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THE HOUSEFLY
FLIES lay thousands of eggs. When the egg hatches,
it is like a little worm (maggot or larva). After the larva has grown , it makes a hard shell around itself. Now it is called a pupa. It changes inside this shell.
When the shell bursts open , an adult fly comes out.
- Flies are pests.
- Flies lay their eggs in DIRTY places,
so the best way to get rid of flies is to clean up.
- Flies spread GERMS by landing on food.
- Flies have hooks on their feet and sticky pads.
That is how they can walk on the ceiling,
crawl on glass or almost anywhere.
- The fly sucks up its food.
The horsefly is larger than the housefly. It can bite, while
a housefly cannot.
THE MOSQUITO
- Some mosquitoes carry diseases.
- They are found near water (still water, shoreline, open sewers)
- Spraying to kill the adults is one way to control them.
- Mosquitoes lay their eggs in still water.
- The larvae are called "wigglers."
- After molting four times, they become pupae (called a "tumbler").
- After a few days the skin splits open and the adult comes out.
- Draining "still" water is one way to stop them from hatching.
- Another way is to put an oil on the water. Then the
wigglers are unable to breathe and they die.
- Mosquitoes sip nectar from plants; only the female
bites and drinks blood.
ANTS
- An ant farm is one way people raise ants.
- A colony consists of queens, males and many workers.
- The queen or mother ant is large and has wings when young.
A queen can sting.
- The worker ants are smaller and have no wings. Some kinds
are able to sting.
- The workers gather food, keep the ant hill clean,
build new ant hills and feed the baby ants and the queens.
The larger worker ants are soldiers who defend the
colony or attack other colonies.
- The males are larger than the workers. They have
wings but do not sting. The male ants are the fathers of the
ant family. They live only a few weeks.
- Most ants make their homes in the ground. They
have tunnels and many rooms. Some rooms are for the
larvae, some for the pupae and some for the eggs.
There is even a room for the garbage.
- Ants are very strong and can carry things that are heavier
and larger than they are.
- Ants keep "cows" which are really aphids or plant lice.
By stroking the lice with their feelers, they milk them
for honeydew.
- Life cycle - egg (tiny, oval shaped), larva (worm-like, shed skin several times)
, pupa (silk-like cocooon) and adult
BEES ( WASPS and HORNETS )
- There is only one QUEEN in a hive and her job is to lay eggs.
- DRONES are the father bees, the males who mate with the queen.
- The WORKER BEES keep the hive clean, feed the babies
and the queen, keep the hive warm in winter and cool in
summer, gather pollen and nectar, build new cells,
repair cells, make beeswax or honey.
- The bee builds a six-sided honeycomb out of beeswax
which is made in its body.
- Some cells in the honeycomb are used for the eggs and
grubs (tiny white worm).
- Around these cells are stored the honey and beebread.
- Beebread is made of pollen (yellow dust found on flowers)
and honey. The honey is made from nectar (sweet liquid found in
many flowers).
- The food is for the babies, the queen and some of
the workers.
- When a new queen is hatched, the old queen leaves the
hive and starts a new one or drives the new queen out.
- Larvae which are fed only royal jelly grow larger to become
queen bees.
- Queens sting only to kill other queens. Drones have
no sting. Workers have barbed stingers.
STEPS : - EGG - Queen lays an egg in a cell.
- LARVA - Egg hatches into a tiny white worm called a grub.
It is fed honey and beebread.
- PUPA - The grub spins a silk blanket over its head.
The workers seal the cell closed with wax.
- ADULT - It changes from a larva to a bee by
forming eyes, legs, wings and feelers. It
has three body parts.
The adult bee breaks out of the cell.
NOTE : The changing process is called METAMORPHOSIS.
The bee is very helpful by spreading pollen.
In the process of going from flower to flower to collect nectar, pollen from many plants
gets stuck on the bee's pollen baskets (hairs on the hind legs). Pollen is also rubbed off of flowers. This
pollinates many flowers (fertilizing them and producing seeds).
GRASSHOPPER
The grasshopper goes through only three changes.
- It begins life in an egg.
- The egg hatches into a baby grasshopper, called a nymph.
- The nymph looks alot like the adult but without wings.
- As the nymph grows it gets too big for its skin.
- The skin splits and the nymph comes out in a new skin.
- This is called molting. It keeps getting bigger and molts about five times.
- Finally it grows some wings and is a full-grown grasshopper.
This is called incomplete metamorphosis.
INSECTS
ANIMALS (groups)
ANIMALS (introduction)
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