Mare - an insect from the order Orthoptera superfamily Locust. Their closest relatives are grasshoppers and crickets.
Appearance of the filly
To date, more than 3800 species of these insects are known. Only in Russia there are more than six hundred species.
A filly is an insect very similar to a grasshopper. She has the same arrangement of her hind legs: with a knee raised high above the body. On the back of both the filly and the grasshopper, hard elytra are stacked. And antennae are located on the head of both types of insects. Even the mares chirp almost like grasshoppers, only much louder!
In fact, it is difficult at first glance for an ignorant person to determine who is in front of him. The grasshopper and the filly (insect) are very similar. A photo of both only confirms this.
Nevertheless, differences exist. Just need to take a closer look. They are mainly due to the fact that insects lead a completely different lifestyle.
Feeding the Filly
In the middle of a clear warm day, you can often scare a flock of insects outwardly resembling grasshoppers from grass. But it is safe to say that these are locusts. After all, grasshoppers are mostly nocturnal, and hiding somewhere in the afternoon. Only with the onset of darkness do these predators go hunting.
A filly (insect) feeds on vegetation. Therefore, she does not need to wait for the night. Moreover, it is worth noting that this herbivorous insect easily adapts to eating any plants: their leaves, seeds, fruits, and, in some cases, stems.
Harm from filly agriculture
Many believe that filly is quite harmless. After all, although they belong to the locusts, they are single insects. However, in 1939, K.N.Filatov, a senior research fellow at the Chelyabinsk stronghold of the All-Union Institute for Plant Protection, compiled a report on the dynamics of unstable locusts, that is, filly.
His research has proven how dangerous the filly can be for farming. According to documentary data, in 1883-1892, these gluttonous insects regularly destroyed crops on vast areas in the Kurgan district. This was a real disaster for the peasants. And only in 1892 the whole people went out to hand hunting in droves. Using special canopies, they managed to catch 155 951 pood of filly!
Local historians say that in 1894, when the last insect was buried in the ground, the owner of the Balakshin plant in honor of this event erected a monument at his own expense. Unfortunately, to this day it has not survived.
Fighting the Filly
Having noticed this harmful insect in your garden or in the garden, you should try to reduce the number of fillies by frequent sprinkling. Increased humidity has a negative effect on their reproduction.
Processing plants with a 3% solution of Bordeaux fluid helps get rid of filly. Eating plants that have been sprayed with poison, insects die in 1-3 days.
So that next year the invasion of fillies does not resume, it is imperative to mow all the plants from the curbs in the fall, plow the land deeply and bury. This will destroy the filly eggs laid in the ground.
There is another way - to breed hedgehogs on your site. Here it is for whom the filly and other pests of gardens in the joy! At the same time, these prickly predators will destroy slugs and mice along with filly mares, if they decide to settle on the site.
External differences between grasshoppers and grasshoppers
From the foregoing, it is clear why these insects should not be confused. After all, grasshoppers eat larvae and harmful insects, benefiting humans. And the filly, on the contrary, is itself a pest, destroying the crop. Therefore, it is so important to know how they can be distinguished in appearance.
Compared to a grasshopper, a filly is an insect with a sedentary head. Her face is dull, with powerful jaws.
It is known that grasshoppers are assigned to the suborder Long-billed, and grasshoppers to Short-billed. This is understandable. After all, the filly does not have to search for a victim with their help. She does not need to hunt for food, tracking her prey.
A filly is an insect that has an oblong abdomen, longer than a grasshopper. This is due to the fact that the amount of food that she has to digest is quite large.
The front legs serve the filly only as a support, while the grasshopper with their help catches and holds the victim. Therefore, in a herbivorous insect, these limbs are weaker and shorter. Less developed in the filly and hind legs. Therefore, her jumps are not as long as that of a grasshopper.
Females of these insects have more pronounced differences. The female grasshopper has a rather large sword-shaped ovipositor in the back. In a filly, it is short and almost invisible to the human eye. She lays eggs right in the soil.
Hearing organs in the filly
Not everyone knows that many insects do not hear at all with their ears, as is common in mammals, birds and reptiles. For example, grasshoppers use their legs for this purpose. Their hearing organs are located on the shins of the forelegs.
The filly hid their "ears" altogether. Their auditory organs are located on the sides of the abdomen, in the region of the first segment.
Sounds of the filly
On hot noon, loud chirping is heard in the fields and meadows. Usually people smile when they hear these sounds and say: “That's how grasshoppers got fussed!” But this is a wrong judgment!
Grasshoppers, by nature, sit quietly during the day. Therefore, it is impossible to hear them. Chatter in broad daylight either locusts or filly. Moreover, only males are engaged in this. In this "musical" way, they attract females to themselves. There is a second explanation for the loud chirping of mares. With their sounds, they warn other males that this territory is already occupied.
The fillies make their sounds by rubbing the tubercles located on the hips of their hind legs against the vein under the elytra.
Coloring fillies
An interesting fact is that the locust color does not depend on the species, but on the environment. If there is a lot of bright greenery around the growing insect, then you will get a green filly. An insect that lives in the steppe, where there is less greenery, but a lot of brown soil, which you have to move around, will become gray-brown in color.
Although the lower wings of some species have a bright color. For example, in the blue-winged and red-winged filly, in addition to the protective coloring of the elytra, there is also a way of protection from enemies.
Anticipating the impending danger, they soar up with a noise, revealing their bright wings. And after a moment they again fall down. From the outside, it looks like bright flashes of fireworks.