Insects of Africa: names, description, photo

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

The African continent is rich in rare and dangerous representatives of the animal world. A separate niche is occupied by insects, some of which live exclusively here. Going on a trip to Africa, many people mistakenly believe that exceptionally large predators can cause serious harm to life and he alth, completely forgetting about small and outwardly seemingly harmless insects. We offer you a list of African insects.

Goliath beetle

The beetle got its name in honor of the mythical hero Goliath, as it is the largest and heaviest insect that lives on the planet. Its length varies from 6 to 11 cm, with a body width of 4-6 cm. The closest relative of the Goliath beetle is the May beetle.

There are five species of this insect in total, each of them has its own characteristics, including color and size. Some prefer to settle in the humid tropical jungle, others - in the hot sands of the desert.

As a rule, the goliath beetle is distinguished by black and whitestripes on its surface, elytra red-brown or with a predominance of spots. In general, its color depends on the habitat. So, the insects of Africa, living in the humidity of the tropical jungle, are predominantly painted black. Black areas of the body have a velvety surface, which contributes to the heating of the body. The goliath beetle, which lives in dry climates and open areas, in contrast, has a light color with black spots and stripes.

Insect is diurnal, feeding on overripe fruit, pollen, tree sap. Often they try to breed a beetle at home. In captivity, its lifespan is twice that in the wild, at 12 months. After mating, the female goliath beetle burrows into the ground and lays eggs there. They hatch into larvae that feed on roots and small invertebrates. After the full formation of the larva, it passes into the pupal stage and only then becomes the adult.

Beetle is dangerous for humans only because of its size and weight. For example, a collision with a motorcyclist can cause a person to fall.

Palm weevils

These insects have a body length of 2-5 cm, it is oblong, slightly flattened at the top. In nature, you can find beetles of such colors: red-brown, brown or black.

Insects live in tropical and equatorial regions of Africa. At the end of the 20th century, thanks to human activities, the beetle population spread to the Middle East and North Africa. In 2014, the beetle was brought toterritory of Russia.

Insect feeds on living plant leaves. After laying the larvae, they continue to develop in the bark of drying or rotting trees. Cycle length is 3-4 months.

Beetle ruins palm trees. The larvae can eat the palm from the inside throughout the year.

Namibian beetle

This species of beetle lives in one of the driest places on the planet - the Namib Desert in South Africa. The insect survives largely due to its ability to collect water.

To do this, it climbs the sandy ridge with its long and thin paws. Turning at a certain angle, the Namibian beetle with its strong wings catches the smallest drops of fog. They are held onto the wings by a hydrophilic surface surrounded by a waxy coating. This ability of his is of considerable interest to scientists who are trying to introduce it into modern technologies.

The Namibian beetle itself is small in size, painted in a dark color, contrasting sharply against the background of the sands. Has a rough body surface.

Not dangerous to humans.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are insects that can carry dangerous diseases. One of the representatives is anopheles, better known as the malarial mosquito. The insect itself does not pose any danger until the bite of a person, which causes the death of millions of people every year. In addition to malaria, these mosquitoes can carry other serious diseases: Dengue fever, Zika virus, West Nile virus, yellow fever.

Malaria mosquitoesdistributed on almost all continents, but not everywhere they are so dangerous. In developed countries, medicine is at the proper level, and there are no patients with malaria.

It is noteworthy that males do not sting and do not feed on blood, only the female does this. It is very difficult to distinguish a malarial mosquito from a normal mosquito, the most obvious sign is its large size, about twice as large. Females lay eggs near various water bodies and mosquitoes appear from them three weeks later. After completion of all stages of development, the insect lives for about a month.

Emerald cockroach wasp

This insect grows up to 2 cm in size. It has a narrow body and a characteristic color - bright green or blue-green with a metallic sheen.

For reproduction, wasps use cockroaches, which are injected with paralytic poison. When the prey stops moving, the female carries it into the hole and lays the larvae. After a while, new individuals appear.

This species has almost no contact with humans and, as a rule, does not bite.

Ants Dorylus

The Dorylus ants are considered the most numerous species of nomadic insects in Africa. Despite the fact that they are not carriers of infectious diseases, they are classified as dangerous insects due to aggressiveness.

Dorylus ants are predominantly found in the Central African region. The number of one group of these insects sometimes reaches over 20 million individuals. They move through the hills, overcometrees and shrubs in search of food. Their movement in columns is largely due to effective protection against possible attacks.

Dorylus ants are capable of attacking any living creatures in their path: mammals, birds, invertebrates and even humans. All thanks to powerful, well-developed jaws. In one sortie, these ants are capable of killing more than one thousand animals. Moreover, they attack the nests of other insect species, completely destroying them. Dorylus ants are attracted to wet and soft areas of the body (lips and nostrils), through which they enter the body of a mammal and move to the vital organs, which causes death. There were cases when a large column of insects turned the body of the victim into a skeleton in just a few hours.

Triatom bugs

Insects of Africa of this species are bloodsucking. Bedbugs inhabit North America, but some of their species are found in Africa, Asia and the Australian mainland.

Triatom bugs are attracted to body heat and the smell of the victim, as well as light. As a rule, they settle near the habitats of potential victims. This type of bug is often called "kissing" for the habit of digging into the skin of the lips of a sleeping person. Sometimes a bitten person in the morning does not even understand that he has become a victim of a bug.

The body, in turn, reacts with severe skin irritation, nausea, diarrhea, swelling, shortness of breath, and a drop in blood pressure.

Triatomine bugs carry a serious Chagas disease that kills up to 12,000 people every year. Thisthe disease becomes chronic. It is manifested by an increase in the ventricles of the heart, esophagus and colon. During an exacerbation of the disease, there is an increase in lymph nodes, shortness of breath, and breathing problems. Late assistance leads to heart problems, and subsequently to death.

Flies

In the countries of equatorial Africa, on river banks and in tropical rainforests, a parasitic insect lives - the tsetse fly. According to scientists, it was she who prevented a person from developing the lands of the southern mainland, thereby preventing cattle grazing.

This creature causes sleeping sickness in humans and animals, which is characterized by bouts of fever and joint pain at the initial stage. The next stage is characterized by numbness and sleep disturbance.

Unlike common flies in Africa, Tsetse is large in size, it has a rather large head and a powerful chest. At the bottom of the head is a large and elongated proboscis. The food for the insect is the blood of animals and humans. After a bite, the injected toxin travels through the subcutaneous tissues into the lymphatic system, followed by the blood vessels and central nervous system. Tsetse fly attacks any moving object that emits heat, it can even be a car. However, the insect does not attack the zebra, the black and white stripes confuse the insect.

The oil fly is a small insect whose body length reaches 5 mm. The color of the individual is reddish-yellow. The species can be found not only in Africa, but also insouthern part of Europe, Asia. Insects are considered pests because they destroy olive crops.

Melon cow

This pest of gourds inhabits the territory of Asia, Africa, Southern Europe and some countries of the former Soviet republics.

A mature individual reaches a length of 7-9 mm, with a wide oval body of a red-brown hue. The abdomen is black, the upper part is covered with pile. Both elytra have six black dots with an orange border. The larvae of the melon ladybug are very small - no more than 2 mm, as they mature, they acquire a greenish tint and reach 10 mm in length. The insect is able to live up to four generations, while the ability to reproduce is only in the first two.

The melon ladybird hibernates in reed thickets or under the remains of plants along with hundreds of other bugs. Only 20% are able to survive the winter, the vast majority die. The insect is able to tolerate temperature drops to -14 °C for a short time. The cow wakes up during the period of early sowing of gourds, the exit from the winter hut lasts about 2-3 weeks.

The optimum temperature for insect development and reproduction is 27-32 °C. It does not pose a danger to humans.

Scarab beetle

Not every insect is a hero of myths and legends, and certainly not a symbol of an entire country. The ancient Egyptians believed that the insect protected the human soul. A photo of the scarab beetle can be seen below.

The insect has a rounded body with a black, smooth and matte surface. Its length is 2.5-3.5 cm. Adults acquire a glossy surface over time. On the head of the scarab beetle (a photo of the insect can be seen in this section) there is a small ledge and eyes, divided into upper and lower parts. There are spurs on the paws.

Sexual characteristics of the beetle are practically not expressed. The lower part is covered with dark brown hairs. The insect is common on the Mediterranean coast, the Black Sea, in South-Eastern Europe, Crimea, Egypt, Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula.

Scarabs are dung beetles that typically feed on the excrement of cattle, sheep, and horses. From shapeless manure, they roll up perfectly even balls and bury them in the soil, where they later use them for food. Scarab beetles live for about two years and spend most of this time underground, rising to the surface at night. In winter, the insect burrows deep into the ground.

Pairs of beetles form in the process of harvesting food and continue to work together. Then they dig a mink up to 30 cm deep and mate. The female then rolls balls into which she lays her eggs. When the work is finished, she falls asleep mink. After a couple of weeks, the larvae hatch, during the maturation period they feed on the food prepared for them, after which they pupate.

Damn flower

This is an insect from the genus Praying Mantis. It got its name because of its plant-like appearance. This body shape serves as a disguise.

Insect females reach 14 cm in length, males - 11 cm. Wingspan sizeis 16 cm. The color of an individual can vary from light brown to green.

Damn flower hunts from ambush, waiting for prey. It feeds on small insects: butterflies, wasps, flies, bumblebees.

African Locust

Desert or African locust, the photo of which is presented below, lives in the deserts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Outwardly, it is in many ways similar to the common locust. Body length ranges from 4 to 6 cm. Short, dense antennae are located on the head. The eyes are dark. The marsh-colored body with a brown tint allows the locust to hide among the plants.

The chirping sound that an insect makes when rubbing its hind legs against its wings can mean calling a partner, warning relatives of danger, or being threatening. The African locust, the photo of which is presented in the section, is very voracious, raids in swarms can destroy the entire crop. Their speed with a tailwind reaches 40 km per hour, turning the hordes into a desert hurricane.

The female Desert Locust breeds up to five times a year. Eggs smeared with a secret, the insect lays in a hole dug in the ground. Over time, it dries up, forming a hard shell. One clutch can contain up to 150 eggs. About a month later, larvae appear from them. After coming to the surface within a month, the insect is subject to molting up to five times, then it turns into a sexually mature locust that can bear offspring.

Runner Ants

This type of African insect is considered the fastestamong terrestrial invertebrates. Unlike other representatives, runner ants have long legs and an elongated chest. Due to the elongated lower leg, their stride width and speed are increased.

Each species of ants is characterized by individual activity at different temperatures. In runners, this temperature is the highest, in Central Asian species it reaches 41 ° C, in African species it is 58 ° C. During the mating season, females and males of some species of runners come to the surface of the nest and run from it at high speed one after another until mating itself.

Ants-runners build their nests at a depth of more than one meter. The fact is that underground the concentration of water vapor is much higher. Insect larvae are characterized by very thin covers, they require almost 100% humidity. Moreover, in desert sands below one meter in depth, temperature differences are up to five times less than on the surface.

Only the most active and large species of runners can hunt other insects: flies, beetles, bedbugs and others. However, most of them collect dead arthropods and insects.