* 50c-Dragonfly / Spirito di cabrito / Odonata anisoptera
The dragonfly is a large predatory insect generally found around watery areas where it also lays its larva.
It is best known for its beautiful colours and the way its body and wings sparkle when it is flying around water.
Dragonflies have long, thin and generally colourful bodies, large eyes and two pairs of transparent wings. As with other species of insect, the dragonfly also has six legs but it is unable to walk on solid ground. In flight the adult dragonfly can propel itself in all directions.
Both the dragonfly and its larva are carnivorous animals and they feed exclusively on other small animals for instance mosquitos and flies, while they are preyed upon by birds and reptiles.
The larval stage of dragonflies may last very long (between two months and three years).
When the larva is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs up an emergent plant. Exposure to air causes the larva to begin breathing. The skin splits at a weak spot behind the head and the adult dragonfly crawls out of its old larval skin, pumps up its wings, and flies off to feed on smaller insects.
* 90c - Cockroach / Cacalaca / Blattaria periplaneta
Cockroaches live in a wide range of environments around the world and may be counted as one of the most primitive insects. Most species adapt readily to a variety of environments, but prefer warm conditions found within buildings. Many tropical species prefer even warmer environments.
Cockroaches are mainly nocturnal and prefer to stay hidden during the day in cracks and crevices. They will run away when exposed to light.
Cockroaches leave chemical trails in their faeces behind for swarming, mating and also for other cockroaches to follow these trails to discover sources of food, water, and to discover where other cockroaches are hiding. These chemical trails transmit bacteria.
Cockroaches have broad, flattened bodies and relatively small heads, large eyes, sturdy legs with claws, protective wings and flexible antennae.
They are attracted to all types of food available in homes.
*100c - Ant / Fruminga / Formicidae solenopsis
The ant is a small sized insect that is found all over the world with the exception of extreme cold regions.
They are numerous in species in many different sizes and colours, inhabiting many different environments (more than 12.000 species).
Their success in so many environments has been attributed to their extremely complex social organisation and their ability to modify habitats, tap resources, and defend themselves.
Every individual ant has a job. From the worker ants that gather the materials and food, as well as nursing and caring for the ant larvae (the babies), to the queen ant that runs the nest.
Ants are thought to have developed from wasp like creatures 100 million years ago after blooming flowers appeared on Earth.
The queen ant often can live for over a year which is considerably longer than the lives of the worker ants which only really last for a couple of months.
An ant is said to be able to lift up to 50 times its own body weight, and is able to pull more than 30 times its own body weight. This is the equivalent of an average human adult lifting a fully grown African elephant!
*130c - Cricket / Criki / Tettigonia viridissima
Crickets are insects related to the grasshopper. They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennas. Crickets are known for their loud chirping noises they make by rubbing their wings against combs on their hind legs.
There are many species of which the brown field cricket and the green tree cricket are the most common. Despite their names “field”- and “tree”- cricket they often enter our homes.
The green tree cricket with broad, transparent wings, and frequent trees and shrubs are herbivores and therefore they have made many of our gardens their habitat.
*200c – Bee / Abeha / Apis mellifera
Bees live in colonies that consist of one queen bee and hundreds of other ordinary bees which are called “worker bees”.
Within their colony or beehive, worker bees prepare cells in which the queen deposits an egg in each cell. After the eggs are hatched into larvae they are fed by “nurse” bees. The larva is then sealed in its cell for almost 2 weeks to emerge afterwards into an adult bee. An adult female bee spends her life maintaining the interior of the colony, feeding larvae, building comb cells and foraging nectar and pollen from blooming plants.
Bees are the producers of honey and therefore cultivated by bee keepers for commercial reasons. Worker honey bees have a stinger to defend their hive.
The myth about a bee will die after stinging is a misconception. A bee can easily pull its stinger free and fly off unharmed (or sting again).
*220c – Fly /Musca / Musca domestica linnaeus
The scientific name for “fly” Musca domestica linnaenus is commonly named “house fly”.
The house fly, is a well-known cosmopolitan pest of both farm and home. This specie is always found in association with humans or the activities of humans. It is the most common specie.
Not only are house flies a nuisance, but they can also transport disease-causing organisms.
This common fly originated in central Asia, but now occurs on all inhabited continents, in all climates from tropical to temperate. They have adapted to feed on garbage, so they are in abundant almost anywhere people live.
The house fly undergoes a complete metamorphosis from egg to larva to the adult stage.
Warm conditions are generally optimum for the development of the house fly, and it can complete its life cycle in as little as seven to ten days. More than 20 generations may occur in subtropical and tropical regions.
*275c – Wasp / Maribomba / Vespuia vulgaris
Wasps first appeared in fossils dating back to the Jurassic period.
They are a successful and diverse group of insects with some 30.000 identified species.
Wasps are distinguishable from bees by their pointed lower abdomens and the narrow “waist” that separates the abdomen from the thorax.
They can be divided into two primary subgroups: social and solitary.
Social wasps are formidable colony-builders (such as the yellow jackets).
Solitary wasps, by far the largest subgroup, do not form colonies.
We are most familiar with the yellow and brown “jackspania” (yellow jacket) which belongs to the stinging species. Nevertheless they do far more good for humans by controlling pest insect populations than harm.
*320c – Cicada / Yeye / Psaltoda moerens
Cicadas are typical tropical insects and are found mainly in warm climates. The female cicadae can lay hundreds of eggs in barks of trees. When the eggs hatch they drop to the ground and live underground for most of their lives. When they are full grown they emerge to the surface.
They then look like huge bugs with stiff transparent wings. They live on saps from different trees.
Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. Some species even have a much longer life cycle. Up to 13 years!
Cicadas enter our homes at nights heading for the light of the lamps while making an annoying noise.
They are harmless insects.
