Insect predators: list, examples. What do predatory insects eat?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Nature is a unique organism. It is difficult to imagine a more finely organized system. Despite the endless variety of forms and types of organisms that fill it, interaction and order reign everywhere. Predators are responsible for the number of species that fill the flora and fauna. They can be found in any community, even the smallest creatures - insects.

Who are they - predators?

According to the definition of biologists, these are living organisms that live by eating other individuals that are smaller and weaker than them. They can completely eat their prey or only part of it. They are active predators or parasites in a larger organism. They all need protein food at all stages of life. Insect predators are a very diverse group. They are very different from each other and belong to different classes, but you can easily name which insects are predators according to the type of food.

Distinctive features of an insect predator

Identify a number of features for characterization to reveal which insects are predators:

• These are organisms that eat several types of creatures;

• move quickly in search of food and prey asboth adults and larvae;

• can be parasites of larger organisms, but eventually lead to the death of the host;• exhibit predatory qualities at all stages of maturation.

Don't think that these are scary, disgusting creatures. Most of these insects are harmless to humans. Many of them evoke a feeling of tenderness.

Benefits of insect predators

From this large group of carnivorous creatures, agricultural insect predators stand out. Examples of these organisms can be found in any gardener's handbook. These include ladybug, acarophages, anthocoria, spiders, ants. Insect predators are specially bred on the land or in laboratories. They kill pests of useful cereals, legumes and green crops. Their useful qualities for gardeners are determined by what predatory insects eat.

In the wild, they control the number of herbivorous relatives. Eating primarily sick and weakened individuals, insect predators drive natural selection. Do not allow diseases within the community to develop to epidemic proportions. Significant benefits are brought by insect predators. The list of these carnivores is very diverse in terms of classes and characteristics.

Ladybug

The sweetest creature turns out to be a voracious predator. Picking it up in a meadow, on a tree or a path, many do not suspect that a ladybug is eating. Its main diet is aphids. A day, a small bug eats more than a hundred pieces of these pests of agricultural fields andgardens. Ladybug larva needs up to two thousand of these insects. Ladybug benefits farmers and regulates the number of aphids. Overwintering this insect remains in fallen leaves, tree bark, mowed grass. To attract a ladybug to your site, you need to plant barley or alfalfa. You can buy these insects in specialized stores for a quick powerful fight against aphids.

Garden beetle

Very fast predator. A fairly large beetle with a bronze tint. Doesn't fly, but runs fast.

Loves light, non-acidic soils, dry grass and rotted leaves. The ground beetle larva is also distinguished by its high speed of movement. Great helper for gardeners. Destroys larvae, caterpillars, snails and slugs. Leads a predominantly nocturnal lifestyle. Lives in the top layer of soil under old leaves and fallen grass. Very active in search of food. During the summer it is able to eat up to four hundred caterpillars, and the beetle larva is even more voracious. Experienced gardeners know the benefits of ladybugs and ground beetles in their area. Thanks to them, the use of chemicals for the destruction of pests is significantly reduced, and this is a huge plus for human he alth.

Bread beetle

If the garden beetle must be supported in every possible way in the garden and fields, then the bread fellow must be categorically destroyed. It feeds on cereals useful to humans. It eats wheat, barley, oats, corn at the time of the formation of the ear. The larva of the grain beetle feeds on the roots of cereals. plant inevitabledies.

Ordinary lacewing

Belongs to the class of lacewing insects. It has large wings with a green tint.

Eats what a ladybug eats. Likes sweet secretions of aphids. The larva of the lacewing eats the aphids themselves in very large quantities. For a day destroys up to a hundred pieces of aphids. Common lacewing will bring great benefits to the garden. In addition to aphids, it copes well with the Putin mite, leafworm, carrot, onion and cabbage fly, caterpillars and scale insects. To preserve the number of lacewings on the site, special houses with bait for these insects are used, care is taken to provide a place for wintering, and early flowering plants are bred for food after hibernation.

Dragonfly

At least once in a lifetime, but every person looked at this insect. Especially attractive are the beautiful iridescent wings and the mask on the head. When you see a powerful retractable jaw, the question does not arise: is a dragonfly a predatory insect or not?It is a fast flying predator. Lives near water bodies. Leads a mostly solitary life. It feeds on mosquitoes, small flies and bugs. Pursuing the victim, it is capable of accelerating up to eighty kilometers per hour. With tenacious paws, it grabs the victim on the fly and cracks down on it with the help of a powerful jaw. Dragonflies differ in the shape of the wings, the location of the aircraft and the length of the body, but in all the larva leads a long aquatic lifestyle. Some species spend more than five years in this stage. Dragonfly larva is a predatory insect of water bodies. Inactive, but very voracious. It feeds on mosquito larvae, beetles and fry. The long-winged beauty herself is attacked by fish, birds and large insects. Therefore, the number of dragonflies is not so great.

Mantis

Insect of a beautiful green, brown or yellow hue with an interesting pose of the front legs. They are raised up, as in prayer. Hence the name of the insect. Raised praying mantis paws mean a threat to anyone who wants to attack him. This gesture shows that it is better not to approach. Also, the paws raised up mean that the praying mantis is hunting. On the outside of the limbs are sharp, like blades, spikes to hit the victim.

Help praying mantises to hunt with sharp eyesight and the ability to turn their heads 180 degrees. They always see what's going on. Eating the victim, the praying mantis does not relax, so as not to become dinner itself. His movements are slow and unhurried.

For humans, praying mantises are not dangerous, although they reach 15 cm in length. He is indifferent to non-moving objects. Its diet consists of small rodents, birds, bees, lizards, small snakes, frogs and various insects. Often praying mantises eat relatives if there is not enough other food. After mating, the female bites off the head of the male to satisfy her hunger. Praying mantises are insidious, merciless and voracious predators. The larva is able to eat up to 5-7 aphids per day. An adult praying mantis is always hungry. Eats 7-8 medium beetles per day.

Grasshopper green

Green grasshopper living in ourstripe, omnivore. Lives and hunts in dense grass. Its larva is also a predator. Grasshoppers easily cope with prey. With a powerful bite to the back of the head, they immobilize the victim much larger than themselves. They eat aphids, clutches of other insects, caterpillars, representatives of locusts. If there is not enough protein food, they switch to vegetarianism.

Osa

There are more than 100 thousand species of these insects. They are similar in structure, but differ in the way they organize life.

There are loners, community colonies and parasites. They are different from bees. Wasps are large insects with a well-developed jaw apparatus and a reusable sting. Having stung once, the wasp will not die. This is the answer to the question: "Is the wasp a predatory insect or not?" The diet of adults and larvae includes small bugs, caterpillars and spiders. The wasp injects poison into the body of the victim, which paralyzes and immobilizes future food. Then he brings her to his house. Parasitic wasps use the paralyzed body of the victim to lay eggs so that the young have something to eat. A paralyzed specimen does not die for a long time and remains fresh.

Wasps benefit gardeners. They kill a lot of caterpillars, spiders, ticks, harmful worms.

Neighborhood with wasps is not pleasant for everyone. Among them there are giants - these are hornets. Large, buzzing, colonial creatures, they become unpleasant neighbors if they settle under the roof of a house, eaves or attic.

Wasps don't just attack humans. If they feel threatened, then the entire army of the colony is ready to strike a preemptiveblow.

Bug

Not all bedbugs are predators. Among them there are herbivorous species and individuals with a mixed diet. The most prominent representatives of carnivorous mites are anthocoris, orius and reduviida. At all stages of life, they actively feed on aphids, thrips, whiteflies, spider mites and spiders, eggs of butterflies and beetles. Rhodius bugs feed on eggs, larvae and adults of the Colorado potato beetle. Macrolophus destroy the greenhouse pest - the whitefly.

They are actively used in agriculture for pest control. But bed bugs need a lot of food. Destroying all pests, they will change their habitat.

Bug water strider

Active predatory insect of water bodies.

With the help of sensitive receptors on the legs and antennae, it picks up the slightest fluctuations in the water and rushes there in search of food. It preys on flies, mosquitoes, horseflies, insects that have fallen into the water. Eats laying of eggs in water and on land, near a reservoir. In the middle lane, the water strider bug is harmless to humans. In tropical climates, these individuals are much larger and have a venom gland. The sting is very painful, similar to a bee.

Earwig

The intimidating appearance with two tentacles on the back of the body is very scary for many gardeners. In fact, all fables about the poisonousness and jumping ability of earwigs are fiction. It has a mixed type of food. Inhabits the top layer of soil. Digs many passages in the ground, damaging the roots of cultivated plants. It gnaws the roots and stems of plants, leaves and flowers. prey onspider mites, spiders, caterpillars, worms. Loves aphids. Harmless to humans. The benefits to agriculture are twofold. Kills pests, but in the process of life damages cultivated plants.

Ants

There are vegetarians and carnivores in the ant family. Well-known forest and black garden ants are omnivores. The diet of predatory species includes eggs, larvae, small insects, worms, and amphibians. Ants feed their offspring with animal protein. A prominent example of this is the bulldog ant.

He is bigger than a forest ant. Can attack bees and wasps. The powerful jaws of the ant do not give the victim a single chance. For the garden, a large number of garden ants is detrimental. They breed aphids, feed on their sweet secretions and carefully take care of increasing the number of these individuals. Forest ants are real orderlies. Hunting caterpillars, beetles and worms, they pick up dead creatures, decaying animal remains.

Hoverflies

This is a large family of insects. In appearance, they imitate bees, wasps, bumblebees. Having a threatening color, they are absolutely harmless. They eat plant foods. The larvae of all hoverflies are predators. Like ladybugs, they eat aphids en masse. The larva is very voracious. Up to 30 aphids can be eaten per day. If a caterpillar or other small insect is encountered on the way, the hoverfly larva will eat it. At the initial stage, this insect leads a sedentary lifestyle and does not miss the opportunity to eat any protein food.

Spiders

Everyone knows predators. Some weave a web and lure their prey there. Others shoot a sticky secret at the future food and draw it to them. The main diet of spiders is insects. Everything that flies, jumps and crawls, goes to dinner for spiders. Small spiders prey on butterflies, flies, mosquitoes, beetles and grasshoppers. They weave their nets-traps and wait for the victim, luring her by shaking the web. Water spiders feed on swimming insects of water bodies, fry, tadpoles. Earth individuals, injecting poison into the body of the victim, immobilize it and drag it into their mink. They eat worms, beetles and caterpillars. Large spiders living in warm climates are a danger to birds, snakes, small vertebrates and humans.

Riders

Adults eat plant foods. The larva requires protein food for development. The female rider injects the eggs into the victim's body and injects the virus. It subordinates the host organism to the development of parasitic larvae that feed on its internal organs. Caterpillars, beetles, large insects, even wasps serve as a home for future offspring. For humans, riders are not dangerous.

Scolopendra

All individuals of this species are predators. Fast, nimble and voracious centipede poses a serious danger to beetles, insects and invertebrates. She feels color shades and the slightest sound vibrations. These qualities help to find a victim. Large individuals living in tropical and subtropical climates prey on snakes and birds. For a human bitescolopendra is not fatal, although very painful.

Ktyr fly

Outwardly, it looks like a large mosquito. It flies quickly and swiftly attacks the victim, is able to hover in the air, and then fall like a stone on future food. It can attack wasps, dragonflies and beetles. Injecting strong poison into the body of the victim, quickly sucking it out, then ready to hunt again.

Insect predators are represented by a huge variety. The list of carnivorous individuals can take up a whole book. By hunting and eating living creatures, they have a positive effect on the number of herbivorous organisms, help humans fight agricultural pests, and are a link in the food chain.