Eww is not grammatically correct, according to an online source, yet the source calls it an expression of disgust. The number of w’s is commensurate with the amount of yuck. The online Cambridge Dictionary includes the word, spelled eww, and says it can also mean disapproval or dislike, which are more gentler words. I’ll use “dislike” for today’s topic about bugs.
Many people dislike bugs. Many people dislike their boss, coworkers and new members of a group – until they get to know them, of course. Sad, but we humans are peculiar.
Bugs are peculiar, too, mostly peculiar looking, which probably contributes to the eww factor.
In my e-mail this morning were two monthly issues of the Texas Invasives electronic newsletter – no explanation why May’s issue was a month late. I looked at it first. Midway down, a logo caught my eye: “Insect Week.” The dates had passed, the celebration of “little things that run the world” ended the last day of June for this year. I went to the link anyway. Turns out, the celebration was in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Royal Entomological Society. https://www.insectweek.org/
The celebration across the pond may have ended but when I checked my moth sheet this morning it was having its own buggy celebration.
Without insects, the world might very well come to an end. Actually, I Googled that, and I’m wrong. But pollination would end and there would be a “major disruption in the food chain,” according to scienceabc.com. So, like what happens with a boss or co-worker, I thought we’d just “get to know” a few of the fun things that sometimes elicit a (mental) EWWW response from me when I check my moth sheet in the dark.
Pale-lined stink bug. If you grew up thinking stink bugs would spray you with bad smelling goo if you were to crush one, you’re not alone; the warning has been passed down through generations. However, were you to squash one, it isn’t life threatening – nor are stink bugs themselves.
Stink bugs, in general, suck juices from plants, they also can eat other insects, and insect larvae. At the end of the day, stink bugs of all sizes, shapes and colors are more likely to have been a meal for birds, reptiles, arachnids and insectivorous mammals – a diverse cast of characters that work individually, helping clear a garden of these smelly-if-crushed bugs.
One of my favorite bugs is the beautiful bright shiny, metallic green Calosoma aurocinctum with a copper color ribbon laterally around its abdomen. It is distinguished by its green pronotum – the prominent plate-like structure that covers all or part of the thorax (the section between the head and the abdomen) of some insects, according to Amateur Entomologists’ Society, www.amentsoc. Googling “anatomy of a beetle” pulls up some wonderful visuals. Black caterpillar hunter is a good-looking bug, too. I wrote about both these in a March Blog, “There is a Bug.”
I mostly give big katydids a wide berth. Only because they are spring-loaded and not very directionally inclined when they launch. Katydids display remarkable adaptations for defense, a consequence in part because of their poor flying ability, according to Britanica.com. Their ungainly art of flying leaves them highly vulnerable to predation, therefore, they use crypsis, mimicry, chemical defense, spines and a powerful bite as defense. Crypsis is the ability for a critter to conceal itself from a predator by having a color, pattern and shape that allows it to blend into the surrounding environment, according to merriam-webster.com. Katydids are nocturnal. They primarily eat leaves and grass. They are attracted to lights at night.
Green Mantidfly. Texas has about ten species of mantispids. Mantidflies are tiny, about half an inch tall. They have been described as looking like a cross between a lacewing insect and a praying mantis. Mantidflies eat smaller insects, mites, aphids, lygus bugs, lady beetles, stink bugs and other arthropods, sap and nectar, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension online Field Guide to Common Texas Insects. Their larvae feed on spider egg sacs and perhaps bee and wasp larvae.
Lined earwig. It’s good news for those who are sketchy around critters that might fly at you; earwigs rarely fly. They are active at night and hide during the day; they hide in bark, plant debris and decaying organic matter. They feed mainly on both dead and living insects and mosses, lichens, algae and fungi. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension online Field Guide to Common Texas Insects calls them "generally harmless; can be a nuisance when they invade homes."
Melanoliarus aridus is a plant hopper. Planthoppers occur worldwide. Texas has 91 genera and 275 species of planthoppers. They have mouth parts like straws to suck the juices from a plant. On the other hand, there is an ecosystem connection: they play a role in feeding the young life stages of praying mantises, ambush and assassin bugs, spiders and other insect predators. It’s all good. Via their bodies, planthoppers convey nutrients created by plants up the food chain into larger insects that can be eaten by birds, reptiles and other larger animals. Source: mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature
Twig girdlers are beetles that attack the twigs of trees. There’s more to it than just trimming a few branches. Amazingly, twig girdlers lay eggs at the ends of branches and cut off the tips of the branch, allowing the larvae to feed on and pupate inside the twigs. Girdlers damage the branch from the outside, chewing a groove from the outside in.
Hackberry, oak, pecan, citrus, huisache, mimosa, persimmon, retama, tepehuaje, and Texas ebony are susceptible. The beetles are not commonly encountered on trees, but they are attracted to lights at night. Source: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension online Field Guide to Common Texas Insects.
Uneven punctate strongylium teneb, Strongylium hemistriatum, a genus of darkling beetle. Most darkling beetles are scavengers, especially of plant material. They live on the ground amid leaf litter and rotting logs. Some darkling beetles eat dead animals, including other insects, some eat fungi. They eat plants and in turn are eaten by a wide variety of insectivores.
Mummy wasp, Aleiodes genus, attacks and kills various species of leaf-feeding caterpillars; hosts include many important forest pests, such as the gypsy moth, eastern tent caterpillar, forest tent caterpillar, fall webworm, tussock moths, dagger moths, prominents, cutworms and loopers. All familiar moths at one time or another at my moth sheet. Aleiodes larvae mummify the host when they finish feeding on it and kill it, and pupate inside the mummy. BugGuide.net is always an excellent source.
Another great and helpful site is Texas A&M AgriLife Extension online Field Guide to Common Texas Insects. https://texasinsects.tamu.edu/
Just one more -- one of my favorites: Odontomyia cincta, a species of soldier fly. They are found worldwide, especially in Neotropical haunts; there are more than 2,500 species globally. Adults are found on flowers or on dung (and can be attracted to moth sheets); they do not bite or sting. Larvae are aquatic, and adults are found near a water source.
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