutter around the bed.

A "tsetse suitability index" was developed from insect population growth, climate and geospatial data to simulate the fly's population steady state. Results suggest that the tsetse decimated livestock populations, forcing early states to rely on slave labor to clear land for farming, and preventing farmers from taking advantage of natural animal fertilizers to increase crop production.

A captive giant weta (Deinacrida heteracantha) filled with eggs reached a record 70 g, making it one of the heaviest documented insects in the world and heavier than a sparrow. The largest species of giant weta is the Little Barrier Island weta, also known as the wetapunga.

Although grasshoppers are one of the insects we encounter nearly every day, most people know very little about them. Learn more about these fascinating creatures, starting with these 10 facts about grasshoppers.

It lists pain on a scale from one to four and unsurprisingly the bullet ant tops the charts. Level 4: bullet ant, tarantula hawk wasp; Level 3: paper wasp, harvester ant; Level 2: honey bee, yellow jacket wasp, bald-faced hornet; Level 1.5: bullhorn acacia ant; Level 1: fire ant, sweat bee “Level four you don’t want to know,” explains Dr Schmidt.

The adaptive significance of the cycles in brood production and colony activity remains unclear, but it phasic species of Aenictus, Eciton, and other New World army ants rely heavily on brood of other social insects, Dorylus are more generalist (Gotwald 1995).

A praying mantis is an amazing insect that can be kept as a pet. A praying mantis can catch other insects with its strong front legs. The front legs are lined with spikes and close in a certain way to have a firm grip on the prey.

Crickets (also known as "true crickets"), of the family Gryllidae, are insects related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. The Gryllidae have mainly cylindrical bodies, round heads, and long antennae. Behind the head is a smooth, robust pronotum.

The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bee worldwide.[2][3] The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera means "honey-bearing", referring to the species' tendency to produce a large quantity of honey for storage over the winter.

True bugs include insects such as leafhoppers, aphids, cicadas, stink bugs, water bugs and yes those pesky bed bugs. They have many of the same parts as other insects in that they have an exoskeleton, segmented bodies, and 6 legs.

Titan beetle The Amazon rain forest is home to many large beetles, but none of them compares in length to the titan beetle, Titanus giganteus. The titan beetle is the largest known beetle in the Amazon rain forest and one of the largest insect species in the world.

Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.

A botfly, also written bot fly, bott fly or bot-fly in various combinations, is any fly in the family Oestridae. Their lifecycles vary greatly according to species, but the larvae of all species are internal parasites of mammals.

Aphids don’t help the plant itself, however, beneficial bugs like lady beetles and lacewings love feasting on aphids. Since lady beetles can eat many aphids per day, they can be attracted to and stay in your garden to help you keep the aphid population in check.

Title: Phasmids: An Introduction to the Stick Insects and Leaf Insects Authors: Baker E., Webmaster P.

The Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules, Dynastinae) is a species of rhinoceros beetle native to the rainforests of Central America, South America, and the Lesser Antilles, and is the longest extant species of beetle in the world, and is also one of the largest flying insects in the world.

Many strains of housefly have become immune to the most commonly used insecticides. Several means of biological pest control have been investigated. These include the introduction of another species, the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens), whose larvae compete with those of the housefly for resources.

Goliathus is the Goliath beetle genus in the family Scarabaeidae. Appearance Edit The Goliath beetles have the same shaped shell and brown wings with an outline of blue.

Earwigs are mostly nocturnal and often hide in small, moist crevices during the day, and are active at night, feeding on a wide variety of insects and plants. Damage to foliage, flowers, and various crops is commonly blamed on earwigs, especially the common earwig Forficula auricularia.

Atlas Moth. The Atlas Moth, Attacus atlas, is one of the largest species of butterfly that can be kept by insect enthusiasts. The moth is beautiful and very large, but also the caterpillars look amazing. The caterpillars are green-whitish with strange soft spines on their backs.

The mammoth Giant Water Bug looks fierce for good reason. The amphibious insect can bite and pinch prey and anything that threatens it. This is a large insect species with equally large and very noticeable foreleg pincers.

Assassin bugs display a range of predatory behaviours and prey on a variety of other insects. The black corsair (Melanolestes picipes), a black-coloured insect about 13 to 20 mm (0.5 to 0.8 inch) long and usually found under stones and bark, can inflict painful bites on humans.

Chagas disease is spread by the triatomine bug -- nicknamed "kissing bugs" -- which carries the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Over time, the parasite can chew through cardiac muscle and cause heart failure causing an estimated 11,000 deaths globally each year.

Butterflies and moths include some of the largest and most colorful of all insects. Despite this, most species are small and brown. All members of this group have two pairs of wings covered in tiny scales that give color to their wings.

A bumblebee (or bumble bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., Calyptapis) are known from fossils.

Ornithoptera alexandrae, the Queen Alexandra's birdwing, is the largest butterfly in the world, with females reaching wingspans slightly in excess of 25 cm (9.8 inches). It is restricted to the forests of the Oro Province in eastern Papua New Guinea.

Some insects spend part of their lives in the water as aquatic organisms, while others are only terrestrial living out of the water. The most common insects observed in the Teaching Marsh are dragonflies & butterflies. Salt marsh mosquitoes are not a problem as long as there is a healthy fish population in the shallow water community.

Dermatobia hominis females oviposit on these arthropods and depend on them to carry their eggs to mammalian species. HAZARDS TO OTHER ANIMALS: Because Dermatobia hominis is the human botfly and because it may be transmitted to a wide variety of domesticated and wild animals, it is considered to be a zooanthroponosis.

Treehoppers (more precisely typical treehoppers to distinguish them from the Aetalionidae) and thorn bugs are members of the family Membracidae, a group of insects related to the cicadas and the leafhoppers. About 3,200 species of treehoppers in over 400 genera are known.

The adult insect, known as an imago, is 2 to 5 centimetres (1–2 in) in total length in most species, although the largest, the empress cicada (Megapomponia imperatoria), has a head-body length of about 7 centimetres (2.8 in), and its wingspan is 18 to 20 centimetres (7–8 in).

The best known flannel moth and stinging caterpillar in Texas is the southern flannel moth, or puss moth caterpillar, Megalopyge opercularis. In Texas these caterpillars are commonly known as “asps”.

Hymenopterans are chiefly small to medium-sized insects, usually with four membranous wings and a narrow waist that sets off the abdomen from the thorax, or middle region of the body. The mouthparts may be either of the biting type or of the biting-sucking type.

The longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae; also known as long-horned or longhorn beetles or longicorns) are a cosmopolitan family of beetles, typically characterized by extremely long antennae, which are often as long as or longer than the beetle's body.

Louse, (order Phthiraptera), any of a group of small wingless parasitic insects divisible into two main groups: the Amblycera and Ischnocera, or chewing or biting lice, which are parasites of birds and mammals, and the Anoplura, or sucking lice, parasites of mammals only.

Horse fly: Horse fly, any member of the insect family Tabanidae (order Diptera), but more specifically any member of the genus Tabanus. These stout flies, as small as a housefly or as large as a bumble bee, are sometimes known as greenheaded monsters; their metallic or iridescent eyes meet dorsally in the