Chapter: 04. Animals Common Insects
Animals: Common Insects
Welcome, young scientists! Get ready to explore the fascinating world of insects, those tiny creatures that are all around us. In this self-study adventure, you’ll learn all about common insects, their amazing body parts, how a butterfly grows from an egg, what makes some insects “social,” and how to protect yourself from the ones that can cause harm. Let’s dive in!
What Are Insects?
Insects are small creatures that you can find almost everywhere – in your home, garden, and even by the roadside! They come in many different colors and sizes. Most insects have wings that help them fly, but some, like ants and bedbugs, cannot fly.
Here are some common insects you might have seen:
Body Parts of an Insect
Every adult insect has six legs. Imagine an insect’s body like a building with three main floors! These three main parts are:
Head: This is where the insect’s eyes and antennae are. Thorax: The middle part, where the legs and wings are attached. Abdomen: The last part, which contains many of the insect’s organs. Insects also have a pair of antennae on their head. Think of these as their super-sensors! They help insects to sense and feel things in their surroundings, like finding food or avoiding danger.
Did you know insects don’t have bones inside their bodies like we do? Instead, they have a hard outer covering. This hard shell is made up of a material called chitin. It acts like an armor, protecting their soft bodies inside.
Life Cycle of a Butterfly
All insects start their lives as eggs. These eggs don’t just magically become adult insects! They go through several fascinating stages of development. This series of stages, from an egg to an adult, is called the life cycle of an organism.
Let’s look at the amazing life cycle of a butterfly:
Egg: The butterfly’s life begins as a tiny egg, usually laid on a leaf. Larva (Caterpillar): The egg hatches into a larva, which we commonly call a caterpillar. This stage is all about eating and growing! The caterpillar munches on leaves and grows bigger and bigger. Pupa (Chrysalis): Once the caterpillar has eaten enough and grown, it sheds its skin and forms a protective covering around itself. For butterflies, this covering is called a chrysalis (or pupa). Inside this chrysalis, a magical transformation takes place! Adult Butterfly: After some time, a beautiful adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, ready to fly, find nectar, and lay its own eggs, starting the cycle all over again. Social Insects
Some insects are not loners; they love to live and work together in large groups called colonies. These insects are known as social insects. Wasps, ants, and honeybees are great examples of social insects. They work together, sharing tasks to help their entire colony thrive.
Ants
Ants are amazing social insects that come in various sizes. In an ant colony, there are three main types of ants:
The Queen: Her main job is to lay eggs and ensure the colony grows. Female Workers: These ants do all the hard jobs! They find food, build the nest, care for the young, and defend the colony. They divide up their work to carry out all the tasks needed. Males: Their primary role is to mate with the queen. Ants are excellent team players. When an ant discovers food, it leaves a trail of scent. This scent acts like a map, guiding other ants from the colony straight to the food source! This teamwork makes ants very successful at solving problems, like finding enough food for everyone.
You can find ants almost anywhere: in your homes (especially kitchens!), gardens, and along roadsides. They love sweets, bread, and various cooked and uncooked foods. This is why if you spill sugar on the floor, you might soon see a crowd of ants coming to enjoy the feast!
Honeybees
Honeybees are another famous example of social insects that live in very large colonies. Just like ants, different bees in the colony have specific tasks:
Queen Bee: The main egg-layer of the colony. Drones: Male bees whose job is to mate with the queen. Worker Bees: Female bees that do most of the work, including collecting nectar and pollen, building the honeycomb, making honey, and caring for the young. Honeybees love to spend their time in gardens and orchards because that’s where they find flowers. They feed on nectar (a sweet liquid) and pollen from flowers. When a honeybee finds a good source of food, it can even dance to tell other honeybees where to find it!
Honeybees build special nests called honeycombs, which are usually inside a beehive. They use these honeycombs to store the delicious honey they make. Honey is not just for us; it’s also how honeybees survive cold winters! They eat their stored honey and huddle together with other bees to keep warm.
Fun Fact: Honeybee Farming (Beekeeping)
Did you know that humans practice honeybee farming, also known as beekeeping? This is done to collect honey and beeswax, which are both very useful to us!
Some Harmful Insects
While some insects are incredibly useful to us (like honeybees for honey and silkworms for silk – the cultivation of silkworms for silk is called silk farming or sericulture), many others can cause harm.
Here are some common harmful insects and the problems they cause:
Ants: Even though they are social, they can get into our food or crawl around our house, spoiling food items. Termites: These insects love to eat wood! They can cause serious damage to wooden items in your home, like beds, cabinets, and doors.
Silverfish: These small, scaly insects can destroy clothes, books, and paper items. Beetles: Depending on the type, beetles can eat away plants in your garden, wood, and even food. Cockroaches: Considered dirty and unwanted insects, cockroaches prefer dark corners and usually come out at night to search for food (they are nocturnal insects, meaning active at night). They carry a lot of dirt and germs on their bodies, which means they can spread diseases and make us sick. Mosquitoes: These buzzing insects are mostly active at night and can stop us from getting a good night’s sleep. Mosquitoes bite us to suck our blood, and in doing so, they can spread serious diseases. For example: The Anopheles mosquito spreads Malaria. The Aedes mosquito spreads Dengue and Chikungunya. Honeybees: While useful, honeybees can sting you if they feel threatened, and their sting can be very painful! Bedbugs: These tiny insects live in places like sofas and bed mattresses. If you wake up with itchy bites, especially when you’ve been asleep, bedbugs might be hiding in your bed!
Houseflies: Houseflies often come into our homes from outside. They love to sit in dirty places, like garbage, where they pick up lots of germs. Then, they land on our food, making it unhealthy. Eating food that a housefly has landed on can make us ill. Houseflies are known as vectors of many diseases (meaning they carry and transmit diseases). Head Lice: These tiny insects are super annoying! They live in human hair and feed by sucking blood from the scalp, which can make your head very itchy.
Protecting Ourselves from Harmful Insects
It’s important to take steps to protect ourselves and our homes from these harmful insects. Here are some effective ways:
Install Nets: Fix nets on your doors and windows. This is a great way to prevent flying insects like mosquitoes and flies from entering your house. Cover Food: Always keep food items covered. This stops insects like flies and ants from landing on your food and spoiling it or spreading germs. Keep Surroundings Clean: Make sure your house and garden are clean. Dispose of garbage properly in covered dustbins. A clean environment is less attractive to pests. Prevent Stagnant Water: Do not let water collect anywhere in your surroundings, especially in old tires, pots, or buckets. Mosquitoes lay their eggs and breed in still, stagnant water. Avoid Bushy Areas: When playing outside, especially in gardens or parks, try to avoid dark or very bushy areas where insects might be hiding, to prevent bites. Remedies for Insect Bites and Stings
If you do get a mild insect bite or sting, here are some things you can do for immediate relief:
Remove Sting (if visible): If you can see the sting (like from a bee), gently brush or scrape it off. For bee stings, you can apply baking soda mixed with a little water to form a paste. Apply Cold: Put an ice pack or anything cold on the wound. This helps to reduce swelling and pain.
Seek Medical Help for Allergic Reactions: If you see any signs of a serious allergic reaction, such as a lot of redness spreading, severe swelling, difficulty breathing, or widespread itchy skin, call for medical help immediately. First Aid: Remember, first aid is the immediate help given to an injured person before any proper medical help arrives.
Helpful Tip for Ants:
Do you have an ant problem at home? Try spraying some white vinegar in the areas where you often see ants. They don’t like the smell!
Why Calamine Lotion?
Some people suggest applying calamine lotion on an insect bite because it helps to soothe the itchy skin and reduce redness and irritation.
Chapter Summary
Let’s quickly review everything we’ve learned about common insects!
Insects: Small animals with six legs, generally one or two pairs of wings, antennae, and a hard outer covering. Chitin: The material that makes up the hard, outer covering of an insect. Life Cycle: The series of developmental stages from an egg to an adult organism. Butterfly Life Cycle: Egg → Larva (Caterpillar) → Pupa (Chrysalis) → Adult Butterfly. Body Parts of an Insect: An adult insect’s body is divided into three main parts: Head, Thorax, and Abdomen. They also have a pair of antennae and six legs. Social Insects: Insects that live in colonies or groups and work together. Examples: Ants, Honeybees, Wasps. Harmful Insects: Insects that can cause problems for us. Examples: Cockroaches (spread diseases, nocturnal), Mosquitoes (bite, spread diseases like Malaria, Dengue), Ants (spoil food), Termites (eat wood), Silverfish (destroy clothes), Houseflies (spread germs). Protecting Ourselves from Harmful Insects: Use nets on windows and doors. Keep food covered and surroundings clean. Do not let water collect. Follow first aid for insect bites and stings.
Self Study
