I don't quite understand the way of life and entertainment of post-90s girls when they were young, anyway, when I was a boy, I often ran to my rural hometown, jumped with my friends all over the mountains, and went up the tree and down the river, and cut down trees to make slingshots, gyroscopes and other toys.
At that time, the ecology of the countryside was particularly good, and you could see all kinds of small animals anywhere outside, and it was inevitable to deal with them. When I was a child, I was not very bold, and I did not dare to use the lighter to roast grasshoppers and praying mantises like my friends, and at most eat some fried golden cicadas.
But I grew up observing all kinds of animals, so I spent more time studying the various insects, amphibians and reptiles in nature than my friends. What I want to explain to you today is about the insects that I often saw when I was a child, and they are more special.
Chinese knife mantis Tenodera sinensis
First of all, we need to know that insects are currently the largest number and widest range of animal groups in the world, the number one family on the earth, and new insect species are discovered every three to five years.
They are small, adaptable, short-lived, and reproduce quickly, and unlike those large animals, many wild animals are difficult to see in cities today, but whether you live in the mountains or in the metropolis, insects can be seen every day.
Especially in the summer, moths and beetles attracted by the light, moths and midges attracted by the sewers, fruit flies attracted by fruits, mosquitoes attracted by people... The numbers are uncountable.
But from another point of view, these seemingly weak creatures can live in the same environment as us, and it is difficult to be eliminated, which can actually show their strength.
Larva of the yellow-spined moth Monema flavescens
Because insects are too small, they must have the means to protect themselves in order to survive smoothly.
Some insects have offensive weapons, such as the praying mantis in the first picture, and it does hurt enough to be clipped by its forelimbs. Some insects have powerful jaws, such as the Celestial Bull, and it really hurts to be accidentally bitten.
There are also some insects that are not aggressive but have a strong defense mechanism, such as the larvae of the stinging moth in the picture above, which are called many in the folk: foreign spicy seeds, foreign thorns, live spicy seeds, star anise and so on.
There are many kinds of stinging moths, and the larval forms are also different, but they are all famous for the existence of the earthquake, once their spiny hairs are stained on the skin, it is guaranteed to be sour and refreshing, and people with poor physique can not recover for a week, which makes people retreat (but some areas will make the larvae of the stinging moth into canned food).
There is also a class of insects that do not have large teeth, pincers and thorns, but when they encounter danger, they will emit a strange smell and make the enemy feel frightened. There are too many insects with this skill, and I will only select five more representative ones for you to introduce.
Field turtle Lethocerus sp.
<h1>1. Erthesina fullo</h1>
Ma Pi Bug, also known as Yellow Spot Black Bug, is the most common and well-known bug insect in the north and south of China' great river, and its nicknames in the folk are stinky big sister, stinky fart worm, stinky old ghost, etc., no matter what nickname is highlighted a stinky word.
In fact, many insects in the order Hemiptera and Heteroptera have the nickname of "stink bug", but the hemp skin bug is the most widely known of all the stink bugs. My hometown is in the north of the mountains, we manage the hemp skin bugs called "stinky big sister", the popularity is very wide, when I was a child, the smelly big sister came in at home, did not dare to use flies to beat, but chose to use insecticides or mop to kill them.
In fact, if you don't touch it, the hemp skin bug will not have a peculiar smell, but once it encounters danger, the stink glands in the hemp skin bug will secrete an unforgettable odor, which needs to be cleaned for a long time.
Erthesina fullo
<h1>2. Lithopod Tessaratoma papillosa</h1>
Lychee bugs are also called lychee bugs, friends in the north may not have seen much, but in the south of China, especially in the southeast coastal areas, lychee bugs are a well-known insect.
However, the adult insects and nymphs of the lychee bugs look very different, it is possible that everyone has seen the bright color of the lychee nymphs in the lychee tree or the longan tree, but the adult insects of the lychees are not linked, and they will mistakenly think that they are two kinds of bugs. The larvae of the lychee bug look like a flat shield plate, the edge of the shield plate is gray, the inside is bright red, there is a vertical white strip in the middle, and the back half of the body has a V-shaped white spot, the edge of the white spot is black, and the color scheme is very exaggerated.
Another more annoying behavior of the lychee bug is that it likes to lay eggs on the clothes and quilts that humans hang outside, and you can't drive it away directly, because the stink glands of the lychee bug are also quite developed, and smelling a nose can damage eight hundred years of Yang life.
Lithopod Tessaratoma papillosa
<h1>3. Cydnidae earth bugs</h1>
Why are there latin two-name names for both the hemp bug and the lily bug, but there is only one loneLy Latin word here?
Because the hemp skin bug and the lychee bug are specific single species, so the two-name method is used to describe the specific species, and the earth bug refers to the Cydnidae species of the earth bug family under the heteroptera, there are many common species, and the appearance is not much different, so I took out the entire earth bug family.
Earth bugs usually live under the bricks or in the soil of the green belt, should have been at peace with humans, but if there is a windy and rainy weather, the earth bugs will be because the nest is watered and come out collectively after the rain to hide, so sometimes people can not see the earth bugs for several years, but after the typhoon day, the home will be invaded by many earth bugs at once.
The smell of the earth bug's stink glands is strange, some people find it strange, others they feel the smell of apples.
Marcroscytus sp.
<h1>4. Grasshopper Chrysopidae</h1>
Grasshoppers can refer to thousands of species under the Grasshoppidae family, and there are many common species in China, so write out the family name like the earth bug, without giving a representative example.
When I was in elementary school, I saw a small green and green flying insect on the classroom window, I didn't know it at the time, so I asked the nature teacher what kind of bug it was, and the nature teacher pondered for half a day and told me that it was an ephemera, and extended a wonderful topic about "ephemera towards life and twilight death", the effect was full of points, and the applause was thunderous.
But then when I started teaching myself zoology books out of interest in high school, I learned that the nature teacher had beaten me up, and it wasn't an ephemera at all, but a grasshopper.
The two pairs of wings of the grasshopper are transparent, the wing veins are pale green, the whole body is also green, the compound eyes are metallic, the picture below is like this, I believe everyone has seen it. Grasshoppers also have stink glands on their chests, which emit a sour smell when stimulated, which is very unpleasant.
There is another thing to say about grasshoppers, that is, the eggs of grasshoppers are very special, the eggs themselves are ellipsoidal, but they are connected to the surface of the carrier by a filament that is close to vertical, which looks like a mini bud, and is often regarded as a "god flower" or "Uzu Borneo flower" by the melon-eating masses who do not know the truth, which is known as the egg of the grasshopper for thousands of years.
Common grasshopper Chrysoperla carnea
<h1>5. Ladybug Coccinellidae</h1>
Ladybugs are more familiar to everyone, commonly known as red brides, flower sisters, fairy tale picture books often appear, the famous children's program host "Scarab Beetle" is actually a ladybug. Ladybugs are actually a relatively large family, and more than 5,000 species have been found.
In terms of diet, ladybirds are carnivorous, such as the most famous seven-star ladybird and heterochromatic ladybird; there are also plant-eating, such as eight-star ladybird and eggplant twenty-eight star ladybird; there are also fungal food, such as the twelve-spotted brown ladybird.
Some species of ladybugs secrete yellow-brown body fluids at the joints after being stimulated, which are slightly sticky, have a pungent odor, and are unpleasant and unsightly. But not all ladybugs will do this, and some ladybugs are very good at pretending to be dead, with six lower legs shrinking and motionless, and will not return to normal until the danger has passed.
Heterochromatic ladybird Hamonia axyridis