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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 o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larvae Of Archips Cerasivoranus
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The larva's appearance is generally very different from the adult form (''e.g.'' caterpillars and butterflies) including different unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form. Their diet may also be considerably different. 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 resources with the adult population. Animals in the larval stage will consume food to fuel their transition into the adult form. In some organisms like polychaetes and barnacles, adults are immobi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises the large superfamily Papilionoidea, which contains at least one former group, the skippers (formerly the superfamily "Hesperioidea"), and the most recent analyses suggest it also contains the moth-butterflies (formerly the superfamily "Hedyloidea"). Butterfly fossils date to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago. Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, as like most 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, and after its wings have expanded and dried, it flie ... [...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 mature. 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 hindwings are co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepidopterous Caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Symphyta) are commonly called caterpillars as well. Both lepidopteran and symphytan larvae have eruciform body shapes. Caterpillars of most species eat plant material ( often leaves), but not all; some (about 1%) eat insects, and some are even cannibalistic. Some feed on other animal products. For example, clothes moths feed on wool, and 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 agricultural pests. In fact, many moth species are best known in their caterpillar stages because of the damage they cause to fruits and other agricultural produce, whereas the moths are obscure and do no direct harm. Conversely, various species of cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Group Size Measures
Many animals, including humans, tend to live in groups, herds, flocks, bands, packs, shoals, or 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 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; * Mean group size, the arithmetic mean of group sizes averaged over groups; * ... [...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 and the fall webworm, 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 cuticle. Social behavior Tent caterpillars are among the most social of larvae. The adult moth lays her eggs in a single batch in late spring or early summer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malacosoma
''Malacosoma'' is a genus of moths in the family Lasiocampidae first described by Jacob Hübner in 1820. Species *''Malacosoma alpicolum'' (Staudinger, 1870) *''Eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum'' (Fabricius, 1793) *''Malacosoma californicum'' (Packard, 1864) *''Malacosoma castrense'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *''Malacosoma 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 {{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 φερω ''pheroo'' ('I carry') and ὁρμων ''hormon'' ('stimulating'). Pher ... [...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 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 westwood ... [...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 also 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", Finnish "su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest Tent Caterpillar
The forest tent caterpillar moth (''Malacosoma disstria'') is a moth found throughout North America, especially in the eastern regions. Unlike related tent caterpillar species, the larvae of forest tent caterpillars do not make tents, but rather, weave a silky sheet where they lie together during molting. They also lay down strands of silk as they move over branches and travel as groups along these pheromone-containing silk trails. The caterpillars are social, traveling together to feed and massing as a group at rest. Group behavior diminishes as the caterpillars increase in size, so that by the fifth instar (molt) the caterpillars are feeding and resting independently.Forest tent caterpillars, University of Florida James R. Meeker, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Serv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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