Bug's Secrets

There are many varieties of bugs such as bed bugs, lace bugs, red bugs, squash bugs, chinch bugs and water bugs. Bugs are very close to cicadas, aphids, tree hoppers, lantern flies, mealy bugs, white flies, and scale insects. Bugs are not beetles, potato bug, doodle bug, sow bug and pill bug. The basal half of the bug wing is thickened like the wing cover of the beetles. The tip of the wings is membranous, which consist of a thin layer of tissue, unlike the wing of aphids and cicadas that their entire wing is membranous.

Bugs are characterized by sucking mouthparts like beaks. There are some bugs that are parasite on vertebrates. There are also bugs that are predatory like the assassin bug, which are useful in the biological control of pests. Other bugs like the cochineal insects that are cultivated for the valuable dye they secrete.

The Ant

Did you know that ants are the most successful species on earth? They are more than 20,000 different species of ants and have been living for more than 100 million years. Ants are almost anywhere!

Ants can build homes from simple to complex mounds out of dirt and sand. They build different types of homes. They also use small sticks to make their house stronger for their protection from rain. They build their homes with different chambers that are used for nurseries, food storage, and resting places for the worker ants.

Ants are known for being social insects because they live in large colonies, which consists of million of ants. From school, we are taught that there are three types of ants in each species- the queen, the sterile female workers, and the males. You can see only one queen in a colony. But I think, there are some colonies having many queens. Queens grow and mate and spend her life laying eggs. While male ants serve one purpose, which is to mate with future queen ants. These male ants are believed not to live long.