The Facts about the Insects Called Orthoptera
Where they live.
Field crickets, the familiar black or brownish crickets are often
abundant in meadows and fields. Also in dwellings or in small clusters in
the ground. Tree Crickets are more often heard then seen. Usually
colored green these slender crickets live in shrubs and trees. Mole Crickets
can burrow rapidly through moist soil. They also can live in caves, hollow
logs, beneath stones, and other dark moist places. Grasshoppers are also
part of this group. They often become very abundant, and migrate in
tremendous swarms. Destroying nearly all plants in their path. They like
to live in wet grassy areas. Locust also contribute to Orthoptera. Locust
plagues have been recorded since the beginning of history and are still one
of the worlds major insect problems. Cockroaches are in this group too.
Their are an estimated 3,000 cockroach species in the world. About 55 live
in the U.S., and only 4 species ar common household pets. German
cockroaches or Croton bugs, are common in the U.S. especially in the
northern states. They commonly enter the house in bags or boxes from
grocery stores. They tend to cluster in warm moist places around hot
water pipes. They stay hidden when they are not eating.
Eat
Crickets will eat holes in paper or in garments especially those soiled
with persperation. They also eat young roots and seedlings, peanuts,
garden crops, grain, clothing, and sometimes other insects and even each
other. Grasshoppers are a different story. They eat crops and destroy
millions of dollars a year in them. Cockroaches are just a pest and they eat
almost any thing. Cockroaches feed on a great variety of foods, meats,
cheeses, sweets, and starches(like the starch in clothing or in the glue like
that in book bindings, and stamps.). When abundant they may also eat
human hair, skin and nails. They secrete sticky, odorous fluid that may be
lift on foods or materials.
Movement
Cockroaches move very swiftly. They have 6 legs with 3 joints, as
muscles contract at the base of the body the legs move. This motion causes
a roach to lurch forward in rapid motion. Crickets have wings so they
may fly. The movement of the crickets aren't the same as the
grasshopper's. The grasshopper is an insect that can leap about 20 times
the length of its body. If a human being had the same leaping ability as the
grasshopper they could jump at least 20 feet.
Helpful things they do.
In Russia roaches have been regarded as an antidote for dropsy.
Also in Southeast Asia, and China the bits of meat plucked from around
the legs of boiled roaches is considered a delicacy. I 1968, 71% of more
than 700 U.S. allergy patients injected with an experimental roach extract
reported on easing of their symptoms. Roaches are ideal lab animals also.
They are easy to care for, and but don't bite or sting. Roaches have been
impucated as disease vectors, but this has never been proven. They eat
almost anything because of a wide variety of bacteria and protozoans in
their gut. They help in rapid decomposition of forest litter, and animal
fecal matter. We cope with poison baits, insecticides, dusts, and sprays.
Other ways we can cope with common household things ar orange, and
lemon peels. This instantly rill imported fire ants, house flies, stable flies,
and ext.
Harmful
Members of Orthoptera cause lots of crop damage. Plagues of
locusts occur in countless millions. When they are finished eating in one
place they move on not leaving a green stem in the field. The term locust
designates grasshoppers that migrate. Grasshoppers have caused more
direct crop loss that any other insect. From 1925 to 1949 they damaged
more than half a billion dollars worth of damage to crops. In 23 states in
the western U.S. grasshoppers are considered to be among our most
serious insect pests. Millions of dollars are spent in an attempt to control
them. Millions of people around the word have died of starvation. In the
U.S. the problem is serious, but is small compared with other areas. The
Middle East and areas adjacent to it are usually the hardest to hit.
Cockroaches, also a common pest, don't bite but contaminate food. The
roaches carry diseases, and damage book bindings. They will eat almost
anything.
Sound/Communication.
Grasshoppers are well known for their sounds. These are produced
by rubbing their hind legs against the fore wings. The inner side of each
hind leg has a ridge with a row of small pegs. When this ridge is rubbed
against the gardened vein of the fore wing a audible vibration is produced.
Both pitch, sound, and rhythm of stridulation vary according to species. In
almost all species the sound production is limited to males. This serves to
attract to females and possibly to help identify members of the same
species. Hearing organs are located on either side of the abdominal
segment. Males produce sound by rubbing a groove niche on the
underside of one front wing against the sharp edge of another sharp
wing(breeding session). Males attract females with this call.
Reproduction/Lifecycle
The male cockroach is a very active breeder during his life, while the
female only breeds once. He first starts by secreting a substance
underneath his wings. When he calls out to a female she mounts him and
starts to comsume to substance. This is when to male and female join.
They will stay toghether for a couple of days before disengaging. The
female will keep the sperm in her body for months on end sometimes.
When she fertlizes her eggs so begins to have and egg sac start to some out
from her backend. After the sac has fallen off she just leaves it. After a
couple of days the small larva will start to suck up air this expanding
themselves, and the egg case will start to tear. Once out the little
cockroaches look like small transparent roaches. Some will be eaten by
predators, while some will be eaten even by their own kind. But since
roaches almost always are mating this really doesn't hinder their young.
Soon the roach will reach maturity and the process will start all over again.
Article.(National Geographic)
The praying mantis eats nothing but live food, mostly insects. Prey is
taken only from flowers, leafage, twigs, bark, or the ground. Never while
the potential victim is in flight. Many species have wings but seldom use
them. A mantis's catching of prey is at times larger than the mantis itself.
Its severed by surprising small mouth parts, similar to those of its
cockroach ancestors. Over millions of years of evolutionary time, mantises
have occupied all accessible regions that may have a suitable climate. They
abound especially in tropical and subtropical areas and have adapted by
protective color and form to a variety of habitants. If danger is imminent,
a mantis may explode into action, scurrying with crablike speed upward
and around to the opposite tree. All and all mantises are very
extraordinary creatures just like the rest of the group Orthoptera.
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