Entomologists usually love their work for the variety of material studied and the number of insects. From a purely aesthetic point of view, a truly endless variety of shapes, colors and options for appearance cannot get bored.

However, if you dig deeper, even more exciting is the world lurking in the behavior and lifestyle of insects. Although in many cases their lifestyle is stereotyped, sometimes it strikes with eccentricity.

Public insects

Although many insects lead a solitary life, some species live in large and complex organized communities that resemble the idealized model of human society, where their members play different roles aimed at the prosperity of the colony. However, in public insects, members of the colony are relatives. Usually there is only one female capable of breeding for the entire colony and an unlimited number of males capable of breeding. The bulk of the inhabitants of the colony is sterile, and their role is limited to collecting food and defending the settlement from enemies.

Bees and wasps

Probably the most common social insects are bees and wasps. They build large nests with special compartments for raising offspring and for storing food.

Interesting fact: When a bee finds a good source of nectar and pollen, returning home, it informs other residents of the hive.Detailed directions about the direction and distance to the food source are transmitted through a complex bee “dance”.

Worker bees have special bags on their hind legs. They collect pollen from flowers and transfer it to the hive, where they use the growing larvae for food.

In accordance with their name, paper wasps build nests from chewed wood fibers, very reminiscent of paper. Each cell of the nest will contain an egg, and subsequently a growing wasp larva.

The queen bee is fertilized once in a lifetime, and its only task is to lay eggs after this for about five years. The construction and repair of the hive, the care of the offspring, the collection of food are only part of the responsibilities of working bees. Each working bee in different periods of its life plays different roles. It is an interesting fact - a working bee, having found a source of nectar and pollen, having returned to the hive, can inform other members of the colony about the distance and direction in which to fly, using a kind of dance.

Ants

Among the most successful in public life, it should be noted ants living, like bees, in colonies. Some worker ants collect food, others tend to care for growing larvae, and those with larger jaws become soldiers and protect the anthill. Colonies of ants are divided into distinct castes, each of which plays a certain role in the generally established order. The winged queen is responsible for laying eggs, while smaller workers collect food.

Termites

Termites are common in the tropics. Their striking mounds, up to 6 meters high, are a classic example of bold entrepreneurship among public insects. There are four types of castes in the termite colony: the queen, males capable of reproduction, and sterile workers and soldiers.

Nutcrackers

Plants are an important food source for all insects, all parts of a plant, from flowers and leaves to seeds and roots, with a certain degree of probability can be eaten if not by one insect, then by another. However, not all relationships between plants and insects are so straightforward, and this is best seen on the nut growers. These tiny insects that look like ants influence the plant in such a way that abnormal tissue growths called galls form in it.

Gauls serve as larvae and as food and as protection until pupation. As a rule, a female nut-laying woman lays one or several eggs (depending on the species) in the plant tissue. Each type of nut grower is usually attached to a specific type of plant and forms galls, the sizes, shape and color of which are unique to this particular nut grower. Generational species form different galls at the sexual and parthenogenetic stages of the life cycle.

In some species of insects, the lifestyle is further complicated by the generational change already described previously for aphids. First, successful mating of males and females is required, and the next generation is parthenogenetic females that produce viable offspring without the participation of males.

Silkworms

Caterpillars of some silkworms sometimes go camping in orderly rows, following each other in a geese (nose to tail). Those species whose caterpillars behave in a similar way are called camp silkworms. Of these, the most famous pine silkworm from southern Europe. Daytime, these caterpillars spend inside a large silk web, which they wrap around tree branches.

Burning hairs from the body of caterpillars can be woven into this web and, when combined with silk, can be an effective protection against birds. At dusk, however, the caterpillars crawl out to eat. Following one line and marking their way with silk thread, all the caterpillars can easily find the way back home.

Moth Sloths

Everyone knows the three-fingered sloths - slow creatures that live in the forests of Central and South America.

On each of these animals lives up to 100 specimens of moths using its coarse and felled fur. Each time a sloth comes down from a tree in order to fulfill its natural needs on the ground, a moth lays eggs in its litter. Subsequently, the caterpillars feed on this.