The proliferation of beetles
InsectsAs the oldest animals on earth, they have learned how to survive and develop in the ever-changing nature long before humans.
Although insects are insignificant in human eyes, they are difficult to ignore.
Many friends living in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei seem to be disturbed by insects again in the summer. This black bugs are found in large numbers in many people's homes.
If you don't look carefully, you might think it is a cockroach. In fact, it is a very common type of carabid in the insect family, named Greedy carabid.
The body length of is usually about 11 mm. Its body is black and shiny, and its head is smooth and unmarked. It is widely distributed in China, mainly in Russia, North Korea and Japan.
comes from the Greedy Beetle taken by netizens
However, I believe that the first reaction of most people is to either drive it away, or end up with the same fate as the cockroach, being slapped to death by a slipper board.
In fact, the beetle is not a particularly harmful insect , at least to humans. From this perspective, the beetle is considered a beneficial insect to humans.
Greedy beetles mainly feed on plant seeds and small and soft insects . They do not have much impact on people or the environment.
The insect diet of the carabid beetle includes mosquitoes and lepidopteran insects , many of which are pests .
Several common carabid species
But judging from its name, the carabid is not entirely a beneficial insect .
The feeding habits of the beetle are relatively complex, and their food intake is quite large. According to the research on the beetle in Inner Mongolia and Hebei, the beetle will appear in the grain-filling period of the growth cycle of millet, which is crucial to whether the millet is full.
However, the greedy beetle is greedy by nature. Once it finds millet in the grain-filling stage, it will climb onto the ears of rice to eat the growing millet .
Since beetles generally have phototaxis, the beetles are no exception. Even a small beam of light at night will attract the attention of the beetles, thus attracting a large number of beetles to appear in the rice fields.
Close-up details of the beetle
For people living in cities, beetles like the beetle are often attracted by lights and thus appear in people's homes .
Of course, there is another factor . There may be food for the beetles at home.
As a carnivorous insect , the beetle will prefer this type of food. Therefore, it is no longer surprising that the beetles appear in the home due to the light. It is also very simple to solve the problem of beetles appearing in the home using .
Using the phototaxis of insects , reducing the light at night can effectively reduce the possibility of carabids appearing.
Insects generally have phototaxis
After talking about the carabids, we will go on to learn about carabid insects such as .
They are known as the " magical Taibo " in the insect world. As carnivorous insects, many small insects will become their food, and it is difficult to escape the clutches of carabid beetles.
Carabid family
Carabid beetles belong to the order Coleoptera of the class Arthropod Insecta. Although they are mainly carnivorous, most carabids are omnivorous insects.
As a cosmopolitan insect, carabid beetles are widely distributed around the world, and their species have reached 740,000 species..
There are approximately 2,000 species distributed in North America and 2,700 species in Europe.
The hiding of wings under the carapace is a characteristic of Coleoptera
As of 2015 , carabids are one of the 10 most abundant animal species.
Although their body shapes and colors are different, most of the carabids are wearing a shiny shell , and are all black, or have a metallic luster texture , which looks very fashionable.
Although many insects in the Coleoptera family can fly, in some large carabid beetles they have lost the ability to fly.
For example, the violin beetle has a special shape of elytra , which looks like a violin , hence its name.
Except for the very primitive and edged bombardier beetle which has a groove and they use their forelimbs to clean their antennae, the overall shape of most other carabid beetles is similar.
Violin carabid close-up
As we mentioned earlier, the greedy carabid has a strong carnivorous preference in the family to which it belongs, which is very common among carabids.
As invertebrate predators, carabid beetles will prey on many pests, so most carabid beetles are considered beneficial insects.
For example, the " Caterpillar Hunter" carabid beetles are famous for devouring large quantities of prey.
Caterpillar hunter beetles will feed on grasshopper caterpillars and various moth subfamily caterpillars and will devour them in large mouths. It is precisely because of this characteristic that as early as 1905, New England purchased a large number of caterpillars and hunter beetles from Europe to control gypsy moths.
Caterpillar hunter carabid beetles are very bright in color.
Only a few species of carabids will become pests in the strict sense. For example, " Zabrus " is one of the few carabid that feeds on herbivory.
In rare cases, Zabulus will appear in large quantities in food crops, which will cause serious interference and harm to food crops.
In Large Carabid Beetles Carabid beetles may appear in wild camps, and if they pass through food prepared by the camper, the food may also be affected.
Especially when they are frightened, these beetles secrete defensive substances and cause damage to their food.
Flying large carabid beetles consumes a lot of energy
However, since large beetles generally do not like to fly, as long as you take precautions, you can prevent them from causing interference in your life.
Since the Permian period , about 250 million years ago, carabids gradually began to evolve until the Triassic.
Later in the Jurassic , more families evolved through the radiation of carabid beetles, and experienced the strongest biological radiation evolution in the Cretaceous period.
Because of this, Bujia has such a large family of today.
The most attractive thing about carabids is their beautiful and metallic appearance. In 19th century Europe, collecting carabid became a very popular trend. Even Darwin himself I am obsessed with these little bugs.
Beetle collection looks pretty cool
Earlier we mentioned that carabid beetles can be used as a means of biological control. In fact, they are also used in many agricultural applications.
Although omnivorous carabids have never been picky about food, they prefer meat.
Therefore, it is common to use carabid beetles for pest control in farmland. Among them, aphids, , moth larvae, beetle larvae, mites, etc. are all carabids’ favorite foods.
Of course, here we must also pay attention to the fact that carabid beetles, as biological control themselves, cannot allow them to over-reproduce, otherwise they may have the opposite effect .
Carnivorous insects, so they eat almost anything
Unique carabid
Carabid beetles can be further subdivided into ground beetles and tiger beetles . Most of the carabid we observed are ground beetles. Tiger beetles are the most ferocious of the carabid beetles.
As you can see from its name, this beetle moves like a tiger.
Tiger beetles usually have extremely agile speed and powerful jaws. In addition, their large and protruding eyes and slender legs are also very obvious features, and they are predatory insects. Whether as larvae or adults, tiger beetles are very brave.
No insect can escape the predation of tiger beetles
Tiger beetle adults usually rush towards the prey at extremely fast speed, and then stop for visual orientation.
For tiger beetles, they can run at a speed of 9 kilometers per hour .
Relative to their size, these speeds are faster than cheetahs, and they are also one of the fastest land animals in the world .
is exactly the same as because it runs too fast. The insect's simple nervous system simply has no time to process visual images .
Therefore, in order to avoid obstacles when hunting, they usually fix their antennae in front, and then run for a while and stop to check the situation.
Tiger beetles are also very common in China
In addition, there is a notorious carabid in the carabid family called " fart beetle ", which belongs to the bombardier beetle family .
The scab beetle looks harmless and is not as fast-moving as the tiger beetle, but there are few animals that can target the scab.
There are 3 liquid chambers in the body of the beetle. Once it encounters danger, the beetle will mix the three gases and spray them out.
These chemical secretions will produce slight burning during the eruption, and there will be loud popping sounds and extremely hot pungent gas .
This high-heat, foul-smelling gas can even harm small mammals like shrews. It is easy to kill other predators of the same size.
In fact, it is not only an animal. I believe that anyone who has had actual contact with the beetle will never forget the smell in his life. This is a stimulating experience that even a stink bug cannot bring.
carabid As a member of the insect family, it is very active and dominates the insect ranking list all year round.
is not only because of their large family, but also because of their excellent capabilities and variety.
Insects have built a wonderful small world
In today's human life, insects have been well integrated into human society.They are actually closely related to human life.
As long as you understand them carefully, you will find that there are so many amazing magical existences in such a tiny world.
