How many different insects surround us in the city and in nature. But what do we know about them? In the best case, we are familiar with the names of some of the people closest to humans: flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, spiders, bees and wasps. Residents of private houses with their own garden have more extensive information. In particular, they are well acquainted with May beetles, larvae, caterpillars, Colorado beetles, snails, grasshoppers, locusts, worms, ants, bumblebees, various spiders, flies, butterflies, dragonflies and other insects. Not everyone knows that the latter concept has a huge classification.
Do you also know that insects with a complete transformation include not only butterflies so beloved by us and our children, but also ordinary fleas? Let's understand in more detail.
Insects with complete conversion include ...
It is impossible not to mention another view. Insects with complete transformation include all those who carry out very complex changes to an adult from a larva through a pupa.
The pupa is distinguished by pronounced apathy. She does not eat anything and is motionless. In rare cases, the pupa may be inactive, and only occasionally certain groups of insects develop through the active phase.
Such exceptions include, for example, well-known and few-loved mosquitoes (dipteran insects, a group of long-nosed), for example. By the way, these are some of the oldest insects. Fossil mosquitoes were found in cultural strata of the Cretaceous period. Today in the world there are more than 3 thousand varieties. And in Europe there are more than 100 species of mosquitoes.
An adult insect is called an imago. Do not be surprised to find this term in any description of the species.
Insects with complete conversion include such units as:
- fan-winged;
- about a series of dipterans;
- flea;
- in camels;
- b winged;
- o a sequence of hymenoptera;
- with red-winged wings;
- about a set of beetles;
- with a corporate lady;
- p students;
- about a bunch of lepidopterans.
general characteristics
Thus, most of the Earth's insects develop. They are characterized by a complete dissimilarity between the larva and the adult. They can differ not only externally, but also by their habitat and food intake. This is not an accident, but only one of the indicators of how much everything in nature is thought out and harmonious. Such a division of the spheres of interest of two forms of the same insect completely removes the unequal rivalry between them.
Such larvae go through one or several molting periods, grow to a certain size, and then pass to the pupal stage, which is most often characterized by low activity or even complete immobility. And already from it an adult insect is formed - an imago.
Common misconceptions
One of the most common misconceptions is that most of us know only butterflies - the most striking representatives of insects with a complete transformation. However, a very large number of bugs and others around us also boast the creation of a chrysalis.
Orthopterans are often related to insects with complete conversion. However, from a biological point of view, this is not entirely true. Officially, these orders are nevertheless classified as belonging to an incomplete transformation, despite the presence of some kind of pupa in several species.
The detachment, which includes jumping animals such as locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, and even bears, does not create immobile and inactive pupae. Their life cycle consists in the fact that eggs laid, often into the soil, release a young individual from themselves, very close in appearance to the imago. In the subsequent period, the individual only develops, one or several molting periods can take place, but it does not fundamentally transform.
This is also characteristic of other representatives, therefore it can be concluded that the orthopterans are mistaken for insects with complete conversion. Diptera is another species. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between them.
Two winged
What else is worth knowing? We have already figured out that the orthopterans are mistaken for insects with a complete transformation. Dipterans, including such well-known representatives as flies, mosquitoes and midges, go through a life cycle that includes a pupa. Therefore, they are assigned to units with a complete transformation.
Diperologists - scientists studying exactly dipterans - have described more than 150 thousand species, including fossils. This is probably the most common detachment of insects. They live everywhere: in the hot climate of equatorial Africa, and on icy Antarctica.
For insects with complete transformation, dipteran squads are not just. They form as many as two different kinds of pupae. The first type, a glued pupa, has all the signs of an adult. The second is long-nosed.
Dipterans are very important for agriculture. Pollination of most cultivated plants occurs with their help. However, some individuals, especially blood-sucking ones, are carriers of serious diseases such as malaria or various types of fever.
Winged
Coleopterans are insects with complete conversion. They are also known to us under the name beetles.
For example, May bugs belong to insects with a complete transformation. Chafer beetle forms a chrysalis, which takes the form of the so-called free. Outwardly, it is very similar to imago, it differs only in the shape of its wings and head and the presence of a “cradle”.
Beetles are quite diverse. Among them there are both predators and vegetarians who eat exclusively plant foods. Also among the beetles there are carrion eaters.
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera belong to insects with complete transformation. This incomprehensible name hides everyone's favorite butterflies.
They deserved this name for the special structure of the wings, covered with very small chitinous plates that refract light. It is they who create unique colors with which these insects delight the eye.
Like everything in nature, the coloring of the wings is of great importance in the life cycle of Lepidoptera. This is not only a disguise and protection from enemies. By color, butterflies are also able to recognize different species.
An adult eats nectar of flowers, while a caterpillar larva eats directly the leaves and stems of plants.
The uniqueness of butterflies is also that it is one of the few insects that a person does not breed for the purpose of bait or nutrition. Silkworms are used to make fabrics. This is the only type of insect that is not found in free form in wildlife.
Hymenoptera
The most famous group in our region. We are well acquainted with such representatives of Hymenoptera as wasps and bees. Surprisingly, ants also belong to this order, despite the fact that some of their species do not have wings.
People benefit
It is well known that everything in nature is harmonious and thought out. There are no insects that would not play their own role in the life chain of their region. However, far from all benefit a person. Many beetles and caterpillars are the enemy of agriculture, it is with them that agronomists and scientists fight. Nevertheless, many insects are simply indispensable in human life and bring invaluable benefits.
Some insects people themselves cultivate. Who has not tried honey from apiaries? But honey bees produce it.
The benefits of many insects are used by humans. For example, predatory bugs repel caterpillars that harm plantations. And everyone's favorite ladybugs eat harmful aphids.
Insects also perform some sanitary function, for example, dung beetles and their larvae process manure.
Although the larvae of butterflies - caterpillars - are very harmful to agriculture, their plants pollinate adults, and this is an undeniable benefit. The same goes for hymenoptera.
By the way...
As you can see, nature is rich in various types of insects of different species. We consider some of them annoying and disgusting. But without evolution, evolution was impossible. In ancient times, people prescribed divine qualities to some insects. Statues of gods with insect heads can often be found in ancient museums in various parts of the world. I must say that in the Bible the second coming of Christ is described by total changes in nature, one of which should be the invasion of locusts.