Category Zology

Are spiders insects?

Technically speaking, spiders are not insects! Why aren’t they exactly? We’ll look into a few main reasons why spiders and insects are so different. But first, let’s break down what spiders and insects have in common, which is actually quite a bit.

To understand the similarities and differences between spiders and insects, we have to cover a bit of taxonomy. Taxonomy is the science of classifying all living things. Spiders, insects, fish, birds, and humans all fall into the Kingdom Animalia. Pretty much every animal is able to breathe and move, unlike plants and fungi. Additionally, animals are multicellular, unlike bacteria. Let’s dive deeper into the world of taxonomy and discover more about the classification of spiders and insects.

The next taxonomic level down is where spiders and insects lose their similarities. Spiders are in a class of animals known as arachnids. Spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks are all different kinds of arachnids. Perhaps the biggest difference between arachnids and insects are the number of legs they have. One of the defining characteristics of spiders and other arachnids is that they have 8 legs. Insects, on the other hand, only have 6. This difference may not seem that significant, but it’s one of the most important things that separate these two classes of animals!

Next up is the number of body segments. Spiders have two segments – the abdomen, and the cephalothorax (which is a combination of a head and thorax). Insects boast three distinct segments – an abdomen, a thorax, and a head. Although they serve essentially the same functions, the body segments are another characteristic that spiders and insects do not have in common.

 

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What are gregarious locusts?

Are you thinking of these insects being particularly chatty? Well, you may not be off the mark. Yes, gregarious locusts are sociable. But they also exhibit a few other characteristics when they are gregarious. Let’s find out more about this.

What are locusts?

Locusts are insects that belong to the grasshopper family, and so, look a lot like grasshoppers. But there are a few crucial differences between them. Among those is the ability of locusts to fly long distances and also invade fields as swans, causing unimaginable damage to agricultural crops. Remember locust invasion in several parts of Africa and India in 2020, reported widely the media? However, locusts are solitary creatures just like grasshoppers, and they come together as swarms only when they are gregarious. Gregarious is a phase that occurs during a locust’s lifecycle.

When do they become gregarious?

During the dry season when there’s not much vegetation around, locusts are forced to come together on small patches of land that has a little vegetation, When that happens, the chemical serotonin gets released in their body. With this they reach the gregarious phase, during which they are sociable. According to National Geographic “Locusts can even change color and body shape when they move into this phase. Their endurance increases and even their brains get larger.” Soon, when it rains, they multiply in large numbers, the place becomes even more crowded, and they start invading agricultural lands in swarms. Reports suggest that the phase is triggered by the need for food.

There are several varieties of locusts that take over large areas of agricultural lands. However, the desert locust is the most dreaded for its country crossing abilities and for polishing off tens of thousands of acres of vegetation.

 

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Do spiders spin silk?

The word spider invariably evokes visuals of stunningly beautiful and intricate webs. But do you know not all spiders spin webs? Yes, you read that right. There are a few varieties that do not spin webs at all. However, what is interesting is that all spiders produce silk. Which means their silk has several uses other than just spinning the web. This silk a strong, flexible protein fibre – is used as a tether for safety in case of a fall; to create egg sacs: to wrap up prey: to make nests, etc.

Spiders have structures called spinnerets on their abdomen: these are their silk-spinning organs. Most of them have a cluster of spinnerets, though the exact number differs with species. The silk is a liquid before it comes out. While the fact that it has many uses is fascinating, what is intriguing about spider silk is its strength. Most of them are said to be five times stronger than steel. And a study in 2018 revealed how the silk gets its strength. When scientists analysed the silk of a specific species of spider using an atomic force microscope, they discovered that “each strand – which is 1000 times thinner than a human hair is actually made up of thousands of nanostrands”!

Trivia

There are several varieties of spider webs because different species use different patterns to construct their webs. Apparently, the webs can be categorised into orb, sheet tangle, funnel, lace, radial, and purse, based on their structure, and the webs also give a general idea about the family a spider could belong to.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Why is my butterfly not eating?

Butterflies don’t eat; that only drink. Though caterpillars constantly eat, once they turn into butterflies, they only drink liquids, primarily nectar from flowers and juices from fruits. Butterflies drink using a proboscis – a tube that works like a straw – because of which they stick to an all-liquid diet.

They do need other nutrients like nitrogen, salts and amino acids. These can be found in tree sap, wet soil and flower pollen. Somewhat less appealing, they can also get these nutrients from rotten fruit or vegetables, faeces, urine, sweat, tears and (the least attractive of all) rotting carcasses!

These nutritional needs stem from the caterpillar’s food. Plants have almost none of the salts that all animals need. Even plant eating mammals like horses and cows need salts – this is also why plants need fertilizers.

 

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Can mosquitoes fly when it rains?

Mosquitoes shouldn’t be able to fly in the rain, but they still do!

Despite being roughly the same size, a single raindrop can weigh up to 50 times more than an average mosquito. So, a mosquito flying in the rain is like a person wandering about when it’s raining buses! Common sense says mosquitoes shouldn’t survive the rain, but they are a stubborn bunch.

So how do they survive the rain?

Well firstly, they do not get wet. The glassy wings and the tiny hairs on their bodies are designed to repel water. So, when a raindrop bounces off of a mosquito, one of the two scenarios may occur:

Raindrop hits wings or legs [very probable]

Raindrop hits the core body or head [unlikely]

In the first scenario, the mosquito rotates around the raindrop due to its hydrophobic body and regains normal flight with minimal effort. In other terms, the mosquitoes just shake it off

In the second scenario, the mosquito gets hit hard and drops in altitude. But it still manages to survive by taking on only a fraction of the full momentum [2–17% depending on the mosquito] of the raindrop upon impact. It does this by making the collision inelastic. The secret to this is to go with the flow

Besides, the drastic difference in mass between the mosquito and the raindrop actually becomes an advantage when we analyse the system by applying the law of conservation of momentum.

And that is how the pesky little mosquitoes fly in the rain.

 

Credit : Quora

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What is the mosquitoes job in the food chain?

Scientists are not sure. Mosquitoes are not known for eating waste. They don’t improve the soil like earthworms do. Yes, frogs prey on mosquitoes, but it is not their major food source. Mosquitoes pollinate plants since the males drink nectar, but they don’t do a lot of it.

Winegard thinks that may be mosquitoes have evolved to check the uncontrolled human population growth. But no one will accept that theory. Others say they have been put on earth to tell us that we are not as mighty as we think we are. We can be brought down by a tiny insect army. Do you agree?

So do we eradicate all mosquitoes? Biologists say they are part of the ecological cycle, so we cannot. They are there for a purpose, for balance in the eco-system. Who knows, maybe if we kill off all the mosquitoes, we may upset this balance and the natural selection of species. Winegard also points out: “Since there are 3,500 mosquito species and very few transmit diseases, perhaps the eradication of those that transmit diseases is extreme.”

 

Picture Credit : Google