Insects for Fun!

The wild world of Velvet Worms!

On this week's episode we look at the animal that bridges the gap between worms and insects. Velvet worms are incredibly unique for a number of reasons and in this episode we cover everything you'd want to know about why these worms are so cool. 
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Featured Artists: Jordy Chandra, S N U G, Purrple cat
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome back everyone to another Tuesday where we dive into something Entomological, except today is a little different (insert sound effect). We have a listener submission from Owen out in England wanting to learn more about the Velvet Worm, and after seeing them I wanted to learn more too. 
 
Velvet worms are in the class called udeonychophora which are worm-like and caterpillar-like animals from an ancient time that still exist today! Their appearance has changed very little over the past 500  million years, and they are considered to be a link between arthropods and annelids. For those that need a recap, annelids are worms. 
 
Anyway, there are about 230 known species for these fellas and those are divided by two families. Unfortunately for many of us, finding these animals is not an easy feat. because they’re only found in sporadic geographic locations. For example the family Peripatidae can be found from Central America to the bottom of Brazil, and select countries in the east like one island of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and one country in Africa, and the other family known as Peripatopsidae can only be found in New Zealand, Papa New Guinea, select parts of Australia, one location in Chile and Lesotho South Africa. If you’ve ever seen one in real life and have a cool story about it, definitely hit me up on IG or FB cause I wanna know about it. 
 
So these not-quite worms and not-quite arthropods are super cute, and they have some interesting features as well. So let's jump into the description but pictures of course will be available on the IG and FB page (links to those in the description). 
 
Velvet worms have a segmented body, but it's long and cylindrical with stubby appendages called oncopods or lobopods which they use to traverse their environment. 
Think of these worms as like a cross between a soft caterpillar and a centipede but with max cuteness. The average length for these is around 5cm or 2inch but they can be as long as 20cm or 8inch and as short as 0.5cm or 0.2 inches, and they come in a variety of crazy colors like blue, red, orange, gold, blue AND orange, I mean seriously what more could you want.  
 
The heads have two antennae and two simple eyes (unless a blind species), and a circular mouth that sits belly side of the head and as a result you would never know they had a mouth unless it lifts its head.
The amount of feet these worms have is dependent on the species, 
 
but a really unique feature for all of them would be the hard chitin claws they hide within these soft stubby feet. 
 
This is actually where the name Onychophora comes from because the ancient Greek means claws. Don’t worry though! These claws have one purpose only and that’s to help them stand their ground while crawling around. These claws actually have 3 layers to them and fit inside each other like Russian nesting dolls, and the outermost layer can be shed.
 
They also have two pairs of claw-like mandibles hidden in their mouths. One is more external and the other is further back. The external ones move purely through muscle usage but the internal ones move through hydrostatic pressure. In fact, the whole body gets its locomotion from hydrostatic pressure changes. Now for us non engineer people, hydrostatic pressure refers to the pressure a liquid creates on the outer edges of a confined space. This is where blood pressure gets its name from. 
 
As for why these worms are called velvet worms has to do with the soft and velvety texture of their bodies. The skin of these worms is covered in small bristles known as papillae which are sensitive to both touch and smell. We have papillae too, on our tongues, which for us are used to taste, and grip food. The papillae on velvet worms are actually covered in small scales of chitin and this is actually water-repellent as well. Despite the skin being water-repellent and very elastic it does have a problem, and that would be the inability to control when water escapes the body, and as a result, these worms need to live in areas that have high levels of moisture which explains their very sporadic geographic range. 
 
Now I wanna backtrack a bit about the claw-like mandible, because as it turns out these cute worms are not very cuddly. In fact, they are quite ferocious, and prey upon smaller invertebrates like spiders, woodlice, beetles, and termites. One species even hunts in a group like a pack of wolves. As for how they can even catch the prey, that comes down to their special slime glands on either side of the head. You see, kinda like spider-man, these worms can eject threads of sticky slime and they use this to trap prey and halt predators.
 
The worms can’t directly aim the strands of slime though, and instead rely on the fact that the speed of ejection causes the glands to inflate and rotate creating a spiral of sticky goo that can ensnare prey and predators from up to 2 feet away. It gets even crazier though because the slime itself is fast drying, and hardens causing the targets to freeze in their tracks. The entire process is also extremely fast happening under a second. 
 
The worms are not very well equipped at sight though and it really doesn’t do them any favors that they primarily feed at night too. Because of these reasons they rely on vibrations in the air, and once a prey item is located they actually sneak up and poke it repeatedly for extremely brief moments to try and analyze the size and whether it's worth it or not. The worms start their hunts around dusk and continue until dawn, at which point they need to retreat and find a moist shady place to hide. That being said, if its a rainy day then it is possible for them to do their thing during the day. 
 
Earlier I mentioned that one species hunts in packs and I wanna dive into that a bit, because the specifics on it are kinda wild. The species is called Euperipatoides rowelli and it's found in Australia! This species holds a matriarchy lead by the most dominant female. Essentially hierarchy is formed by females annoying each other by poking and prodding with their antennae. The female who can tolerate the most. This species lives together in groups up to 15 individuals, and the larger the group the faster the foraging is completed. Feeding is prioritized by rank, so the head female gets first dibs and feeds alone followed by the other females, males and the young in that order. 
 
When it comes to reproduction, almost all the species reproduce sexually, which means there is a need for males and females. They are also sexually dimorphic with females usually being larger than males. By far the most interesting details about their reproduction are in the methods that different genera use. For example in the genus peripatus, males will actually leave a package of sperm known as a spermatophore on the back or sides of a female and then Amoebocytes from the female's blood actually collect at that location and break down the skin wall and sperm package allowing its contents to be absorbed into the body. That’s insane! Another wacky method would be the use of head structures to deposit spermatophores into females which can be seen with Australian species. Traditional copulation doesn’t seem to be a commonality for these worms, but then again, these velvet worms are far from normal. 
 
When it comes to giving birth the females have three different strategies. 
 
The first is your standard egg laying which actually only occurs in the family Peripatopsidae and this also happens to be the more primitive family as well. 
 
The second and most widely used strategy is known as ovoviviparous and this refers to the process of incubating eggs within the body until they are ready to hatch! 
 
And last but not least some velvet worms do indeed give live birth! This occurs in both families but seems to be more restricted to areas that provide a stable climate and food source year round. 
 
The amount of offspring a velvet worm can produce in their lifetime caps at around 23, and they only mate once! In fact, because they only mate once for the entirety of their life, they have special organs dedicated to storing sperm, and some females can mate before sexual maturity and just store the sperm until they’re ready to reproduce. 
 
Now before we end today’s episode there is some hope to those of us who would like to see one in the flesh, because as it turns out these worms can be purchased as pets online or even in certain pet stores. If you wanna try your hands at keeping one of these wild worms I’d certainly recommend it as they are very cute, and easy to care for. The lifespan for these can last up to 6 years, and based on the size of the food and worm they only need food once per week or per every four weeks. 

This stick is walking without me! (Australian Spiny Stick Insect)

This week we are looking into one of the most popular stick insects around the globe! The Australian spiny stick insect happens to make a great pet and teaching tool, and it's got quite a few tricks up its sleeve. 
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This week's featured artists: Mitchel Logan and Blue Wednesday.
 
Transcript: 
 
It’s Tuesday! Or Monday for some of you and that means it’s time to talk about a cool insect with me as your host. We have another listener request episode this week from Chantelle out in Australia, and with that let's begin episode 42.
 
Australia's spiny stick insect is scientifically known as Extatosoma tiaratum, which translates to Ecstatic-bodied tiara! Quite the dainty name for something that looks monstrous to many. This big stick insect is native to Queensland and New South Wales which are both on the east coast of Australia, but because they happen to be easy to raise, and docile, these insects have been shipped around the world and used in various museums and educational facilities. I’m not saying they can be found in the wild around the world, but escaped populations might exist in Australia’s neighboring islands like New Guinea for example. 
 
These insects go by many names like Australian Walking Stick, Spinies, Macleay’s Spectre after the naturalist William Macleay who described them, Spiny stick insects, and spiny leaf insects. Now you might be confused about why it goes by both leaf and stick insects and I’m gonna clear that up right now.
Stick insects and leaf insects are terms for two different body shapes of insects in the order Phasmatodea, and as such are also divided by their family name. Leaf insects in the family Phylliidae are typically very flat and look like leaves while stick insects in the family Phasmatidae are usually more twig-like. Today’s spiny stick insect is indeed a stick insect within the family Phasmatidae, BUT! The females have a pretty ambiguous body shape that makes them look as if they could be a leaf insect too. And yeah I’m specifically talking about the girls here because this insect is sexually dimorphic which means males and females are pretty different. The females for this species are longer and a bit more thicc. They also have leaf-shaped arms with very small wings. The males on the other hand are thin with very long wings, and their legs do not widen out to the same leafy extent as their counterparts. 
I think the females are actually the most commonly photographed as well, but I’ll put pictures of both sexes up on the socials. 
 
So as I mentioned earlier these insects are very popular as both pets and exhibit insects for museums, and as such there is a wealth of knowledge about how to raise them and what they eat. Wild populations are known to feed on Eucalyptus, but they can also eat brambles like raspberry bushes, oak, and rose bushes as well. In fact, most domestic populations are raised on rose or berry bushes, because Eucalyptus isn’t exactly easy to get outside of Australia. 
 
The life cycle begins as an egg 2mm in length which is like the tip of a lightly used crayon, how do I know that? Because that’s what Google sensei told me. Anyway, here's where things get crazy. The eggs look like calico brown seeds, and not just to humans. 
 
Female spiny stick insects actually flick their eggs on the ground so that ants from the genus Leptomyrmex will take them home and keep them safe until they hatch! It gets even wilder because the seeds actually have a small plug called a capitulum that’s edible for the ants with no consequence to the stick insect. This is mimicry to the extreme to the point where the eggs even smell like ant food. I have no idea what that would be exactly but what I do know is that the ants keep these eggs in their homes until they hatch, which is a long time by the way. Like over 6 months of time and sometimes two years. The time it takes is dependent on the conditions of its environment. For example, dry and unsuitable weather might cause the egg to remain in this state for longer as opposed to a warm and relatively humid environment. Upon hatching these first instars actually resemble red-headed spider ants which also happen to be the ants which housed them.
 
After the stick insects hatch they begin their ascent into trees of host plants. In most wild cases that would be Eucalyptus. These small nymphs go through 5 molts if they are males and 6 molts if they are female with each one looking very much like a stick or dried leaves. Something really cool is that if a stick insect loses a leg while it is still a nymph, that leg will actually grow back in the next molt, just not as long as the original. That being said, if it's already an adult and loses a limb then it’s gone for good. In regards to their molting, these insects actually need to hang upside down on something for the best chance of having a clean molt. Their bodies are pretty big with females reaching a length of 20cm and as a result they rely on gravity to help them slip out. 
 
In the wild, these insects are preyed upon by birds, but they do a pretty good job at mimicking their surroundings. They even go as far as to sway their bodies like branches or leaves in a tree. One study actually looked at whether or not wind triggers stick insect body sways, and the answer was yes it does! 
 
Aside from blending into their surroundings, these stick insects do have some other methods of warding off predators. Both males and females if threatened will strike a pose that mimics scorpions by curling their abdomen up and elevating it by standing only on their front four legs. Males can also flare out their wings and both are able to release a defense odor that to us has a kind of toffee smell, but to other animals is gross, unless you don't like toffee. They also cross their hind legs in a defensive position to protect their backs. These insects are all bark and no bite though which is another reason they make great pets and educational tools for learning about insects. 
 
If you are interested in raising some of these yourself it's really not that complicated. You simply need a large enclosure with adequate air flow, and a heating source if you live in places where it gets colder than 16C or 60 degrees F in your home during the year. When it comes to food most people will take cuttings from raspberry, blackberry, rose or other known host plants and place them in a vase or jar with water. 
 
You need to be careful though, just because they can eat any of these plants does not mean the insects you receive will. Just like people, they have their individual preferences, so using what the parents were raised on is a good place to start since that is what they are genetically predisposed to wanting. 
 
These insects have a lifespan of 1 year in the wild but up to 2 in captivity. They are also a gift that keeps on giving because the females can lay up to 1000 eggs in their lifetime and they do not need a male for fertilization. The Australian spiny stick insects are parthenogenic which means that the females can produce viable eggs that are clones of herself! This is something I went into detail on in episode 26 with the web spinners so I’m not gonna say much more other than If you take good care of your sticks then you’ll never not have any. 

Toe Biters! The beasty bugs of our fresh waters (Giant Water Bugs)

This week we are diving into giant water bug territory! Literally and figuratively... this bug has many names like toe biter, water scorpion, water cockroach etc and you will learn all about why that is and just what kind of bug this is. 
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Featured Artists: HM Surf, Sleepermane, Sátyr and Phlocalyst
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome to episode 41 of Insects for Fun! I shouldn’t be surprised that I’ve been able to keep this up for so long but I am. Anyway, summer is officially in the air for many of us around the world and I thought what better way to ring in the season than with something crazy. So… here we are! 
 
This week we are talking about Giant Water Bugs, also known as water scorpions, water roaches, Toe Biters, electric light bugs, and to Floridians, Alligator ticks or Alligator fleas. We’ll get into some of the names later, but right now I want to get into some basics. 
 
Giant water bugs are a freshwater Hemipteran in the family Belostomatidae. In other words, they are indeed true bugs as the name suggests and include the largest true bug period. The species which holds the Guinness world record for the largest water bug and therefore largest true bug goes to a South American species known as Lethocerus maximus. This giant water bug has a maximum length of around 4.5 inches or 11.5 centimeters and can be found in Venezuela and Brazil, but to be honest I think there are larger individuals out there. Water bugs are found throughout the world minus Europe and the Poles but as it turns out, most are found in the Neotropics which explains why the largest comes from South America. 
 
These bugs like other bugs are hemimetabolous which means they do not have a larval stage, and they are also predators upon hatching, targeting anything they can get their raptorial arms on. In fact, waterbugs can target prey that is 50 times their size! Yes, that includes fish, frogs, snakes, small birds, turtles and even muskrats! They’re basically an aquatic mantis. 
 
I actually have a personal story regarding this one. When I was a kid I was collecting tadpoles one time to raise into frogs, and I had them in this big glass bowl with pond water, pond dirt as sediment and plants etc, but over time I felt like the number of tadpoles was decreasing but I knew there’s no way they would eat each other. Then one day I saw the arms of a water scorpion come up out of the pond muck and grab a tadpole! After I saw that I realized that I had to remove it fast or the rest of my frogs would be goners. Once I removed it everything was fine, so make sure to check what you collect thoroughly if you’re netting stuff from a pond! 
 
How these bugs feed is by piercing prey with their stylet mouth and then sedating them with poisonous saliva which turns the prey's insides into goop. They really are swamp monsters or in this case vampires… I’m very glad we don’t have anything like that capable of getting us because I don’t think I could go swimming in reservoirs again… 
 
Some people have had the unfortunate experience of getting bit by these from stepping on one and the bite is definitely unforgettable. I fortunately have avoided them so far so I can only speak for others, but it seems that the pain is extreme, and will cause swelling and this is where some of the names like toe biter, and alligator tick come in.
 
These bugs also have some crazy methods for staying underwater. One is to breathe air from a straw-like appendage on their abdomen. Think of looney tunes or something where the character is hiding underwater and breathing out of a straw, but this bug does it from its butt. (Mkay). This is actually why sometimes you’ll see them at an angle with the tip of their abdomen at the surface. That’s not their only technique though. Giant water bugs will also store air bubbles under their wings and have that oxygen slowly diffuse into their body. And yeah I did say wings! 
Which brings us to where they get the name electric light bug. 
 
Giant water bugs happen to be attracted to light, and because they are capable of flying, people can find them near light fixtures that you would otherwise never expect to find one at. Water bugs will actually fly in search of new ponds or water sources when spawning and this happens from spring through fall. In colder wintering places these bugs bury themselves deep into the mud to escape freezing temperatures and stay dormant until spring comes back again. 
The parental strategies for giant water bugs actually vary depending on the genus, but in both cases the males are always the one left with all the parental duties.
Female giant water bugs in the genus Belostoma lay their eggs on the backs of males, and Females in the genus Lethocerus lay eggs on aquatic plants. Females of both genera actually sabotage each other's eggs though by removing them off whatever they’re on and replacing them with their own eggs. Talk about petty behavior. Meanwhile, the males continue to do what they do best which is making sure the eggs survive and hatch. They even go as far as to fan the eggs using their legs to make sure they get adequate oxygen and water flow. 
 
So Giant Water Bugs might not be the cutest things to exist or the most loved, but they do have a purpose, and that is to keep freshwater ecosystems in check. These big bugs are doing hard work in ponds, and creaks by controlling populations of mosquitoes, snails, mollusks, midges and other critters that might have massive population booms if left untouched. 
 
They are also a relatively commonplace food source for people in Southeast Asia where they can be eaten, raw, fried, or cooked/boiled. In Thailand they’re referred to as ma-lang-da-na and they are caught using nets and light traps. It’s also apparently a lot more common to get bit or attacked by these if you’re wading in rice paddies… 
 
The common predators for giant water bugs are actually larger animals of their prey like birds, bass, and bullfrogs for example. One of their best defenses is their natural ability to camouflage and quickly hide in mud or plants. The body of these bugs looks like a leaf that’s been soaking in the water too long so it's not easy for us to find them either. Now if that doesn’t work their second line of defense would be to play dead, but this mostly an out of water tactic. For example, if we see one and pick it up or start messing with it then it just feigns death to get us to move on. Probably works well if a cat finds one.
 

Everythin’s Bettah with a Wētā! (Wētās)

Wētās are the largest crickets on earth and are all native to New Zealand! In fact, most of them are endemic which means they can't be found anywhere else. There are five different kinds of wētās: Giant wētās, Tree wētās, Cave wētās, Ground wētās, and Tusked wētās, and this episode takes a look at all of them. 
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Featured Artists: HM Surf, Soundroll, mell-ø, kidcut, and cxlt. 
 
Transcript:
 
Welcome to Episode 40 of Insects for Fun! This week we have another listener request from a listener named Jamie out in New Zealand! Jamie reached out wanting to share a special group of insects found only in New Zealand, and today we are going to dive right into all the wacky facts about insects known as Wetas. 
 
Weta is the common name for a group of giant flightless crickets found only in New Zealand! There are approximately 100 species of Weta and they are split between two different families. The first family is Anostomatidae and the second is Raphidophoridae. I’m not saying crickets within these families can’t be found in other parts of the world, but what I am saying is that the 100 species that are referred to as Wetas cannot with the exception of a few species that made their way to Australia.
Jamie also informed me that Weta without the macrons means filth in Te Reo Maori which is the native language of New Zealand.
 
There are five kinds of Weta in New Zealand and I’m going to talk about all of them! There are the Giant wētas, Tree wētas, Ground wētas, Tusked wētas and Cave wētas. 
 
The first and most famous wetas would be the giant wētas with the largest species known as Wetapunga or Deinacrida heteracantha. The genus Deinacrida actually means terrible grasshopper which I think is funny considering how they really don’t do anything bad, and the name wetapunga translates to god of ugly things. They really just can’t catch a break I guess. This weta can reach a length of 100mm or 4 inches and weigh up to 70 grams! This is not the average weight though, I believe on average these insects weigh around 30 grams which is still a lot! Heavier than most sparrows in fact. Fortunately, this is a gentle giant, and feeds mainly on foliage though it will sometimes feed on smaller insects as well. It’s favorite food seems to be native plants with large leaves like the karaka, karamu, mamangi, mahoe, and kohekohe. Wew feels like I’m back in Hawaii. 
 
There are 11 species of Giant wētas and for the most part they look like really big camel crickets, but with a less arched back. They definitely are not like your average field or house cricket but they are nocturnal and spend their mornings and afternoons hiding under fallen palm fronds, ferns, or other large plant debris. In the night these critters come out from hiding to feed in trees or scavenge the ground. 
 
These crickets used to be found through Northland, Auckland, and the great barrier island, but have only been able to survive on little barrier island due to habitat degradation and exotic animals hunting them. Now many of you probably don’t know exactly what it means on a map so I’m going to do my best to explain it. New Zealand is an island country off the southeast coast of Australia, but it actually has two main islands. The north island and the south island. It’s kind of similar to Japan actually in terms of Hokkaido being the north island and Honshu being the south island of New Zealand. Now on this northern island of New Zealand the very north tip is called Northland, and right below that is Auckland. To the east of Auckland in the Ocean there are two Islands. The great barrier island and the little barrier island. For a long time these giant Weta have only been living on the little barrier island, but now thanks to breeding projects in Auckland, the giant wēta is being reintroduced to the northern island of New Zealand! In 2020 Wētapunga were actually reintroduced to Northland which was the first time they had been there in 180 years!
 
Now that you have an idea as to their distribution let’s get into the life cycle of these chungus crickets. These wēta reach adulthood in around 2 years, they’re a very bulky and large cricket and eggs are laid sporadically for many species between October and December with their life cycles not really reliant on seasons. That being said, the eggs of Wētapunga will stay dormant through winter if laid in the fall. It’s generally agreed upon that giant weta go through at least 10 molts before reaching adulthood. 
 
A really cool fact is that these giant bugs actually filled the role of rodents before land mammals arrived. They have an ancient history with New Zealand that dates back 190 million years which is around 100 million years before mammals appeared here. (WOW)
 
Now let’s get into Tree wētas! These are in the genus Hemideina and as you might expect are mostly arboreal which simply means they live in the trees! They like to occupy holes in trees which in the insect world are referred to as galleries. You might notice a trend with that word and it's safe to say that tunnels created by or used by insects are almost always referred to as galleries. Anyway, these wēta like to hide during the day in their trees and come out at night to feed on leaves, fruits, and other smaller insects. These ones can be found throughout New Zealand except for southland and lowland Otago. 
 
There are 7 species of tree weta and these insects are social with males often having a harem of up to 10 females. These harems are usually hidden within a hole or crevice of a tree, and males will often fight each other to gain control of them. Male Tree wētas actually have larger heads than females with strong jaws which they use to headbutt and fight each other. You ever see two dogs trying to one up each other by opening their mouths as wide as possible and clashing heads? Well, think of it like that but instead of doggos it's big crickets. 
 
Tree wetas are not as large as the wētapunga, but they are still larger than your average cricket with their size ranging from 4 to 6 cm or 1.5 to 2.3 inches. They also have large spikes on their hind legs which when brushed against the spikes on their abdomen create a loud rasping noise. 
These wēta will lift their hind legs in a menacing way if threatened to make themselves appear larger, and upon lowering they create their warning calls. 
 
Before we move on to the next group of Wetas there is an honorable mention for the tree wetas which goes to the mountain stone weta or Hemideina maori. This tree weta no longer lives in the trees, and has actually evolved to use crevices and other rocky hideouts in their alpine habitat. These weta can be found in the southern alps of New Zealand at elevations of 1100 to 1500 meters. Now because these insects have adapted to a colder environment they can actually survive being frozen solid. They are the world's largest insect capable of this, and maybe unsurprisingly they have a very long lifespan as well, up to 8 years. Sometimes it takes 4 years just to reach sexual maturity because the climate is so rough. 
 
Now if you don’t like the cold and harsh alps but want to see one of these you can also find them at lower elevations on the islands of Mou Waho and Mou Tapu in Lake Wanaka, which is a very large lake in southern New Zealand. 
 
Next up on our list would be the Ground wētas! There are over 30 species of ground weta believed to be in New Zealand, and they are all in the genus Hemiandrus. These wēta live in holes or under rocks and moss and can be found throughout New Zealand on both Northland and Southland as well as some offshore islands and even in Australia.
 
These wēta do not have ears on their legs the same way other wetas do, and as a result, don’t communicate through sounds in the air. They actually drum their bellies on leaves of shrubs and ferns or other substrates which can easily transmit vibratory morse codes. These weta are usually on the smaller side when compared to others with the smallest having an adult length of 7mm and the largest being 30mm or 1 inch in length. These ones really do resemble camel crickets but without the hunched back. 
 
Ground wetas are omnivores which feed at night on fruits or smaller insects. The females usually have long ovipositors but some species don’t which make them difficult to differentiate from the males. This is actually where the genus name Hemiandrus comes from because Hemiandrus translates to half male. 
 
Cave wetas are 60 or species within the family Raphidophoridae. These wēta have very long antennae and long legs built for jumping and they can actually jump 3 meters high.
Cave wētas are nocturnal and feed on plants, but not the leaves! They also feed on fungi, dead insects, and lichens. 
 
The crickets are docile and are actually found most in leaf litter, logs, in between rocks, and tree holes, but there are of course species that live in caves as well. These wēta lack hearing organs similar to the ground wetas and rely on vibrations through the ground to communicate with each other.
 
They are also on the smaller size for a weta as well with many only being a few cm in length, but there is one very large cave wēta which has a total length from the end of its antennae to the feet of its hind legs reaching a whopping 40cm. That’s over a foot long of wēta, but the body itself is small. 
 
Now it’s time to talk about the Tusked wētas of which there are three known species. There are the Northland Tusked wētas scientifically known as Anisoura nicobarica, the Mercury Islands Tusked wētas or Motuweta isolata, and lastly, Motuweta riparia which can be found in the Raukumara range of the north island. These wetas are named for their large tusks which males use to fight each other, similar to how the tree weta males fight using their large mandibles. The female tusked wētas do not have these long tusks and more closely resemble a ground weta.
 
As far as behaviors go it seems a shared trait among these wetas are that male duels using their tusks as well as scraping the tusks together to make warning sounds. Otherwise, the species are pretty different. For example the Northland Tusked weta more closely resembles a tree weta and have similar behavior in terms of living in trees with harems, but these ones actually plug up the galleries they live in using shavings and debris mixed with their saliva as opposed to tree wetas who just leave their doors wide open. 
 
The Mercury island wētas are more close in behavior to ground wētas, and take refuge in the soil. These weta used to be found only on the middle island of the Mercury islands but has since either gone extinct on that island or dropped to such a low population that they can no longer be tracked. The good news though is that a breeding project was started just before they disappeared on this middle island and there are new successful populations on the other islands now after clearing the mammalian predators. 
 
The last species referred to as motuwēta riparia is a moderately sized weta up to 36mm in length or 3.6 cm in length. If you’re a US listener that equates to 1.3 inches or so. Now this one is unique because unlike motuwēta isolata this riparia species is found along the coast of northland new zealand in large numbers despite being a ground weta surrounded by predators. That being said, this weta has a really cool defense mechanism and that would be to dive into streams and remain underwater until the surrounding area becomes safe. 
 
Wetas in general are food for introduced mammals like rodents and cats, but they are also preyed upon by lizards such as the tuatara and native birds like the kiwi and weka. Fortunately, there have been great strides in the protection of these incredible insects and a lot of care is continuing to be put into their conservation. 
 
Now before we wrap up I have a fun story regarding wēta that Jamie gave me. Jamie’s parents used to have a cat named Tawa (Love that name btw) which would actually bring wēta to their front doorstep and leave them there as gifts. I think anyone with an outdoor cat has experienced these kinds of gifts before, but in this case Tawa was always bringing home live weta and dropping them off near their shoes. Now as we mentioned earlier weta can make warning signals with their legs when threatened, so whenever Tawa brought one home they could hear the angry warning calls of a weta. They actually had to check their shoes too to make sure none were in there!
I’ve heard of snakes and scorpions in shoes but having a wēta? That’s a new one for me. 

What a peanut head… wait… that’s actually the name? (Fulgora laternaria)

The Peanut Headed Lanternfly is a crazy cool bug with a lot of legends. It also does not match its name at all aside from being peanut headed. Learn all about this whacky bug in today's episode.
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Transcript:
 
This is episode 39 of Insects for Fun! Time really does fly… but today we are not talking about flies at all despite the common name. 
 
Fulgora laternaria often called the Peanut headed lanternfly belongs to the family Fulgoridae and these bugs are very commonly referred to as lanternflies despite not being a fly at all! They don’t even light up, so how is it they got this name in the first place? Well, we will go into that later, but first let’s describe this week's featured bug. 
 
The peanut headed lanternfly is one of the largest lanternflies in the world reaching a length of 3 to 3.5 inches and a wingspan up to 6 inches in length. The most notable feature though is the bulbous peanut shaped extension from their heads. These alone are a little over half an inch, and this big extension also has some conspicuous eye spots on the sides which make it look like it’s capable of swallowing other smaller insects whole, but that’s just a ruse. And in case that wasn’t enough it also has some crazy looking eye spots on its wings too! 
This is another one of those bugs that warrants a good look so go on and give it a google or support the IG and FB page. Other common names for it are actually Alligator bug and snake cicada due to the head resembling that of a reptile. These crazy features are unique to the genus Fulgora and there are only a few species within this genus. 
One other defense mechanism that has been documented for these bugs would be their ability to release a foul smelling odor if heavily disturbed but this is a last resort tactic.
 
These bugs are indeed true bugs and can be found from Mexico down into South America and the adults can be found from June to December. Lanternflies are actually planthoppers and today’s bug does not feed on anything other than plant sap or Phloem. In fact their mouths are specifically designed for piercing plants unlike other bugs who can pierce and feed on insects too. 
 
The life cycle of these cool bugs starts when a male lures a female using vibrations by knocking its hollow peanut shaped head structure against a tree. It’s important to note that the peanut shaped thing is not the true head of the bug and some theories are actually that this fake head is not only used to scare away predators but also trick them into biting or attacking a false head. You might be thinking females don’t look the same but in this case they actually do so the purpose isn’t for mating.
 
These bugs form pairs in the summer months and the female lays a large group of eggs on to the host tree which is often a Guapinol tree scientifically known as Hymenaea courbaril. She also coats the eggs with a waxy substance to protect them from predators and harsh environmental factors. The end result looks like a big mantis egg sac. The nymphs hatch with the same peanut head the adults have but at a much smaller scale because the bugs are of course not big at all at that age. There isn't a lot of information publicly available on breeding and other behaviors so I’m not exactly sure how long it takes to reach adulthood but I do know the adults only live around 1 week despite being able to feed. I know these days we have many listeners from Columbia and Brazil so if any of you have any information regarding things you’ve seen please send me an email and I can post an update! 
 
In the meantime let's look at why they got the name they did and some crazy folktales surrounding these already very interesting bugs. We all know at this point where the peanut part of this whole thing is, but the lanternfly portion is truly strange.
 
The origins of how it got named a lanternfly start in 1705 when a german artist and naturalist named Maria wrote up a book titled metamorphosis insectorum surinamensis. This book is basically a catalog covering all the things she found while traveling in Suriname during 1699, and lantern bugs happen to be described here. The only thing is that in her description she states that these bugs light up their heads at night when both sexes are present, and the light is bright enough to read by. Now I don’t know if any of you have actually seen a lanternfly in person but uh… that’s just simply not true. Today scientists think she might have been confusing them with a big click beetle in the same area capable of lighting up its head. But being able to light up their heads is one of many strange myths these big bugs have accumulated over the years. 
 
There was an entire paper published looking at the folk lore and legends described by people from the village of Pedra Branca in Brazil and a couple of these myths were very popular and widespread.  
 
One of the most prominent beliefs is that the peanut headed lanternfly actually contains poison in its head and is capable of inflicting mortal wounds to people by flying at them and piercing them with their stingers. But this stinger is actually its mouth part referred to as a stylet, and it is purely for feeding on trees. There is no poison at all! What’s really interesting is that around 47% of the people interviewed for this study stated that the bug was a snake. You can’t really blame them though because it really does have a crazy looking reptile head. It should also be noted that this study was done in 2001 so things might be different now.
 
The second popular belief was that the bug kills trees it feeds from by sucking them dry. There is some small truth to the fact that these bugs feed on trees by sucking them, but the bugs are not capable of sucking a tree dry, and there aren’t enough of them to even make it a possibility.
 
In Costa Rica it is believed that this bug is again filled with poison, but if you get stung the only cure is to have sex within the next 24 hours. I can only imagine why and how this legend got started but what I don’t understand is how it’s managed to get so famous and actually stick! It totally reminds me of the movie “It Follows” only instead of a person you know chasing you it's a peanut headed lantern bug. 
 
Featured Artists: Blue Wednesday, Purrple Cat, Sátyr and Phlocalyst.

Something is in Deez Nuts! (Acorn Weevils)

This week is a special listener request for Acorn Weevils! The cute little beetles that use acorns as their safe spaces during development. The focus for today's episode is on the Northen acorn weevils scientifically known as Curculio glandium. 
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Featured Artists: Prigida, Sleepermane, and S N U G
 
Transcript:
 
Welcome to episode 38 of Insects for Fun! Today’s episode was actually a listener request sent to me via IG by Dean F! Without further ado let’s start the episode. 
 
The acorn weevil is the first weevil to be featured on this podcast and it is possibly the cutest weevil to ever exist. If you haven’t seen it then please give it a google or check out the IG or FB page and drop a comment letting me know what you think! 
 
Now because this is the first time we are talking about Weevils I will now just go over the very basics. Weevils are beetles within the family curculionidae and as with other beetles, weevils go through complete metamorphosis and they can be found worldwide except for… well, you know what I’m talking about. Now what makes weevils really cool is their modified head. They all have snouts which are called rostrums and at the end of this rostrum is a functional mouth part which they use to feed on plants. These guys happen to be herbivores so there is no need to worry that they will pierce you the same way some true bugs might
 
 like kissing bugs for example. The females also usually have longer rostrums than males do which they use to help them prepare an egg laying site. 
 
Acorn weevils as the name suggests are weevils which feed on and use acorns for their young, but they are actually divided into two different genera. The first are referred to as long-snouted and belong to the genus curculio and the second are short-snouted weevils in the genus Conotrachelus. Not every species within these genera are restricted to acorns though which is why they are also often referred to as nut weevils. 
 
Actually, most of today’s episode will be focused around one of the 36 species within the genus Curculio because the other genus Conotrachelus has over 1000 species and there is much we don’t know. One thing we do know is that these short-snouted weevils cannot bore holes into nuts themselves, and as a result can only use acorns and other hard nuts if they’ve been previously damaged. Most of the time these weevils will lay their eggs on soft fruits and the larvae bore holes into those and feed on the flesh of the fruit until they are ready to pupate in the ground. We also know that species within this genus can be found from Canada down to Argentina! 
 
Curculio weevils on the other hand are found in North America and Europe but don’t have a range as far south. These ones can also actually make holes in acorns and other hard nuts using a saw-like mouth at the end of their long snouts or rostrum. This is accomplished by doing circular motions with their mouth steady on the acorn until they’ve successfully created a small hole. Once this is accomplished they can deposit one or more eggs into the acorn or other hard nut using a long ovipositor and the larva will remain feeding inside until it is ready to pupate. 
 
If you’ve ever noticed acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts or pecan nuts with a small perfect looking hole then you can be sure that it once or might even still have a larva inside. The cool thing is that these kinds of weevils are particular about which host plant they like. For example, one species of weevil won’t target acorns AND chestnuts. They each have their specialty or at least that’s what the literature says.  
 
In North America, there are about 30 species of curculio weevils but there is one species in particular which is known as the acorn weevil in both North America and Europe. This would be Curculio glandium. 
 
This species of weevil is relatively small reaching an adult length of 3/8th inch but is actually larger than other acorn specific species and they also have characteristically longer rostrums when compared to other acorn weevils as well which they use when making galleries for egg laying.  
 
The digging behavior usually begins with a shallow hole in the acorn to see if it’s already been disturbed or used by another insect. If the acorn is fine then females begin actual drilling which involves inserting the entire rostrum into the acorn creating galleries that run along the side of the acorn but never deep into the center of an acorn. Afterwards the female will turn around to oviposit eggs within one or more galleries, but she does not place eggs in every gallery she’s made. It's actually pretty smart to not drill deeply into the acorns because it gives the acorns the opportunity to heal and re-seal the initial hole protecting the eggs and larvae from wasps and other predators. 
 
These weevils also start mating and creating galleries in acorns later in the season compared with other acorn Curculio species. It is believed to be a matter of difference in size which allows these species to be better adapted for larger and more mature acorns. In fact a study was done comparing acorn size preference and the females of Curculio glandium always chose to lay eggs in larger acorns when given a choice. They also preferred to lay eggs in acorns which were already damaged or cracked as opposed to spending an hour or two drilling a fresh hole into an undamaged acorn.
 
The females of C glandium begin mating and scavenging for acorns to lay eggs in towards the 3rd week of July and then cease drilling in the end of August when acorns are too stiff for them to pierce. These insects along with other curculio species start drilling their holes within acorns prior to their fall from the tree.
 
The larvae for curculio weevils are C shaped and develop within the nuts rendering the nut infertile after their development. This is actually why acorn weevils are considered a pest in Oak trees. If you want to collect acorns to use as seeds it's best to collect them just as soon as they fall, but by this time they might already be infested. If you happen to find acorns with holes that have freshly fallen you can actually soak them in water up to 120 F or 48.8 C for 20min which should kill the grubs and save the acorn. 
 
You can’t freeze the acorn because that actually kills it, unless you don’t need the seeds for planting in which case by all means because freezing kills the grubs too as these ones aren’t resistant. 
 
The acorn weevil grubs actually leave the acorns as soon as they are ready to pupate and they bury themselves into the ground and remain there for 1 or 2 years. It really depends on the location and how long the summers are compared to winters. They don’t feed in the ground or anything like that, they sleep for the first winter in preparation for their pupation which occurs the following summer, and if they don’t finish in time before the weather gets cold again then it takes another winter. 

That’s not Bob... that builder is a... Bee!? (Carpenter Bees)

This week we are looking at a unique solitary bee that exclusively makes its homes in wood! Carpenter bees are some of the largest bees on the planet, but that's not what makes them so unique. 
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This week's artists: HM Surf, Ghostrifter Official, and S N U G. 
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome to episode 37 of Insects for Fun! Where we dive into an insect themed topic every Tuesday. This week we’ll be looking at Bear Bees. 
 
Carpenter bees are species of bees within the genus Xylocopa and there are around 500 of them! They often get confused with bumble bees, because both tend to be very large, but a good rule of thumb is that carpenter bees have a shiny bum and by that I mean their abdomen is not usually covered in dense hairs the way bumble bees are. Most carpenter bees are black too, but this is not always the case! Here in Japan we have a really cute carpenter bee known as a Kumabachi which literally translates to bear bee and they can be found hovering still in the air around trees of interest. The thorax on these bees are covered in dense orangey-yellow hairs with a black head and abdomen so when you see them hovering they look like they’re wearing a yellow vest.
 
Carpenter bees can be found worldwide and all of them make burrows in trees or other hard wood surfaces, which can be troublesome if you happen to be in the field of woodworking, but these bees are actually pretty docile and won’t attack you unless you REALLY provoke them (insert mocking cartoon sound). Another thing is that the males don’t have stingers, but this is the case for all male bees and wasps. What’s different though is that male carpenter bees like to patrol an area where a female is nesting, and they will fly up to anything moving within its territory. These bees are all bark and no bite though, so you can simply walk away and they’ll move on. The females have stingers but they’re mostly concerned with making their nesting hole, and won’t be actively chasing you or flying around the same way males are. Now I happen to have a lot of carpenter bees at the high school I teach at in Japan, and I always see the males hovering around in the public garden. I also happen to enjoy the outdoors and walk through that garden, and sometimes I do get dive bombed by male carpenter bees. They straight up stare you down and then zoom at you. I haven’t actually stood still to see if they’ll hit me or not though..
 
Male bees will also have aerial battles which can sometimes result in them tumbling to the ground until one of them finally gives up and flies away. 
 
Carpenter bees are solitary, and as a result they don’t have a hive mentality at all. In fact females oftentimes will be living alone in a small chamber carved out of wood. Sometimes female bees will live in the same shelter, but it's usually not communal. Basically if there is limited availability for housing in a location then multiple female carpenter bees will make holes near each other while still remaining separate. Think of this as like a log motel or something like that where they all have their own rooms or halls if the tree or location has multiple suitable sites. Recent research has actually shown us that sometimes female carpenter bees will work together under the rule of one female, and this head of the house female will not only provide food for her young but also to the other females that are helping her with her nest. This isn’t out of charity though, the bees are simply next in line waiting to take over the nesting site when the head of the house dies or moves on.
 
Now let's talk about what they use for housing along with what the inside of a nest looks like because it's not your average bee home. In the spring female carpenter bees will begin scavenging for wooden structures like benches, railings, sign posts, decks, stumps, logs, basically anything with nice soft wood. This is why the males will be guarding territories they think a female will like. Once a female has mated she begins boring a hole into whatever piece of wood she’s found acceptable. She does this using her strong mandibles, and not long after she creates a near perfect hole, but she doesn’t eat the wood. In fact she leaves the dust behind in a pile, which is how you can be sure it's a carpenter bee and not something else. Once she’s around an inch into the wood she makes a right turn and creates a tubelike gallery stretching down the length of the wood. It is in this tube that she creates walled off cells for individual eggs. Each cell is left with food known as bee bread for when the eggs hatch. This bread is essentially a combination of pollen, nectar and special secretions from the female bee. She has to work her way backwards in order to make walls that separate each individual cell and there can be up to 13 cells per gallery, with the furthest from the entrance hatching first. 
 
Carpenter bees take around 1 month or a little more to fully develop and eggs are typically laid in July, which means you can expect to see new Carpenter bees in August. This is at least the standard case for areas with four seasons, but warmer climates can see carpenter bees all year round. 
 
The adults actually hibernate in new or old homes during the winter and become active once the snow is gone and or the weather gets warm enough for flowers to bloom. Carpenter bees as mentioned earlier do not actually eat wood, and they happen to be good pollinators for shallow flowering plants like sun flowers, eggplant, tomatoes and other fruiting plants. This is due to their short proboscis, but sometimes these bees perform something known as nectar robbing. This happens when a carpenter bee cuts a hole in the side of a flower to steal its nectar without pollinating. You might think this is really bad for the flowers, but it would seem that this act doesn’t actually negatively impact pollination rates. Sometimes it actually encourages smaller bees to crawl into the flower and pollinate it much more directly. 
 
Now some of you might have had experience with carpenter bees, and maybe some of you think these bees will destroy your home or other wooden exteriors the same way a termite will, but the truth is the damage caused by these bees is primarily aesthetic unless you happen to be in area where few natural resources are available and many bees repeatedly use your wooden structures over the years. Wood will naturally rot faster if many holes are bored into it, but there are some things you can do to protect your home or other wooden structures. 
 
Now obviously the best protection happens before a hole is made and you can do this by simply painting the wood or staining it. However if you prefer a more natural look then you could also annually coat your wood with almond oil which is a natural deterrent to the bees. You can also use untreated pine or cedar lumber to lure the female bees away from other nesting sites, and this of course can be set up as simple or elaborate as you want. The bees themselves are not aggressive so if you don’t mind them around and want to support your local native bee community then this is always a nice idea.
 
If you’re in a position where the bees have already started making a home and it poses a threat on infrastructure then you should contact the local authority in pest management.
  

Ahoy Halobates! (Oceanic Water Skaters)

This week we are looking into the only bugs to make their home on the open ocean! How do they do it? Some things we know for sure, while others still remain a mystery... 
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This week's artists: HM Surf, Richard Smithson, and no one's perfect. 
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome to episode 36 of Insects for Fun! This week we are looking into a group of bugs that made their home in the sea and it’s pretty interesting… 
 
Our journey today takes place out on the open ocean. The waters are calm and we’re miles away from any shoreline. Finally, a place where no bugs can reach me is what you think until you notice something small skating on the surface... meet the oceanic water strider known as halobates. This genus of water strider consists of around 40 species but  5 have evolved to live out on open waters completely independent from land, and these 5 can be found in approximately 50% of the open oceans around the world, but are predominately found in warmer waters within the pacific and indian ocean. There is one species found within the Atlantic but its range is limited near the equator. 
 
The genus halobates belongs to the insect family gerridae which are commonly referred to as (insert stupid music) water skaters, water skeeters, water scooters, water skimmers, water bugs, pond skaters, and or water skippers. Now there should be no one who doesn’t have an idea as to what I’m talking about (I hope). I’ll have a separate episode covering the freshwater variety but halobates were too interesting to pass up so easily. 
 
You might be asking yourself (Patrick Star: whats so great about) 
And I’m gonna tell you right now. Halobates are the only group of bugs to successfully live in the open seas away from land for the entirety of their lives. 
 
Water striders are true bugs which means they don’t have a larval stage, and Halobates are no exception. These bugs reproduce on the open sea and lay their eggs on floating debris. What’s interesting is that because sometimes there is so little floating debris, one piece can be used over and over by many different females with eggs literally layered on top of each other. 
In fact, an empty milk jug was found floating off the coast of Costa Rica and had around 70,000 eggs consisting of 15 layers. That’s insane! The eggs are quite small though being less than 1mm and shaped like a grain of rice. 
 
These bugs go through 5 molts before reaching the adult stage and have no known seasonality. They do prefer warmer waters though which speeds up their growing time. The eggs of these guys usually hatch within 10 days and then it takes another week or two for each molt until reaching adulthood.
 
Halobates like other bugs are fluid feeders which means they live off sucking up nutritious liquids from other marine animals including each other when the going gets tough. As for the major food sources we aren’t sure, but they have been recorded eating zooplankton, dead jellyfish, fish eggs, and other floating organic material. These oceanic bugs can also store triglycerides or waxy fat as reserves, which is not something the coastal variety does and this helps buffer them when food is scarce. The coastal halobates have a much easier time getting food because they prey upon bugs that fall into the waters from land, and these ones also lay their eggs on rocks and other natural structures that hug the water’s edge. 
 
Both varieties have bodies that are half the length of your traditional freshwater skaters but their legs are around the same length. This actually helps with skating across the ocean with greater speed and gives them a really good jumping height. These bugs also have very fine hairs shaped like mushrooms which trap air and act as a life vest when the bugs get pushed underwater. They can also use this trapped air as a safety reserve for breathing if they really need it. You might be picturing the bugs grabbing bubbles of air but it's important to note that bugs do not have lungs and they can simply absorb oxygen through their bodies, which makes having fine oxygen-holding hairs really convenient. Another nice adaption would be the ability to produce a waxy material that they coat all over themselves to make them even more hydrophobic. Apparently, these bugs are always grooming themselves when not moving and applying this waxy coat to their bodies which keeps them able to effortlessly skate across the open ocean. They almost hover from their hydrophobic properties with as little as 5% of their legs touching the surface of the water, and rain or waves can’t wet them down either. 
Something I found interesting about the open ocean species is that because they aren’t tethered to any form of land they’re always roaming and changing locations which makes them difficult to track on the open sea. Some days you might see thousands and the next day they’re gone. It reminds me of the mass outbreak phenomenon in Pokemon. 
 
The predators of these bugs seem to be sea birds, turtles, and some fish species but sea birds were definitely the main predator, especially small sea birds which feed by skimming the surface. One sea bird in particular might actually be targeting the bugs and that would be the blue-gray noddy with one bird having over 330 Halobates found within a regurgitated sample. 
 
Much is still left to be known about these bugs because they don’t seem to do so hot in captivity… It’s currently theorized that these bugs must need some kind of surface film that can’t be reproduced in a lab environment because they will eat fruit flies but that doesn’t seem to keep them going.

The strange relationship between Gossamer Butterflies and Ants

On this week's episode we are diving into the topic of "Myrmecopholi" in Butterflies. Specifically talking about the Lycaenid butterflies and how they manage to have ants tend to their every need. 
 
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This week's featured artists: Ghostrifter Official, Blue Wednesday, Sleepermane, and Artificial. Music 
 
Transcript: 
 
Welcome back to episode 35 of insects for fun! I’m your host Mitchel Logan and today we will be looking at a very interesting relationship between two unlikely species. 
 
In the insect world, there is a family of butterflies known as Lycaenidae which has around 6,000 species. It’s actually the second largest family next to Nymphalidae but the butterflies themselves are not so large. Commonly referred to as Gossamer wing butterflies, Lycaenids are very small with a wingspan often under 5cm. I guess gossamer in this case would mean delicate or dainty because of how small the butterflies are. 
 
These butterflies can be found across the globe and are divided into varying subfamilies that depend on where you are. In the United States for example we often see blues, coppers, and hairstreak lycaenids, but in more tropical places there is a greater variety. These common names refer to the appearance of their wings and I’m sure I don’t have to explain the difference between coppers and blues. Hairstreaks though get the name from the thin lines that are streaked across the underside of their wings. But I didn’t write up this episode to talk about all the small details regarding subfamilies because there is something far more interesting happening with around 70% of all the butterflies in this family, regardless of what their wings look like, and that would be their relationship with ants. 
 
Ants are usually predators when it comes to caterpillars and as we’ve learned in previous episodes of this podcast they can be quite formidable, especially against other insects, but the caterpillars of Lycaenid butterflies have evolved many intricate biological adaptations to bend ants wills in their favor. For example, many caterpillar for this family of butterflies have special pores on their skin called pore cupolas which are used to attract ants and tell them that the caterpillar is not prey but actually an ally. Others have nectar glands which ants can milk for honeydew. This is literally honey trapping for the gain of protective services by ants. Ants are extremely protective of their territories and resources, so much so that there are many species of ants in the rainforest that literally make a forest clearing by killing and removing all plants that could jeopardize the growth of special trees they rely on. Having these kinds of bodyguards is extremely handy when you’re a small vulnerable caterpillar. 
 
This ant-tending relationship between caterpillars and the ants is called myrmecophilous and translates to ant loving, and there are a few different ways in which these kinds of relations can occur. 
 
The first of these is known as facultative mutualism and this simply means the caterpillars don’t need the ants to survive, but they do make use of them while they’re around and form a beneficial alliance. 
 
The second is obligate mutualism which means the caterpillars require the help of ants in order to survive and make it to the butterfly stage. These kinds of interactions are not always mutualistic though. In fact there are quite a few species of lycaenid butterflies whose caterpillars act as a parasite and live off the ants' resources with no benefit to the ants at all and this is done in a number of ways. The one common factor between all these is that the caterpillar always tricks the ants into thinking it's one of them or even brain washing them with laced honeydew made from their bodies.  
 
Let’s first look at one of Great Britain's most rare butterfly species known as a Large Blue. Large blue butterflies actually did go extinct on the island and had to be reintroduced from mainland Europe. Thankfully this reintroduction has been successful and the populations are once again stable! Anyway, this butterfly’s caterpillars use both scents and sounds to trick ants into thinking that they are one of them. They don’t do this right away though! Typically speaking caterpillars within the large blue genus start out by feeding on their natural host plants until they reach their 4th instar or molt. At this point the caterpillar drops to the ground and emits a pheromone that tells ants of a specific species that it is one of them. The ants then carry this caterpillar into the nest where 1 of 2 things happens. Either the caterpillar gets fed by the ants as if it were a baby queen or the caterpillar takes a hard 180 and begins feeding on ant larvae. Survival rate is much higher as you’d expect in the species which feign being a larval queen and get fed by the ants as opposed to the caterpillars which eat the nest. 
 
The caterpillars which feign being a larval Queen are referred to as cuckoo caterpillars and they produce the sounds a genuine queen ant larvae would make which causes the ants to put the caterpillar in high priority and abandon genuine ants within the colony. However this tactic really is only useful for specific species. Let’s say for example one of these caterpillars gets taken in by a slightly different species. The chances of being predated by those ants highly increases simply because the mimicry isn’t perfect. Predatory caterpillars on the other hand are more versatile but have lower odds of survival when compared with a cuckoo species that made it into the correct nest. This is simply because predatory behavior is a lot more invasive in negative ways than pretending to be a Queen. What I find even more incredible about both of these caterpillars though is that even the pupae have glands which continue to tell the ant that it is one of them. Only once the butterfly ecloses does it need to hurry out of the nest because at that point the butterfly is out of the bag in this case. 
 
Now let's go to Australia and look at one of their rarest butterflies known as the Bathurst Copper or Purple Copper butterfly. This one, unlike the large blue, doesn't use the ants as a food source but actually has the ants protect them in exchange for special honeydew which the caterpillar excretes from a gland on its back. The caterpillar feeds on a host plant known as blackthorn and can only be found in a limited range at altitudes greater than 850m. The caterpillars are also rarely seen because the ants actually carry them into their nests during the day to protect them from predators and then at night the ants carry them out and on to their host plants where the caterpillar will resume feeding. Once the caterpillar is ready to pupate it once again returns to the ants nest where it stays dormant until it's ready to eclose months later. 

These moles can fly and swim!? (Mole Crickets)

This week we're digging into Mole Crickets! Their behaviors, tunnels, songs, and some cool cultural significance. 
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Transcript: 
 
Welcome back to episode 34 of insects for fun! I’m your host as always, Mitchel Logan and today we’re talking about Mole Crickets, but before we get into that I have a quick PSA. I got messaged through the fb account asking where people can send me questions or topics they would like to learn about, and the answer is my email which is insectsfordummies@gmail.com. I really do welcome requests, and of course listener stories if you have any! Now let’s get back to the program.
Mole crickets are in the family Gryllotalpidae and there are approximately 107 species known today, but I’m sure there are more. These crickets are found all over the world and they are all well equipped for life underground. As you might expect, Mole crickets got their name because they spend a good majority of their life in a series of burrows all made for various purposes. In fact they start digging as soon as they hatch from their eggs because this is where their lives start! They don’t just act like a mole though, they are also built like a mole too with very strong forearms that are shaped like the paws of a mole. This is a great example of a biological term known as convergent evolution which simply means species from different origins have evolved similar traits because of a shared environment. In this case that environment would be life underground and as it turns out, wide forearms with short appendages make for a great digging tool! 
 
They don’t have legs built for jumping so you won’t see them jump much if ever. Unlike more traditional crickets, they’re whole body is built for pushing and moving through dirt, but many of them can fly and even swim which is honestly quite shocking. 
 
Adult mole crickets are typically between 1 and 2 inches long or 3 and 5cm. They have cylindrical bodies with an armored head and thorax which probably act like a miners hard helmet. also have two sets of wings, the forewings which are what you see immediately and the hind wings which are underneath but often are much longer than the forewings. I’ve never actually seen one fly before but I guess it usually happens with females after sunset or very early in the morning. I have seen them do short hops outside of their burrows though. These crickets are attracted to lights so if you live in an area that has them you can find them near well lit areas. They’re also pretty buoyant because they have small hairs covering their body which traps air, and they use their shovel-like forearms to paddle water.
Earlier I briefly mentioned the tunnel systems these crickets live in, but now I’m going to actually dig into that information (badum chuck). Mole crickets make a variety of tunnels depending on what it is they are doing at the time. For example, when a mole cricket is foraging for food they often make tunnels close to the surface of the soil and in softer substrates like sandy soil, you can clearly see the elevated trails left by them. 
 
If the males are looking to attract a female then they make a very different kind of tunnel which actually acts as a horn to amplify their songs. The entrance is much wider than a normal one and it narrows into a chamber referred to as a “bulb”. It’s kind of shaped like a bulb which is I guess why they name it that, but the function is to act as an acoustic room which amplifies its sound. Mole crickets actually don’t face the opening of their tunnels while calling for a mate, and the innermost end of the bulb is typically just a wall of dirt. If there are any additions to the structure they branch off from the mid section of the bulb. 
 
At least from what we know based on the European Mole Crickets. Some mole crickets even make two openings that both lead to one tunnel which is commonly seen in Tawny Mole crickets and African Mole crickets.
 
The tunnels these mole crickets make for singing work so well that you can actually hear mole crickets from 600 meters away. Each species of mole cricket has its own chirp but they tend to be one pitch which is then modulated at different speeds. Many mole crickets keep their song around 3khz but have different speeds for which its oscillated. I’ll play you an example now. (insert mole cricket song) these crickets actually rival cicadas for how loud they are. In my episode on Cicadas we learned that those bugs can sing at 90 decibels and it turns out they are not the only ones. A research article published about noise mechanics stated that the loudest mole cricket song in their study was recorded at 92 decibels and that was from 1m away. That’s louder than a lawnmower. If you’re near one you can actually feel the ground vibrate because of how powerful the song is. In the popular series Animal Crossing you can find mole crickets by following the song. It’s quite loud and gets louder the closer you get to it, at which point you have to dig a hole to find it.
Now depending on your beliefs or even your profession the mole cricket will have various meanings from huge pain to delicacy or even a weather forecaster. 
 
People who work on golf courses or outdoor sports fields in turf management think of mole crickets as a bane to their existence due to the nature of herbivorous mole crickets feeding on the root systems of turf grass. It’s not just about killing the grass, but also making the turf less flat which causes performance issues, especially on golf courses. These damages are often caused by invasive mole crickets which have managed to get around the world with the help of ships. In Florida for example there are three different invasive mole crickets that are responsible for a lot of destruction on turf grass and even the yards of residents, and one of them, called the southern mole cricket, is actually carnivorous and makes burrows in the ground to find worms, grubs, and other small critters hiding in the dirt.
If you happen to be in Thailand, Vietnam or the Philippines then you might find mole crickets to be a great source of vitamins and protein. Mole crickets make for various meals in these countries from being shallow fried or baked to stir fried. In Pampanga Philippines, mole crickets are a staple, the same way cheese is popular in Wisconsin and are used in a variety of dishes including a crispy snack to pair with beer. In the Philippines it's known as kamaru so if you see anything with that name then it's sure to have mole crickets. If you’re curious about the health benefits etc one of my first episodes on this podcast was about entomophagy and I go into all the details. 
In Latin America, mole crickets are believed to be both a sign of good luck, and a weather forecaster. If you find one in your house it’s perceived as a good omen and if you see them making many tunnels you should expect rain in the near future. I personally don’t quite understand the rain one because mole crickets will be digging regardless of the weather but who knows! What I do know is that increased moisture in the soil causes increased surface tunneling as found in a study done by North Carolina Universities department of Entomology.