Natural History Notes

Assassin bugs (Family Heteroptera) are aptly named because they are predatory insects, feeding mainly on other insects. This hemipteran of the order Reduviidae has a relatively small and longish head with large compound eyes and a distinct sucking mouthparts. Their legs are fairly large and they effectively use it to grasp their prey. They puncture their victim with their elongated mouthparts and inject poisonous saliva which will dissolves tissues, before eventually suck their prey body fluid. Assassin bug with prey. Interestingly, assassin bugs are known to use chemical bait to catch their prey. Some species collect plant sap on their leg that attract other insects. Others secrete chemical that not only attract ants but also kill them. And one species spits poisonous chemical to paralyze its prey. Assassin bug uses its long mouthparts to feed on other insects. Except for those species that cause Chagas disease in South America, assassin bugs are not harmful to ma...

Crickets and grasshoppers belong to the insect order orthoptera. Orthoperans, which also include the katydids , are well-camouflaged insects that feed on living or dead vegetation matter using their biting mouthparts . They have two pairs of wing. The forewings are thicker than the hindwings. One of the distinctive characteristics of crickets and grasshoppers is their long and strong pair of hindlegs that enable them to jump quite a distance to evade danger, to move to another patch or to gain momentum as they take off to the air. The long antenna and ovipositor of a cricket. A grasshopper has short antenna. A prominent feature of crickets that distinguish them from grasshoppers is their thin and long antenna . As seen in the pictures above, the cricket’s antenna is longer than its body, whereas the grasshopper has much shorter antenna.  The ovipositor, a tubular structure that extends from the abdomen of insects for laying eggs, is much longer in crickets than ...

Basically, insect mouthparts consist of four modified appendages: labrum (upper lip), mandibles (jaws), maxillae (second jaws) and labium (lower lip). Mouthparts are categorized into two main groups: biting mouthparts and sucking mouthparts. A damselfly has biting mouthparts. Insects with biting mouthparts are usually those that eat vegetation or other insects. These insects use their muscle powered mandibles to chew and tear their food. Damselflies and grasshoppers are examples of this group of insects. The butterflies are insects with sucking mouthparts. What appear to be a tube are two elongated maxilla fused together. In butterflies, it is known as proboscis and it can curl inward. Proboscis of a butterfly. The mouthparts are adaptation of insects for different diet. Therefore, you can guess what type of mouthpart an insect possesses by observing its feeding behavior. Even within the same species, the mouthparts may differ depending on life stage. Take the ...