Insects can be found everywhere - in the urban stone jungle, in the meadow, in the forest, tundra, desert, and even where there is eternal snow and cold. Sometimes we do not notice how beautiful the world around us is. Millions of different living organisms live on the globe. In this article, we will analyze in detail what a hymenopteran insect is. Consider all subspecies and their features.
General information
The Hymenoptera category contains about 300 thousand subspecies of insects. Each of them has two pairs of transparent wings with very large cells. The blades that are in front are usually longer than the back ones. All hymenoptera are divided according to their lifestyle into three types: predators, parasites and herbivorous insects.
Hymenopterous insects include wasps, bees, bumblebees, ants and others. Few people know that they all live in separate communities, where there is only one main thing.insect. Surprisingly, all responsibilities are evenly distributed among them. In each collective, a certain insect is responsible for one action. It is believed that this category of insects lives in absolutely all corners of the planet.
Types of hymenoptera are quite different from each other. There are only two varieties - sessile-bellied and stalked-bellied. The first includes more primitive insects that feed on organic matter.
Features of reproduction
The insect order Hymenoptera is distinguished by a kind of concept of sex establishment. Termites, for example, which belong to a different species, do not have this feature. In the Hymenoptera family, as a rule, there is only one queen. In the first half of her life, she makes only one courtship flight, stocking up on seminal fluid for the entire period of her life, which is about 10 years.
The female uses the collected seminal fluid regularly to fertilize the eggs that move along her genital tract. It is worth noting that not all eggs undergo fertilization. They can also have single or double sets of chromosomes.
Hymenoptera has no father. All members of the same family have the same set of chromosomes received from the female. Only the uterus itself has a pair of them.
Building features
As we said earlier, Hymenoptera have two pairs of wings. As a rule, the anterior ones are longer than the posterior ones. Antennae are located on the head of a Hymenoptera insect. Each subspecies has its own peculiarity of structure. Their number ranges from 2 to 70. Eyes are also located on the head, which have a rather complex structure. Surprisingly, some ants see absolutely nothing. They find their way to their nest thanks to the scent of pheromones they leave behind.
Interesting facts about ants
Ant is a small hymenopteran insect. The number of their species is more than 8 thousand. It is believed that it is ants that are most similar to humans.
Ants never eat what they find. They deliver food to the anthill. Those individuals that bring nothing are killed by insects. Ants regularly stock up on food for the winter. During the day they take it outside to dry, and at night they bring it back. It is believed that ants have a premonition of the weather, as they never dry their workpieces before rain.
Few people know, but American scientists found the oldest representative on one of the beaches. The body of the ant was located in amber. According to experts, the age of the find is about 130 million years. Surprisingly, ants are the only living organisms, with the exception of humans, that raise domestic animals, namely aphids.
Ants are believed to have the largest brain on earth relative to their body. Another interesting fact is the lack of sleep. Surprisingly, Hymenopteraan insect of the ant order does not feel the need for this.
Few people know, but worker ants live up to 3 years, but females - up to 20. It is also known that they are able to lift a load that exceeds their weight by 100 times. When an ant dies from poisoning, it always falls exclusively on its right side.
Bumblebees
Bumblebees are also hymenoptera. Representatives of this subspecies are distinguished by thick hair on the body, which has a bright color. Bumblebees are divided into three categories: queen, workers, and drones. It is worth noting that the latter do not have the ability to sting. Unlike wasps, bumblebees only use their stingers for self-defense.
The reaction of the human body to a bumblebee sting depends only on individual characteristics. Most of the time it is not dangerous. An allergic reaction to a bumblebee sting is quite rare. Most often, only 1% of humanity is affected, and, as a rule, this occurs with a second bite.
It is known that unlike other Hymenoptera, bumblebees do not fly out in search of food in bad weather. They also have the most favored plants. Bumblebees can pollinate hard-to-reach flower bowls that wasps can't.
Unlike other insects, bumblebees have a body temperature 20-30 degrees higher than the environment. This is due to the active work of the pectoral muscles.
Is there any benefit from hymenoptera?
Perhaps everyone knows that all living organisms on our planet are interconnected. Each insect brings a certain benefit to the globe and to man himself. The order of Hymenoptera is no exception. For example, ants, as we know, build houses not only on the surface of the soil, but also under it. Due to this, the soil becomes looser and filled with more oxygen. Ants also destroy a huge number of pests every year.
Hymenoptera insects - bees, wasps and hornets - are of great benefit. Thanks to the products of their processing, a huge number of medicines were created. For example, many medicines contain honey and propolis.
Interesting fact about Hymenoptera
In the 20th century, a famous scientist conducted a number of interesting studies. It is known that the bumblebee has rather small wings (relative to its body). The scientist applied the calculation of the lifting force of the aircraft to the insect. He found out that the bumblebee flies against all the laws of aerodynamics and physics.
Today there is a lot of controversy on this topic. Many scientists refute the hypothesis and prove that the bumblebee flies with good reason. However, these versions are still not fully understood.
Hymenoptera and education
As we found out earlier, hymenoptera are of great benefit. About the features of their structure and life activity they tell the students of the 7th grade at school. The purpose of the lesson is to show how important the insect order Hymenoptera is. Grade 7 after graduationThe lesson should know the structural features of this species and their role for the human body and nature. It is the responsibility of the teacher to check the assimilation of the material about hymenoptera after some time.
Parasitic properties. Nutcrackers
Like many other insects, some subspecies of Hymenoptera have parasitic properties. One of the representatives that have this property are nutcrackers. Most often, they lay their eggs on oak or shrubs. They look like small nuts. The insect lays its eggs directly in the bark or leaves of plants. In the future, white larvae hatch from them, which disrupt the vital activity of trees and shrubs, parasitizing on them.
Ichneumonoids
Another parasitic species of Hymenoptera is ichneumonoids. Representatives of this subspecies differ in color and size. Ichneumonoid females have an indistinct filamentous ovipositor. They sit on top of other insects and inject their eggs into their bodies.
In some queens, the ovipositor is filled with poison. Due to this feature, they destroy pests of agricultural crops. A larva hatches from an egg in the body of another insect. At first, she feeds on the body fat of the victim, and when their supply runs out, she begins to eat the vital organs. By the time the larva begins to cocoon itself, the prey is usually dead.
Chalcides
Chalcids areanother parasitic subspecies of Hymenoptera insects. They are quite small in size. Like most other parasitic insects, chalcids live in the body of other representatives.
It is curious that chalcides are able to parasitize even in water bodies. It is believed that the most ancient representatives of the parasitic subspecies of Hymenoptera lived in the Cretaceous period.
There is a special subspecies of chalcids - Costa Rican. They can parasitize not only animals, but also humans. A farmer in New England is known to have been bitten on the ear by just such an insect. The man walked for two weeks with unbearable pain and complained of hearing loss. Three weeks after the bite, the farmer's wife discovered that small insects were crawling out of his ear. The man was urgently hospitalized. Doctors performed an operation and removed more than 300 grams of chalcides from his ear.
Among the chalcids there are also species that parasitize only on plants. They perform their vital activity inside galls (areas of growth of leaf tissue). Few people know, but there is a subspecies of chalcides, whose representatives lay their eggs in ficus fruits, which are just beginning to form. Without these insects, the plant would be impossible to pollinate. It is also due to parasitism that the ficus forms seeds.
Summarize
Almost every hymenoptera amazes us with its quirkiness and uniqueness. Each species has its own characteristics. In ourIn this article, we showed how incredible insects can be. We have found that ants never sleep and raise pets just like us, and some parasitic hymenoptera can be beneficial. Unfortunately, most often people destroy the world and its inhabitants on their own. We strongly recommend not to harm our nature, so that not only Hymenoptera, but also other representatives of the fauna feel comfortable and do not disappear from our land after a couple of years.
