What is the development of Lepidoptera. Lepidoptera - a detachment of insects with a complete transformation. Perhaps you will be interested
The most airy creatures on Earth - butterflies amaze the imagination with beauty and diversity. Especially they fascinate people with their coloring. Many with their color palette resemble a peacock tail or a colorful fan. This living being never causes disgust. The butterfly’s elegant and light flight is incomparable! Spring, beauty and eternity are associated with it. Butterfly is a symbol of happiness, fidelity, love, immortality. In another way they are also called Lepidoptera. Biologists distinguish the following close orders of insects: butterflies, damselfly, dipterans, fleas. You will be interested to learn about the features of these wonderful insects.
Squad of butterflies, or Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera are the largest group of insects of the type. A characteristic feature of all representatives of the order of butterflies is the scaly colored cover of the body and wings. These scales are nothing more than mutated hairs. They have a different color, can make complex and bizarre drawings. These patterns serve as a disguise that conceals an insect or signals inedibility. For most species, the patterns on the wings are identifiable so that individuals of the same species can recognize each other.
Another identifying feature of the order of butterflies is the sucking mouth apparatus in the form of a long tubular proboscis. For eating, the butterfly puts forward a long proboscis, plunges it into the depths of the flower and absorbs nectar.
The main source of food for the order of butterflies is the nectar of flowers, so they are considered the main pollinators of flowering plants. It is believed that with the appearance of flowers on Earth, butterflies arose.
Butterfly Breeding
Everyone knows that butterflies are night and day. pass in the process of development. First they lay their eggs, larvae hatch from them, completely unlike adults. These are caterpillars. With the help of the salivary glands, the caterpillars secrete saliva, and it is from them that the caterpillars weave a cocoon for the pupa. The caterpillar will turn into it, having passed several links. After some time, an adult butterfly (imago) flies out of the pupa. The longest lifespan of an imago is several months.
Power Features
The annual cycle of butterfly development is different, depending on the species. Most often, butterflies give one generation in a year. There are species that give two or three generations per year.
Building individuality
Lepidoptera can have sizes from 2 mm to 15 cm. The smallest butterfly is considered to be the little moth that lives on the Canary Islands. The largest species is the Maak sailboat, which is common in Europe.
Like other insects, butterflies have an abdomen, head and chest. It is a strong chitinous cover. Butterflies have two pairs of wings with modified hairs-scales. It is with the help of these scales that the wings acquire a pattern and color. Butterflies can fly long distances. These insects come in two genders.
Squads of insects: butterflies, damselfly, dipterans, fleas
Today, there are about 150,000 scaly species that live on all continents except Antarctica. Especially brightly colored butterflies are rich in tropical areas. In addition to butterflies, there are several more similar orders of insects: homoptera, dipterous, fleas. We offer to get acquainted with the main representatives of each detachment:
Lepidoptera are of great importance in nature and human life. After all, butterflies pollinate plants perfectly. Many large butterflies, such as swallowtail, apollo, are simply mesmerized by their beauty. They become exhibits of many entomological collections.
Most people associate butterflies with summer and flowers. There is no such person in the world who has never seen this miracle of nature. And many are interested in the question: "What types of butterflies are there and how many families do these beautiful creatures have?"
All questions will be answered by this article.
All about butterflies
Butterfly - This is an insect such as arthropods, the order of Lepidoptera.
The ancient Slavs believed that the souls of the dead inhabit the butterflies, therefore, they treated these insects with special respect.
Appearance and structure
Butterfly consists of two sections:
- Chitin-coated body.
- Two pairs of wings, which are covered with scales and pierced by veins in the transverse and longitudinal directions. The pattern on the wings depends on the species. The wingspan, depending on the type, can be from 3 mm to 310 mm.
Body structure:
The appearance of a butterfly can serve for protect insect from enemies. Indeed, due to the coloring, some butterflies merge with the environment and become invisible.
Types of butterflies with a brief description
Butterflies have more than 200 families, only a small part of the most popular are listed below:
Belyanki:
Cocoon Moth Family
Butterflies belonging to this family are large or medium in size. The body is powerful, covered with villi. This family is more like moths than butterflies. The front wings are large compared to the rear. The antennae look like brushes. Live in groups on woody plants. Some species are very harmful to forestry.
Lycaena family
It has more than 5 thousand species, some of which are listed in Red book. All species of this family are small in size with bright colors. Males are brighter in color than females. The color of the color depends on the species and can be bright blue or brown. For example, the polyommatus icarus has a bright blue color.
A distinctive feature of all lycaenidae are spots located on the lower wings. Lycaenidae do not harm, and even sometimes bring benefits, scaring away insect pests.
Motley family
This family has over 1200 species. Most species can be found in tropical countries, but a small part lives in Russia. Spotted have interesting coloring. On a brilliant - black or dark blue background there are spots of bright red or bright yellow color. But also there are species with a uniform color.
The appearance of the insect warns that it poisonously and when threatened, emits a poisonous liquid with a pungent odor. In its size, the butterfly can reach up to 50 mm in length. Mostly leads a daytime lifestyle, but occasionally found at night. It feeds on legumes.
The waves
These butterflies are very harmful to forestry. It has over 2700 species. The butterfly is medium in size. One of the most famous species is unpaired silkworm. This insect got its name because of the significant differences in the sizes of male and female.
For example, males have a wingspan of 45 mm, for a female - 7.5 cm. And males are much darker than females. In males, the wings are painted in a dark brown color with the presence of black transverse waves. The female is gray-white with the presence of dark waves.
Butterflies have a velvety texture and black color with a span of 50-60 mm. At the corners of the front wings there are white spots that are separated by a strip of red. The same strip is located on the edge of the lower wings.
A beautiful European insect leading a daytime lifestyle. The wingspan is 150 mm. The whole color is reddish brown with a fancy pattern that looks like a peacock eye. On the upper wings, one spot is located in the corners.
And on the bottom of each wing there is one black spot, in the middle of which there is another blue spot. These spots reminiscent of the eyes scare off enemies butterflies.
Marigold
The color of this diurnal butterfly is rather modest. It has a brown or red color with a pattern of white and black rings. It feeds on cereals of wild plants and loves shade.
Swallowtail belongs to the family sailboats and is listed in the Red Book. Coloring is of different colors, but the most beautiful is the swallowtail, which has a yellow color. A wide black stripe with moon-shaped spots along the edges is visible on the wings. The hind wings have an elongated tail in blue with spots of yellow-blue hue. In the bottom corner there is a red spot.
There are many more species that you can talk about endlessly and write several volumes of books. This article provides only the smallest part of them.
The butterfly belongs to the class of insects, type of arthropod, order Lepidoptera (Lepidóptera).
The Russian name “butterfly” comes from the Old Slavonic word “babъka”, meaning the concept of “old woman” or “grandmother”. In the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, it was believed that they were the souls of the dead, so people treated them with respect.
Butterfly: description and photo. The structure and appearance of butterflies
In the structure of the butterfly, two main departments are distinguished - the body protected by solid chitinous shell and wings.
Butterfly - an insect whose body consists of:
- Head sedentary connected to the chest. The head of the butterfly has a rounded shape with a slightly flattened occipital part. The round or oval convex eyes of a butterfly in the form of hemispheres, occupying most of the lateral surface of the head, have a complex facet structure. Butterflies have color vision, and moving objects perceive better than motionless ones. In many species, extra simple parietal eyes are located behind the antennae. The structure of the oral apparatus depends on the species and can be a sucking or gnawing type.
- Breast with a three-segment structure. The front part is much smaller than the middle and back, where three pairs of legs are located, which have a structure characteristic of insects. Spurs are located on the shins of the front legs of the butterfly, designed to maintain the hygiene of the antennae.
- The abdomen, having the shape of an elongated cylinder, consisting of ten segments of an annular shape with spiracles located on them.
Butterfly structure
The antennae of the butterfly are located on the border of the parietal and frontal parts of the head. They help butterflies to navigate in the environment, perceiving air vibrations and various smells.
The length and structure of the antennae depends on the species.
Two pairs of butterfly wings, covered with flat scales of various shapes, have a webbed structure and are pierced by transverse and longitudinal veins. The size of the hind wings may be the same as the front or significantly smaller. The pattern of butterfly wings varies from species to species and captivates with its beauty.
During macro photography, scales on the wings of butterflies are very clearly visible - they can have completely different shapes and colors.
Butterfly wings - macro shot
The appearance and color of the butterfly wings serve not only for intraspecific sexual recognition, but also act as a protective camouflage that allows you to merge with the surroundings. Therefore, colors can be either monochrome or variegated with a complex pattern.
The size of the butterfly, or better to say the wingspan of the butterfly, can range from 2 mm to 31 cm.
Classification and types of butterflies
The large order of Lepidoptera includes more than 158 thousand representatives. There are several classification systems for butterflies, quite complex and intricate, with constantly changing changes in them. The most successful scheme is considered to divide this detachment into four suborders:
1) Primary tooth moths. These are small butterflies, the wingspan of which ranges from 4 to 15 mm, with a gnawing mouth apparatus and antennae that reach up to 75% of the size of the front wings. The family consists of 160 species of butterflies.
Typical representatives are:
- golden small-winged ( Micropteryx calthella);
- small-winged kaluzhnitsy ( Micropteryx calthella).
2) Spadeless butterflies. The wingspan of these insects, covered with dark small scales with cream or black spots, does not exceed 25 mm. Until 1967 they were attributed to primary toothed moths, with which this family has much in common.
The most famous butterflies from this suborder:
- flour moth ( Asopia farinalis l.),
- fire cone of fir cones ( Dioryctrica abieteila).
3) Heterobatmia represented by one family Heterobathmiidae.
4) Proboscis butterflies, constituting the largest suborder, consisting of several dozen families, which include more than 150 thousand species of butterflies. The appearance and size of the representatives of this suborder are very diverse. Below are a few families showing the full diversity of proboscis butterflies.
- Sailboats Family, represented by medium and large butterflies with a wingspan of 50 to 280 mm. The pattern on the wings of butterflies consists of black, red or blue spots of various shapes, clearly visible on a white or yellow background. The most famous of them are:
- Swallowtail butterfly;
- Sailboat “Glory of Bhutan”;
- Birdhouse Queen Alexandra and others.
Swallowtail butterfly
- Nymphalidae Family, a characteristic feature of which is the absence of thickened veins on wide angular wings with variegated coloring and various patterns. The wingspan of butterflies varies from 50 to 130 mm. Representatives of this family are:
- Butterfly Admiral;
- Butterfly daytime peacock eye;
- Butterfly urticaria;
- Butterfly mourning, etc.
Butterfly Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Butterfly daytime peacock eye
Butterfly urticaria (Aglais urticae)
Butterfly mourning
- represented by night butterflies with narrow wings, the span of which does not exceed 13 cm and differs in a characteristic pattern. The abdomen of these insects is thickened spindle-shaped. The most famous butterflies of this family:
- Brazhnik "dead head";
- Oleander hawk;
- Hogweed poplar.
- Scoop Family, which includes more than 35,000 species of moths. The range of gray with a metallic shade of fluffy wings averages 35 mm. However, in South America there is a species of agrippin titania butterflies with a wingspan of 31 cm or a peacock-eye atlas, the size of which resembles a medium-sized bird.
Where do butterflies live in nature?
The distribution area of \u200b\u200bbutterflies on the planet is very wide. It does not include only the icy expanses of Antarctica. Butterflies live everywhere from North America and Greenland to the coast of Australia and the island of Tasmania. The largest number of species found in Peru and India. These fluttering insects fly not only in the flowering valleys, but also high in the mountains.
What do butterflies eat?
The diet of many butterflies consists of pollen and nectar from flowering plants. Many species of butterflies feed on tree sap, overripe and rotting fruit. A brazhnik dead head is a real gourmet, because it often flies into the hives and regales on the honey they have collected.
Some nymphalidae butterflies need various trace elements and extra moisture. Their source is excrement, urine and sweat of large animals, wet clay, as well as human sweat.
.These butterflies include the Madagascar comet, the wingspan of which is 14-16 cm. The life span of this butterfly is 2-3 days.
There are also “vampires” among butterflies. For example, males of some species of scoop maintain their strength thanks to the blood and tear fluid of animals.
Such is the vampire butterfly (lat. Callyptra).
Lepidoptera (or butterflies) are a fairly large detachment of insects. It includes about 150 thousand species. Lepidoptera representatives are various butterflies, moths and moths. Their main habitats are forests, meadows, and also fields and gardens.
Butterflies are characterized by two pairs of large wings, usually brightly colored. The wings are covered with small chitinous multi-colored or colorless scales laid like tiles. Hence the name of the detachment - Lepidoptera. Scales are modified hairs, they are also on the body.
Microscope flakes Usually, in butterflies, leading a daily lifestyle (lemongrass, cabbage, etc.), in a calm state, the wings fold together over the body. In nocturnal lepidopterans, they are roof-shaped (for example, in moths).
The bright coloring of the wings serves the butterflies to recognize representatives of their species, and also often carries a protective function from predators. So, in some Lepidoptera, wings folded together are similar to a leaf, that is, an insect disguises itself as an environment. Other lepidopterans have spots on their wings that resemble the eyes of birds from afar. Such butterflies have a warning color. Usually moths have a protective color, and they find each other by smell.
Lepidoptera are insects with a complete transformation. Larvae of caterpillars emerge from the eggs, which subsequently pupate, after which a butterfly emerges from the pupa (the adult is an adult sexually mature stage). Caterpillars usually live longer than adults. There are species in which the larva lives for several years, while the butterfly itself is about a month.
Caterpillars feed mainly on foliage, have a gnawing mouth apparatus. In butterflies, the sucking mouth is represented by a proboscis folded into a spiral tube, which is formed from the lower jaws and lower lip. Adult Lepidoptera most often feed on flower nectar and pollinate plants. Their long proboscis unwinds, and they can penetrate deep into the flower.
Lepidoptera caterpillars, in addition to three pairs of jointed legs, have pseudopods, which are body outgrowths with suction cups or hooks. With their help, the larva is kept on leaves and branches, and also crawls. Real legs are most often used to hold food.
Caterpillars in the mouth have silk glands that secrete a secret, which in the air turns into a thin thread from which the larvae weave cocoons during pupation. In some representatives (for example, silkworm), the thread has value. People get their silk. Therefore, the silkworm is bred as a pet. Also, silk thread, but coarser, is obtained from oak silkworm.
Many among lepidopteran pests of forests, agricultural fields and gardens. So with a strong reproduction of the oak leafworm and the Siberian silkworm, hectares of forests can be destroyed. Cabbage white caterpillars feed on cabbage leaves and other cruciferous plants.
Morphologically lepidoptera (butterflies) make up a fairly compact group of winged insects. The whole body and 4 wings are densely covered with scales and partially by hairs. A head with large faceted eyes, well-developed lower labial palps and a long spiral twisted sucking proboscis located between them. The wings are usually wide, triangular, less often narrow or even lanceolate. The front and rear wings are fastened to each other by a special coupling device. The most common is the frenate type of wing engagement. In this case, the coupling is carried out using frenulum (bridle) and retinulum (clutch). The frenum is represented by one or more strong setae at the base of the rear wing, and the hook is either by a set of setae or a curved outgrowth at the base of the front wing. The venation of lepidopteran wings is characterized by significant (reduction of transverse veins and slight branching of the main longitudinal trunks. The scales on the wings are differently colored and often form a rather complex pattern. Often there is a structural coloration (spots with a metallic sheen). A fringe consisting of fringe stretches along the outer and rear edges of the wings several rows of scales and hairs. The middle chest is most developed in the thoracic region. The prothorax on the sides of the tergite carries lobate appendages - pathagia. the formations are located above the base of the front wings and are called tegules.The flies are running, often with spurs on the legs. For some lepidopterans, the front legs are strongly (reduced, hidden in the hairline, and butterflies move on four legs. The abdomen consists of 9 segments. The last segment is sharply modified , especially in males, in which it forms a copulative apparatus, in females the last segments of the abdomen (usually from the seventh to the ninth) are transformed into a telescopic soft ovipositor. In most cases, the reproductive system of females in butterflies opens out through two genital openings. One of them, the terminal, serves only for laying eggs, the second, located either at the end of the seventh segment or at the eighth segment, is an aggregate hole.
Family of ermine moths (hyponomeutidae) -butterflies, usually with a branched radius of the front wings with the formation of a radial cell. Moths, their caterpillars eat the leaves of the apple tree or bird cherry, respectively, braiding them with a web. Cabbage and other cruciferous plants are badly damaged by cabbage moth (Plutella maculipennis).
Leaflet family (Tortricidae) - differs from mole-like ones with wider elongated-triangular front wings, often with a transversely chopped apex, hind wings are elongated-oval, without a long fringe.
Nymphalidae family Representatives of this family are distinguished by underdeveloped front legs of butterflies, the pupa hangs head down.
The family of whites (pieridae) - butterflies usually have white or yellow wings, pupae are attached by the rear end of the body and are belted with silk thread. This includes pests cabbage (pieris brassicae) and female replica (pieris rapae).
Coconut family (lasiocampidae) butterflies of medium size or large, with a thick bushy body. The antennae of males are cirrus, those of females are comb. Proboscis are absent. The wings are wide, usually without clues. These include ringed spiders (malacosoma Neustria).
Scoop Family (Noctuidae) - the proboscis is developed, the front wings are usually with a hawk-like scoop pattern, consisting of 5 thin wavy transverse stripes and 3 middle spots. These include winter scoop (agrotis segetum), which is very harmful in the autumn to shoots of winter crops.
Bear family (arctiidae) characterized by a developed proboscis, the caterpillars are very shaggy, hence the name of the family.
Family of burrell (lymantriidae) are distinguished by an underdeveloped proboscis, feathery antennae of a male, caterpillars with tufts of hairs, a pupa usually hairy, in a rare silky cocoon, on plants or among plant debris. This includes unpaired silkworm (lymantria dispar).
