Insects are the largest class of animals. It includes more than 1 million species. Insects live everywhere: in forests, gardens, meadows, fields, vegetable gardens, on livestock farms, in human homes. They can be found in ponds and lakes, on the body of animals.

The body of insects consists of a head, thorax and abdomen. There are a pair of compound eyes on the head, a pair of antennae, three pairs of legs on the chest, and most have one or two pairs of wings, and spiracles on the sides of the abdomen.

Insects differ in the shape of their body parts, the size of their eyes, the length and shape of their antennae and other characteristics. Their antennae, mouthparts, and legs are especially diverse. Some insects have lamellar antennae (many beetles), others have filamentous antennae (grasshoppers), others have feathery or club-shaped antennae (butterflies), etc. The mouthparts can be gnawing, like those of cockchafers, piercing-sucking, like mosquitoes, sucking, like butterflies, etc. The hind legs of grasshoppers are jumping, while those of swimming beetles are swimming; The front legs of the mole cricket are digging. All these and other structural features have developed in insects in connection with adaptation to certain living conditions.

Peculiarities internal structure insects

associated mainly with the respiratory, excretory and nervous systems. The respiratory organs of insects - the trachea - are highly branched. In small insects, gas exchange occurs by diffusion. Large insects ventilate the trachea (when the abdominal walls relax, air is sucked into the trachea, and when contracted, it exits into external environment). The excretory organs of insects are numerous tubes, the free ends of which are closed. The excretory products entering them flow into the posterior intestine. Insects have fat cells that store nutrients and water. Some substances unnecessary for the body are deposited in them.

Differences in the nervous system of insects are associated with the enlargement of the suprapharyngeal nerve ganglion (it is often called the brain), a decrease in the number and enlargement of the nodes of the ventral nerve chain. The more complex structure of the nervous system is manifested in the complexity of insect behavior. A bee, for example, having found flowering nectar-bearing plants, upon returning to the hive, crawls on the honeycomb, “dances,” describing certain figures, by which other bees establish the direction to the place of honey collection. The ants close the entrances to the anthill at night, bring wet needles to the surface, and after drying, drag them into the depths of the anthill.

Types of insect development.

Insects are dioecious animals. In some insects (locusts, bedbugs), fertilized eggs laid by females develop into larvae that are similar in appearance to adults. Feeding heavily, they grow, molt several times and become adult insects. In other insects (butterflies, beetles, flies), the larvae are not similar in appearance and nutrition to adults. The larvae of the cabbage butterfly, for example, are worm-like and do not feed on nectar, like butterflies, but on cabbage leaves. Their mouthparts are not sucking, but gnawing. After several molts, the caterpillars turn into pupae that do not feed or move, but complex changes occur under their chitinous cover. After some time, the pupa’s body cover bursts and an adult insect emerges.

Development that occurs in three phases, and the insect larvae are similar to adults, is called incomplete transformation. The development of insects, which occurs in four phases (including the pupal phase), and the larvae do not resemble adults, is called complete metamorphosis.

Development with transformation makes it possible for insects to survive under unfavorable living conditions ( low temperature, lack of food) at one or another less vulnerable stage of development. Insects with complete metamorphosis have the greatest advantages. Their larvae do not compete with adults: they usually use different food and develop in different habitats.

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Science currently knows about 1 million species of insects, and, according to experts, the total number of species reaches 10 million. Every year from 3 to 10 thousand new species are described. Most discoveries are made in tropical regions that are poorly studied and richest in insects, however, there are enough “white spots” in Siberia, and the list of Siberian insect species is updated every year. Thus, insects are the largest group of organisms currently living on Earth. There are more of them than other animals and plants combined.

Insects are divided into 32 orders, of which the most numerous are beetles (Coleoptera), belonging to 125 families, including 500,000 species. In fact, every fourth of all animals is a beetle.

The distribution of insects is very uneven. For example, approximately 40 thousand species live in India, and only about 450 species live in Greenland. Insects are found in the polar zones of the Arctic and Antarctic, which are active during the short period of the polar summer.

The oldest insects
Rhyniella procursor was found in Tayside, Scotland, with an estimated age of 370,000,000 years; Sphecomyrma freyi (1967), found in New Jersey, USA, estimated to be 110,000,000 years old; Archeolepis (1985, moth), found on the Dorset coast, England, estimated to be 180,000,000 years old.

Insects are the first living creatures,
which appeared on Earth more than 400 million years ago. Since then, they have survived five massive disasters and have proven to be more resilient than tyrannosaurs.

Number of insects
The estimated number of insect species, according to various estimates, ranges from 3 to 30 million species. There are approximately 250 million insects for every person on Earth. Scientists estimate that there are another 5-10 million species unknown to science.

Insects underfoot
On the planet, more than 26 billion insects live in inhabited areas in every square mile. In a mixed forest, there are from 500 to 6000 individuals of various insects per 1 sq. km of area. The biomass of insects per 1 hectare of forest is 100-200 kg. In the steppe, 2 million insects of 340 species live on 1 hectare of area, and on the same area of ​​​​a wheat field there are already 3.5 million, but only 142 species.

The number of insects that gather in large clusters

...simply amazing. In 1943, Professor Salt established that an acre of arable land in Great Britain contained over 1,000,000,000 arthropods (Arthropods), of which 400,000,000 were insects and 666,000,000 were mites, the remaining 38,000,000 were millipedes (Myriapoda, in including Centipeda and Millipeda). One scientist believed that on one square meter arable land in Iowa 100,000,000 Springtails. In Africa, Orthoptera insects (namely the locust Schistocerca gregaria) gather in flocks of 28,000,000,000 individuals. While one locust weighs 2.5 g, the entire swarm weighs 70,000 tons.

Ant colonies are home to about 50 members, but the famous supercolony of the Japanese ant Formica yessensis, which is located on the coast of one of the Japanese islands, has 1,080,000 queens and 306,000,000 worker ants living in 45,000 interconnected anthills.
According to scientists, 30% of the biomass that makes up all the animals in the Amazon basin is ants. Other researchers estimate that ants make up 10% of the biomass worldwide, with termites accounting for the other 10%. Thus, these insects account for 20% of the biomass on the planet.

Where do insects live?

The ancestors of insects were already terrestrial organisms, which is why there are no inhabitants of seas and oceans among them. The water bug - the sea water strider (Halobates) - is perhaps the only insect currently known to live in the sea.
Larvae of flies (Diptera) and beetles (Coleoptera) live in coastal waters near rocky shores.

Ephydra flies colonize the most unusual habitats - the larva of Ephydra hyans lives in Mono Lake (California), which has the same salinity as the Dead Sea. Psilopa larvae live in oil pools, and Scatella thermarum larvae and adults are found in Iceland during the short summer. Adult insects Scatella thermarum live on the surface of masses of plankton that drift across the world's oceans, larvae live in the lower layer of plankton and in the water nearby, and can exist at a water temperature of +480C. People are like that hot water can't stand it.

Widest habitat

The American white butterfly Hyphantria cunea, a member of the bear family, is a pest of all insects and has the widest habitat. Its caterpillar feeds on 636 species of plants that grow in different parts of the world globe. It is inferior to the gypsy moth butterfly and the Japanese beetle. The gypsy moth butterfly feeds on plants whose parts contain tannin.

Insect color vision
Insects enjoy the diversity of colors on the planet. They have color vision - a rarity in the animal world.

Blood is white
Adult insects have tracheal breathing, and their hemolymph is colorless, as it carries gases. True, some mosquito larvae have bright red blood due to hemoglobin.

Upper limit of hearing in insects
Daytime peacock eye caterpillar 1,000 Hz Grasshopper 90,000 Hz.

Animal with the biggest brain

The animal with the largest brain in relation to its body is the ant.

Insects are carnivorous
About a third of all insects are carnivores, and most hunt for food rather than feed on carrion and waste.

Records of the world of insects

One of the reasons species diversity insects - their small size. The most common sizes of insects are from 3 to 20 mm. The smallest, such as beetles, do not exceed 0.2 mm, which is not much larger than a slipper ciliate. However, in the world of insects there are also real giants.

Title the most massive insect belongs to the Actaeon beetle (Megasoma acteon) from South America, the males of which have a body 9 cm long and 5 cm wide with a thickness of 4 The largest insect - the true weta (Deinacrida heteracantha) - lives in New Zealand. Its weight is up to 80 g, the size is the size of a mouse. The world's largest beetle is a rare insect from South America, the lumberjack titan, 160 mm, sometimes reaching 220 mm in length (not counting the antennae). The Hercules beetle Dynastes hercules also reaches a length of 16 cm, but is inferior to the woodcutter in weight.

The longest insects– tropical stick insects belonging to the order of ghosts – (Plasmodea) - have a length of up to 33 cm. Female stick insect Pharnacia kirbyi may have a body over 36 cm long. This stick insect lives in the rain forests of. Kalimantan (Borneo). Some butterflies have a wingspan of 32 cm and cover an area of ​​over 300 sq. km. They can be considered the largest insects.

And although the giants of the insect world live in the tropics, in our country there are also large insects: swallowtail butterflies, some peacock eyes And cocoon worms, ground beetles from the genus Carabus, swimmers(Dytiscus), some barbel(black fir, aspen creaking, etc.), May beetle, large pine borer, rocker dragonflies, grasshoppers, broad-winged rattlefish.

The smallest insect

Record holders for the number of wing flaps
Tiny stinging insects biting midges, flap their wings at an incredible speed of 62,760 times per minute.

Insect Abilities

Insects are perfectly adapted to living on land. Their bodies cope well with one of the main problems of living in a terrestrial environment - protection from drying out, which is achieved by several degrees of protection and saving moisture. First of all, this is the presence of the epicuticle, a thin wax-like film on the surface of the integument, which prevents the evaporation of water. Air exchange is carried out very economically: tracheal breathing is more efficient than pulmonary breathing and conserves moisture, since the respiratory openings (spiracles) are very small in size and can be closed. In the Malpighian vessels, which make up the excretory system of insects, uric acid crystals are produced, which bind a minimal amount of water. Moreover, in the hindgut of insects there are special rectal glands that suck water from the formed excrement and return it to the body cavity. And finally, the eggs of many insects are also well protected from moisture loss.

Smell and vision

In the sexual behavior of insects main role the sense of smell plays. For example, a male silkworm(Bombyx mori) flies from afar to the smell of a female, but does not react at all to the female herself, who is nearby under a glass cover. But in the lives of some species, vision is more important. For example, a male firefly (Photinus) in flight sends flashes of light into space every 5-6 seconds, and a wingless female sends response light signals, indicating its location. In general, the eyes of insects receive a clear image of an object from a distance of 10 cm, but react to other people’s movements from 2 m.

How do insects breathe?

Insects do not have lungs, and their body is supplied with oxygen through microscopic pores in the chitinous shell. The chitinous shell is a kind of distributed lung. Insects' breathing resembles that of mammals, with their tracheal tubes rapidly compressing and unclenching, providing 50% oxygen renewal within one second (this is, for example, the rate of a person performing moderate-intensity exercise).

Jumping Champion

Six-millimeter penny cicada (Philaenus spumarius) can jump to a height of 20 centimeters, which in human equivalent is 210 meters. The athletic abilities of this insect are unparalleled. The powerful, muscular limbs of cicadas act on the principle of a catapult - they straighten out at a speed of four thousand meters per second and send the beetle high up. Their jump is higher than that of a flea, and they also accelerate their much heavier body four times faster.

Best runner

American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana)- large (almost four centimeters long) red creatures are the fastest runners of all land insects. In 1991, a world record was set: a representative of Periplaneta americana reached a speed of 5.4 km/h or 50 cockroach body lengths per second! But his uniqueness is by no means limited to his sprinting abilities.

Flight speed

Among all invertebrates, only insects have wings and have mastered the air environment. Flight is an efficient and economical means of transportation. The ability of insects to disperse is impressive. The migrations of migratory locusts, described in the Bible, are especially well known. Locusts easily cross the Mediterranean Sea, and swarms of flying locusts have been observed from ships a thousand kilometers from the coast.

There is reliable data regarding the flight speed of locusts Schistocerca gregaria– 33 km/h and bollworm Helicoverpa zea – 28 km/h. Many insects fly faster, but there is no verified data on them. The highest speed is in the upsilon moth Agrotis ipsilon, which can reach 97 and even 113 km/h. The flight speed of an insect depends on its mass, air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed, oxygen saturation of the air, flight angle and even habitat isolation.

Flight speed of some insects: km/h

Hornet - 25.2
Bee - 22.4
Horsefly - 22.4
Locust - 16
Carrion fly - 11
Wasp - 9
Khrushch - 9
Cabbage - 9
Housefly - 6.4
Malaria mosquito - 3.2
Bumblebee – 3
One-day event – ​​1.8
Grasshopper – 1.8

Reproduction intensity

The shorter the life of an insect, the faster it becomes sexually mature and bears offspring, the faster it adapts to changes natural environment, including insecticides. The intensity of reproduction depends on two factors: environmental temperature and food abundance. The highest intensity of reproduction in homoptera is in aphids. Rhopalosiphum prunifolia generation can be produced in 4.7 days at 25 C. high speed Other aphids, scale insects and leafhoppers also reproduce. (Aphidina and Cicadina), related to Homoptera

Breeding champion

One aphid (Hyalopterus) over the summer it produces 12 parthenogenetic generations of 50 individuals each. The biological potential of aphids is 5015 individuals. With an unlimited amount of food and the absence of predators, the mass of descendants of one cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae) in one year could amount to 822 million tons, which is three times the mass of the entire human population of the globe. The mass of the offspring of one aphid will be comparable to the mass of 3 billion people.

Two penises, one spare
The male earwig has two penises, each longer than the earwig itself. These organs are very fragile and break easily, which is why the insect is born with a spare one.

Butterfly's plume

The luxurious plume of the male Saturnia butterfly serves to capture odorous pheromone molecules.

The passion of a male emperor moth can take him very far, approximately two kilometers. It is at this distance that they feel their future girlfriend. This is the power of love.

Born only after 17 years

The breeding cycle of the seventeen-year cicada living in the southern United States is unusual. From the eggs laid by the female on plants, larvae emerge, which burrow into the soil and live there, feeding on plant roots, for 17 years. And only then the cicadas, resulting from the larvae, come out in masses and begin to reproduce. So for this species, the breeding season occurs once every 17 years.

The smallest eggs

Insect cloned

Ability to tolerate dehydration

As a result of laboratory tests, it was found that the African chironomid insect Polypedilum vanderplanki(Diptera) can tolerate dehydrogenation in liquid helium at -270 C. Chironomid caterpillars, Polypedilum vanderplanki Hinton, breed in shallow pools in the rocky mountains of Northern Nigeria and Uganda, exposed to the sun. These insects survive when their puddles dry up. The insect Polypedilum vanderplanki is the only species that is adapted to survive when the body dries out, as a result of which it retains less than 3% of the fluid in the body. Some organs in insects can also suffer severe dehydration.

The most bloodthirsty insect

This tiny insect is a water beetle. It is found in the Middle and Southern Europe, especially in places where rivers flow into the Danube, in lakes, canals and swamps of the Balkans. Thanks to its aerodynamic body shape and oar-like legs, it is considered an excellent swimmer. The aquatic organisms it attacks - from plankton, all types of small aquatic animals and worms to large fish - become its inevitable victims.

But the beetle larva is even more bloodthirsty. She has no mouth, but she does have two unusual jaws protruding from her flattened head. In essence, these are the joints of the open claws with which the larva grabs its prey. But this is also the most amazing tool created by nature - forceps, which are equipped with double tubes of injection syringes. Syringes that simultaneously serve to inject a poisonous injection and suck out the contents of the victim.

The larva rushes at the victim and sprays a poisonous composition from its stomach through its claws. The poison kills the victim and the larva, through the same claws, internally absorbs the contents of its prey, otherwise it is digested under the influence of gastric poison. All that remains of the victim is the outer shell, which sinks to the bottom.

Longest diapause

The butterfly yucca moth (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae) has the longest diapause. Adult Yucca baccata (Agavaceae) insects from Nevada emerged from larvae after 19 years, all this time they were monitored in the laboratory.

Super-acute hearing

Ormia's hearing is truly rare: the insect determines the direction of sound with an accuracy of two degrees. A person trying to determine who is speaking in a crowded room won't do any better. The reason is the design of the ormia's ears. The ear that is closer to the sound source responds faster than the other. But due to the fact that the distance between the eardrums is so small, because the size of the head is only half a millimeter, they begin to vibrate in antiphase. Nervous system instantly calculates the pressure difference between them and signals the muscles to react to the sound source. Everything takes about 50 nanoseconds, but in humans it’s a thousand times longer.

Adaptability

In general, insects adapt well to a new environment, much better than warm-blooded animals. Radiation and environmental pollution can lead to mutations in insects, but the likelihood of genetic changes is negligible.

Basement behavior mosquitoes no longer fits into the usual framework for science. Several key features in their lifestyle have changed. Firstly, the capital's mosquito has acquired the ability to live in dirty water. Secondly, to mate, he no longer has to swarm (in nature, mosquitoes form a swarm, where males and females mate, but in basements there is not enough space for this). Finally, female mosquitoes have learned to lay eggs without feeding on blood. The mosquito, having passed the larval-pupa stage, can already give birth to offspring.

Wing vibrations

Insects have different wings, and they vibrate at different frequencies. So, for example, a fly makes 330-350 strokes per second; bee - 300 when it flies with honey, and 440 when it flies without cargo; bumblebees flap their wings 190-240 times per second, and mosquitoes - 500-600 (some species even 1000 times); wasps – 250; horseflies – 100; dragonflies – 40-100; ladybug – 75; Chafer– 45; moths – 35-40; locusts – 20.

Shortest mating behavior

Honey bee Apis mellifera mates on the fly, the female rises into the air, the males rush after her, together they resemble a comet and its tail. The right to mate belongs to the winner who catches up with her, but he pays with his life: mating occurs so quickly that after mating the male does not have time to remove his phallus, and it remains in the body of the uterus, the male dies.

New insect order Mantophosmatodea discovered

A new order of insects has been found in the mountains of Namibia. This is the first discovery of its kind in 80 years. Mantophosmatodea is the 31st known insect order. Two of its representatives, which fell into the hands of researchers, are about 2 cm long and resemble a hybrid of a cricket and a stick insect. Judging by the structure oral apparatus and leftover food in the stomach, they are predators that eat other insects. Mantophosmatodea were first described by Oliver Zompro, a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology, who discovered the fossilized remains of these insects in pieces of Baltic amber. The age of the find is about 45 million years. Then the existence of living representatives of this order in the Brandberg mountain range in western Namibia was announced by employees of the National Museum of this country from Windhoek. An international expedition confirmed the information.

Insect cloned

Canadians were the first to clone an insect. It was a fruit fly (Drosophila). Previous attempts to clone insects have ended in failure. Nuclei extracted from embryonic cells were used. Embryonic cells, unlike adult ones, are much easier to “reprogram”, which significantly increases the chances of success. However, out of 800 attempts to clone Drosophila undertaken by researchers, the desired result was achieved in only five.

On average, a person eats 70 insects in a lifetime.

Lifespan of insects

The ephemeral (adult) has an average lifespan of 1-3 days, with a maximum record of 20 days. Among domestic bees, the queen lives for 3 years, with a maximum of 5 years. But a worker bee lives 40 days in summer and 9 months in winter. The ant lives 5-7 days. Its maximum lifespan is 18 days.

What insects do people eat?

Grasshoppers and locusts
Insects are food rich in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. They are considered a delicacy in Thailand, where fried crickets and locusts are popular.

Witchetti larvae
Best eaten alive. Ten large larvae provide the adult with all the proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The Aborigines prepare wood larvae "witchetti" by rolling them in hot ashes. Thus, they taste like an omelette.

Insects

Target. To provide knowledge about the rules of behavior when meeting different insects, to form ideas about a variety of insects.

Material. Pictures with images of different insects, pictures with the habitat of these insects, workbook.

Keywords: insects live next to other living inhabitants, different insects.

The lesson can be carried out in the form of a game-trip to the meadow: “Let's get to know our neighbors”, working with tasks in a workbook.

Questions for children

1. What insects do you know?
2. When do insects appear?
3. Where do insects live?
4. How are insects different from birds?
5. What happens if there are no insects?

Game "Who Lives Where"

Children are divided into two groups. Some hold pictures of insect habitats, others hold pictures of insects. At the signal “Go home!” each insect must “fly” into its “home”.

Game “Guess what insect this is”(describe the characteristic features of the intended insect).

Puzzles

Not a bird, but with wings.
Flying over the flowers
The honey is collected. (Bee.)

You can't see yourself, but you can hear the song. (Mosquito.)

I work in an artel at the roots of a shaggy spruce.
I’m dragging a log over the hills - it’s bigger than a carpenter. (Ant.)

In the clearing, near the fir trees,
The house is built of needles
He is not visible behind the grass,
And there are a million residents there. (Anthill.)

Winged fashionista, striped dress.
Even though he is small in size, if he bites, it will be bad. (Wasp.)

Not an animal, not a bird - the nose is like a knitting needle. (Mosquito.)

Who's upside down above us? (Flies on the ceiling.)

Proverb

One bee does not produce much honey.

Poetry

Ant
An ant in a meadow drags logs by weight,
I run to him quickly: “Let me help you!”
The ant answers: “It’s hard, but I can carry it myself!”
I. Andenko

Ants can't be lazy
The ant lives by labor:
It drags both the bug and the caterpillar
To your underground home.

How can you see that he is in a hurry
He goes his own way.
Don't hurt him.
Don't touch him!
Ali Bobajan

Folk signs

1. Before the rain, ants hide in the anthill and clog all the entrances to it.
2. There are no mosquitoes - there will be no oats or herbs.
3. When mosquitoes appear, it’s time to sow rye.

Notes to educators

Two million species of insects live on our planet, more than all other animals and plants combined. They live in the soil, on the ground, in the water, in the air - everywhere. There are large insects (butterflies, beetles) and small ones. The most important sensory organ in insects is the whiskers. They are very diverse. The bell mosquito has shaggy antennae, the fly's antennae are short and with swellings, like a file, and the click beetle's mustache is like a comb. And all this is intended for a specific purpose.

The mouth of insects is also different for everyone and depends on their diet. The nectar-loving butterfly has a long proboscis. A biting mosquito pierces the skin of an elephant with its proboscis. Everyone has the same sharp proboscis blood-sucking insects(midges, horse flies, mosquitoes, etc.). The housefly has a retractable proboscis on its head.

Insects have poor vision, and some have no eyes at all. But the dragonfly's eyes occupy almost the entire head, and each eye consists of a great many ocelli.

The wings of flying insects are very strong. The thin and tedious squeak of a flying mosquito is the singing of wings working with enormous speed.

Kids are attracted to everything living and moving; they want to explore this world. Children often pick up various insects, not knowing that they can kill them, but at the same time they themselves can suffer from their bites. The task of teachers is to introduce children to the insects around them and the rules of behavior when meeting them.

Ants live not only in anthills, but also in tree trunks, underground, and in flower stems. An ant heap is just top part anthill Its main part goes deep underground. Ants are friends to humans: they save the forest. Where anthills rise like watchtowers, the forest is healthy and clean. When an ant bites, it releases acid (formic acid), which burns severely.

The first bumblebees appear early in the spring. When willows bloom, bumblebees will definitely find themselves on their earrings, since flowering willows give a rich tribute of sweet nectar, which is very necessary for insects at a time when there are no other flowers. Bumblebees build nests in the ground in old mouse or mole holes or other depressions. Bumblebees are excellent pollinators of plants, especially clover.

Wasps. The sharp sting is their formidable weapon, hidden at the end of the abdomen. The wasps all stick together. Common wasps They build their nests in attics, on tree or bush branches, and in hollows. These nests look like large balls of gray cardboard. The wasp slowly crawls along a dry log - it scrapes with its jaws and then mixes a lump of scraped wood with saliva. Wasps love sweets, but in general they are predators; they are excellent at catching flies and horseflies.

Bees are hard workers. One bee visits up to 7 thousand flowers per working day. The bee has its own ways of communicating: with a special dance - circling - the scout bee reports where a lot of pollen can be collected. The buzzing of bees also has a certain meaning. Scientists are now working to solve it. A bee sting is very painful. Bee products: honey, wax, propolis, bee venom are medicines for diseases.

When mosquitoes bite a wound, they release saliva, which causes severe itching, and after the bite of a malaria mosquito, the causative agents of a serious disease, malaria, can enter the blood along with the saliva. Mosquito larvae live in water: in puddles, ponds, even in footprints from people's boots or animal hooves filled with water. In the forest, to protect against mosquitoes, they wear mosquito nets or use ointments that repel insects.

The housefly is ubiquitous. Fly larvae live in the depths of rotting remains. They usually inhabit food waste in garbage containers, garbage dumps, and landfills. Fly larvae can also develop in food waste in an apartment (at the bottom of garbage cans, etc.). Houseflies spread pathogens of various diseases, mainly intestinal and eye infections, as well as the virus of such a serious disease as polio. House flies find food by smell.

Rules of conduct when encountering insects

If you see a wasp nest, watch its inhabitants from afar, do not touch it under any circumstances, otherwise the wasps will fly out and sting anywhere. There are also poisonous glands near their sting, so the stung area swells greatly. And small animals can be stung to death by wasps.

If a bee flies near you, try to be calm, do not wave your arms, move to another place. Do not rush to kill a bee if it suddenly stings you, since the chemical compound from the body of a killed insect, when released into the air, puts all nearby relatives into a very aggressive state: the bees in this case sting all living things in their path. If a bee sting remains after a bee sting, it must be removed and the stung area should be wiped with a soda solution.

If you meet an ant on the way, do not touch it, observe what it drags along the path to the anthill, what is the size and color of this ant. By watching ants, you can understand what amazing creatures these little ants are. If you don't bother them, they won't bite you.

Massive mosquito attacks on humans can cause severe poisoning and even death. Therefore, you need to protect yourself from mosquitoes by using ointments that repel insects. The greatest number of mosquitoes fly in the evening, after sunset, or in the morning, after sunrise. During the day, mosquitoes sit in dense vegetation, tree hollows, cracks and other shelters. But in the forest, mosquitoes attack throughout the day.

To get rid of flies, you must not leave rotting food and sewage, which are suitable for the development of fly larvae, you must observe sanitary rules related to maintaining cleanliness in the premises and throughout the territory.

Where do insects live? The distribution of insects is very uneven, so in a nutshell you cannot tell about all the habitats of insects. There are habitats that are quite unusual, in addition to the well-known and familiar fields and forests. There is a whole series of only partially touching worlds in which the levels of radiation, temperature, humidity are different, completely different from what is known or familiar to us.
Among insects, even each individual often lives in its own, special world, almost unconnected with its neighbor. In addition, the huge variety of sensory organs of insects, their difference from human ones, indicates how far these small creatures of nature are from us in terms of development. Although many insects live side by side with humans, they see different colors, hear different sounds, feel different temperatures, perceiving all this in other ways, guided by some more reliable stimuli that are not available to us. Which in turn allows insects to choose the most unusual places a habitat.
So, where do insects live? The ancestors of insects were terrestrial organisms, which is why among them there are very few inhabitants of the seas and oceans. Such as the water bug - the sea water strider (Halobates) and adult insects of the species Scatella thermarum live on the surface of masses of plankton that drift across the world's oceans. Interestingly, the larvae of Scatella thermarum live in the lower layer of plankton or in the water near it, and the water temperature there reaches +480C. Apart from them, only some heat-loving bacteria are able to withstand such high temperatures. People cannot stand such temperatures.
There are quite a lot of insect species in fresh water, in its upper layers. To breathe, these insects must come to the surface more or less regularly and stock up on air.
Insects also live in other liquids; oil, for example, is the favorite environment of the oil fly of the species Psilopa, which feeds on the corpses of insects caught in oil puddles. True, symbiont bacteria were found in the intestines of this fly that are capable of breaking down oil paraffin and thereby helping its absorption. As you can see, scientists seeking to extract nutrients from oil have their predecessors in insects.

But the land is literally teeming with insects. The bulk burrows into the soil, but shallowly - no more than a few tens of centimeters, since their food most often consists of decomposing plants. Insects are not afraid of the most inhospitable places; even the entomological fauna of deserts is well inhabited. Mostly nocturnal insects live in deserts, since during the day the surface of the soil heats up to about 80 degrees and the movement of any living creature on it, especially creatures, is so small sizes, becomes almost impossible.
Insects that live in deserts leave their burrows only at night to feast on the remains of plants, on which moisture from the air settles during the cool night hours. Termites and ants are more energetic: they dig wells until they reach the groundwater, sometimes going deeper than 36 meters. Then a continuous chain of men and women raises the precious moisture to the surface, and in abundance, so that the termite mound rising among the dry sands is saturated from the inside with moisture: if you squeeze a piece of the inside of the structure in your hand, drops of water will appear.
Where else do insects live? The Arctic zones serve as a haven for a very unpleasant form of midges, the larvae of which survive complete freezing in the cold season without any damage. On the first warm days, myriads of adult, strong individuals emerge from them, making human stay in these areas unbearable.

The class of insects is the most numerous on Earth: it has about one million species. Some of its representatives are considered the oldest inhabitants of the planet. They inhabited it 400 million years ago. This class managed to survive and survive the cataclysms that have happened on Earth more than once. Due to the peculiarities of their life activity, insects today are a progressive group of animals.
The information about insects presented in the specialized literature is striking in the number of unusual and little known facts. These same sources indicate that the life of wildlife on the planet has not been fully studied.

The most important units of the class

The life of insects living on the planet is under the close attention of zoologists. To make it easier to study the animals, they were divided into groups.

The classification was based on the following characteristics:

• nature of development - direct (without metamorphosis), indirect (with metamorphosis);
• structural features of the oral apparatus - sucking, gnawing, licking, gnawing-sucking;
• the presence and structure of wings.

Hymenoptera

Prominent representatives of this order are bumblebees, bees, wasps, and ants. They are characterized by a complete development cycle, the presence of two pairs of reticulated wings, sucking and lapping mouthparts. These animals received another name - social insects.

Their way of life has always been interesting to humans. Today it is known about the existence of twenty thousand species of bees, many of which are domesticated by people to produce such a valuable product as honey.
But not everyone knows that these insects have to work hard throughout their lives. In order for 500 grams of honey to form in a honeycomb, one bee needs to make 10 million flights from the hive to the flower and back. At the same time, a characteristic buzzing sound is heard. It appears because insects cut through the air by flapping their wings frequently. Sometimes their frequency reaches 11,500 strokes per minute. But this is not a record either. There are known stinging insects that are capable of performing more than 62 thousand wing beats in one minute.
Man, having studied the habits of honey bees, learned to create them favorable conditions to receive bee products best quality and in large volumes.
Wasps and bumblebees are also social insects. Their families do not live long - only one summer. Only the young queen remains for the winter; the old one dies. Together with her, at the end of summer, males and working insects end their lives.
Representatives of the order Hymenoptera are excellent pollinators.

Cockroaches

Red and black cockroaches are the main representatives of the squad. They settle in those places where a person stops caring about the cleanliness of his home. These dangerous insects may cause the spread of some infectious diseases. Cockroaches enter places where human food is stored and contaminate them with waste.

A female cockroach can lay about two million eggs per year. From them white small insects similar to adults are born. After some time, they molt, acquiring the coloration of adults.

Lepidoptera

All types of insects belong to the order and always touch the life of this particular group of fauna representatives. Butterflies vary in wing color and size. For example, there are insects that are sometimes mistaken for birds - such is the wingspan of these butterflies.

Some species are only nocturnal. Butterflies are known to taste food in an unusual way- hind legs. The structure of their wings has become the subject of study in more than one scientific laboratory.

Orthoptera

Locusts, crickets and grasshoppers belong to the order of this group and are distinguished by an incomplete development cycle (without transformation), the presence of a gnawing mouthpart, and two pairs of special wings, which scientists call elytra.

The most dangerous insects of this order are locusts. The species has the ability to reproduce massively. Gathering in huge swarms (the number can reach 50 billion individuals), locusts move long distances. All vegetation along the route of the hordes of insects is destroyed. A swarm of locusts eats in one day the same amount of food that a multimillion-dollar city, such as New York, for example, would need for the same period. The damage caused by locusts is, in some cases, irreparable.

Beetles

The order has another name - Coleoptera. Typical representatives include the rhinoceros beetle, chafer, ladybug, ground beetle, weevil and many others. The life of insects of this order is full of mysteries, secrets and legends. About 400 thousand are known on earth. The largest representative of the order, the titan beetle, reaches a length of seventeen centimeters. There are also species whose length is several millimeters.

New interesting facts about insects of this group regularly appear in the literature. For example, the stag beetle grows up to eight centimeters in length. Its larvae develop in rotting tree stumps for five years. During this time they reach large sizes - about 14 centimeters.
Many beetles are pests. They destroy the plantings cultivated plants, forests, food, wood products, leather and other natural materials.

It is known that the dragonfly lives on Earth. She is capable of moving at a speed of fifty-seven kilometers per hour.
There are countries where insect dishes are a real delicacy. Food made from fried crickets and locusts is rich in proteins, carbohydrates and other beneficial substances.
Grasshoppers can jump a distance that is more than forty times their body length.
Most house flies live in the area where they were born, but there are cases when insects move more than forty kilometers from their native places. It turns out that flies cannot resist the force of the wind and travel along with air currents.
Scientists have found that on average, an area equal to a square kilometer is home to about 26 billion different insects, which differ from each other in lifestyle, food preferences, methods of development,
Modern science cannot know everything about insects for the reason that there are still unknown species. But even those described by scientists have not yet been fully studied. The world of insects is the most mysterious and little-studied part of living nature.
Interesting facts about insects and their knowledge teach a person to treat nature correctly, understand its laws, and not harm the environment.