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Social Caterpillars
The collective behaviors of social caterpillars falls into five general categories: collective and cooperative foraging, group defense against predators and parasitoids, shelter building, thermoregulation and substrate silking to enhance steadfastness. The most behaviorally sophisticated of the insect societies are found among the ants, termites, bees, and wasps. While these insects are technically classified as eusocial insects they are commonly referred to simply as the social insects. In this scheme of classification, other non-eusocial, gregarious species of insects are referred to as presocial, subsocial, quasisocial, or in some other manner that has the unfortunate consequence of suggesting that are not quite social. Yet a significant number of insect species that do not possess the defining criteria of eusociality are by any other standard of classification clearly social and it is in this sense of the term, that employed by zoologists in general, that larval aggregates of m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larvae Of Archips Cerasivoranus
A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect developmental biology, development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their Biological life cycle, life cycle. A larva's appearance is generally very different from the adult form (''e.g.'' caterpillars and butterfly, butterflies) including different unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form. Their diet may also be considerably different. In the case of smaller primitive arachnids, the larval stage differs by having three instead of four pairs of legs. Larvae are frequently adapted to different environments than adults. For example, some larvae such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments but can live outside water as adult frogs. By living in a distinct environment, larvae may be given shelter from predators and reduce competition for res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterflies
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. Winged adults lay eggs on the food plant on which their larvae, known as caterpillars, will feed. The caterpillars grow, sometimes very rapidly, and when fully developed, pupate in a chrysalis. When metamorphosis is complete, the pupal skin splits, the adult insect climbs out, expands its wings to dry, and flies off. Some butterflies, especially in the tropics, have several generations in a year, while others have a single generation, and a few in cold locations may take sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. This ovipositor is often modified into a stinger. The young develop through holometabolism (complete metamorphosis)—that is, they have a wormlike larval stage and an inactive pupal stage before they reach adulthood. Etymology The name Hymenoptera refers to the wings of the insects, but the original derivation is ambiguous. All references agree that the derivation involves the Ancient Greek πτερόν (''pteron'') for wing. The Ancient Greek ὑμήν (''hymen'') for membrane provides a plausible etymology for the term because species in this order have membranous wings. However, a key characteristic of this order is that the hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepidopterous Caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larva, larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the Insect, insect order comprising butterfly, butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawfly, sawflies (suborder Symphyta) are commonly called caterpillars as well. Both lepidopteran and symphytan larvae have eruciform body shapes. Caterpillars of most species herbivore, eat plant material (Folivore, often leaves), but not all; some (about 1%) insectivore, eat insects, and some are even cannibalistic. Some feed on other animal products. For example, clothes moths feed on wool, and Ceratophaga vastella, horn moths feed on the hooves and horns of dead ungulates. Caterpillars are typically voracious feeders and many of them are among the most serious of Agriculture, agricultural Pest (organism), pests. In fact, many moth species are best known in their caterpillar stages because of the damage they cause to fruits and other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Group Size Measures
Many animals, including humans, tend to live in groups, herds, flock (birds), flocks, bands, Pack (canine), packs, Shoaling and schooling, shoals, or Bird colony, colonies (hereafter: groups) of conspecific individuals. The size of these groups, as expressed by the number of people/etc in a group such as eight groups of nine people in each one, is an important aspect of their social environment. Group size tend to be highly variable even within the same species, thus we often need statistical measures to quantify group size and statistical tests to compare these measures between two or more samples. Group size measures are notoriously hard to handle statistically since groups sizes typically follow an skewness, aggregated (right-skewed) distribution: most groups are small, few are large, and a very few are very large. Statistical measures of group size roughly fall into two categories. Outsiders' view of group size * Group size is the number of individuals within a group; * Mea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Tent Caterpillars
The eastern tent caterpillar (''Malacosoma americanum'') is a species of moth in the family Lasiocampidae, the tent caterpillars or lappet moths. It is univoltine, producing one generation per year. It is a tent caterpillar, a social species that forms communal nests in the branches of trees. It is sometimes confused with the spongy moth (whose larvae look similar) and the fall webworm (which also builds tents), and may be erroneously referred to as a bagworm, which is the common name applied to unrelated caterpillars in the family Psychidae. The moths oviposit almost exclusively on trees in the plant family Rosaceae, particularly cherry (''Prunus'') and apple (''Malus''). The caterpillars are hairy with areas of blue, white, black and orange. The blue and white colors are structural colors created by the selective filtering of light by microtubules that arise on the ball cuticle. Social behavior Tent caterpillars are among the most social of larvae. The adult moth lays her eg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malacosoma
''Malacosoma'' is a genus of moth in the family Lasiocampidae first described by Jacob Hübner in 1820. The larva is commonly called the Tent caterpillar. Species *''Malacosoma alpicolum'' (Staudinger, 1870) *''Eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum'' (Fabricius, 1793) *''Malacosoma californicum'' (Packard, 1864) *''Malacosoma castrense'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *''Malacosoma constricta (=constrictum)'' (H. Edwards, 1874) *''Forest tent caterpillar moth, Malacosoma disstria'' (Hübner, [1820]) *''Malacosoma franconicum'' (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) *''Malacosoma incurva'' (H. Edwards, 1882) *''Malacosoma laurae'' (Lajonquuière, 1977) *''Malacosoma luteum'' (Oberthür, 1878) *''Lackey moth, Malacosoma neustria'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *''Malacosoma parallellum'' (Staudinger, 1887) *''Malacosoma primum'' (Staudinger, 1887) *''Malacosoma tigris'' (Dyar, 1902) References Malacosoma, Lasiocampinae Moth genera {{Lasiocampidae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pheromones
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals. There are '' alarm pheromones'', ''food trail pheromones'', '' sex pheromones'', and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones are used by many organisms, from basic unicellular prokaryotes to complex multicellular eukaryotes. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates, plants and ciliates communicate by using pheromones. The ecological functions and evolution of pheromones are a major topic of research in the field of chemical ecology. Background The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek () and (). Pheromones are also sometimes classified as ecto-hormones ("ecto-" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madrone Butterfly
''Eucheira socialis'', commonly known as the madrone butterfly is a lepidopteran that belongs to the family Pieridae. It was first described by John O. Westwood in 1834. Locally known as ''Mariposa del madroño'' or ''tzauhquiocuilin'', it is endemic to the highlands of Mexico, and exclusively relies on the madrone (''Arbutus'' spp.) as a host-plant. The species is of considerable interest to lepidopterists due to gregarious nest-building in the larval stages, and heavily male-biased sex ratio. It takes an entire year for this adult butterfly to develop from an egg. The eggs are laid in the month of June and the adults emerge the following May–June. The adults have a black and white pattern on their wings, and the males are generally much smaller and paler than the females. The larvae do not undergo diapause and continue to feed and grow communally in the coldest months of the year. There are two subspecies of ''E. socialis'', named ''E. socialis socialis'' and ''E. socialis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ochrogaster
''Ochrogaster lunifer'', the bag-shelter moth or processionary caterpillar, is a member of the family Notodontidae. The species was first described by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1855. Both the larval and adult forms have hairs that cause irritation of the skin (urticaria). The adult moth has a woolly appearance and its wings can grow to be about 5.5 cm across. The larvae feed on '' Grevillea striata'' at night and reside in brown silken bag nest during the day. Biology ''Ochrogaster lunifer'' has a one-year lifecycle, living communally with siblings and conspecifics from egg to pre-pupa. In October to November (Spring), adult moths emerge from the pupae underground, mate and the females lay an egg mass containing 150–550 eggs on the trunk or in the canopy of a host tree. Host trees include species of wattles and eucalypts. The eggs hatch after approximately 3–4 weeks. The caterpillars moult 7 times giving 8 instars which develop from December to May ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiny Elm Caterpillar
''Nymphalis antiopa'', known as the mourning cloak in North America and the Camberwell beauty in Britain, is a large butterfly native to Eurasia and North America. The immature form of this species is sometimes known as the spiny elm caterpillar. Other older names for this species include grand surprise and white petticoat. A powerful flier, this species is sometimes found in areas far from its usual range during migration. These butterflies have a lifespan of 11 to 12 months, one of the longest lifespans for any butterfly. It is the state insect of the U.S. state of Montana, adopted in 2001. Etymology The specific epithet ''antiopa'' is thought to be derived from Antiope, a common name in Greek mythology. North American name "mourning cloak" In several European countries with Germanic languages, other than Britain, the name for this butterfly literally translates to "mourning cloak", such as German "Trauermantel", Dutch "rouwmantel", Swedish "sorgmantel" and Norwegian "sør ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
