Bugs Read online

  The mosquito feeds by landing on a larger animal, sticking its long, sharp proboscis into the animal’s skin. The proboscis tip is like a needle, and the mosquito feels around for a blood vessel. When it locates one, it plunges the proboscis into it.

  Before the mosquito starts sucking the blood out, it injects saliva into its target. The saliva does various jobs. Most importantly it stops the blood clotting while the mosquito is feeding. It is the saliva that causes raised mosquito bite bumps. In infected mosquitoes, it is the saliva that carries malaria, and the saliva injection is what transmits the malaria disease.

  Male mosquitoes can get enough nutrients from nectar and other juices from plants. Female mosquitoes require extra nutrients, including proteins, in order to develop eggs. This is why they need to feed on animal (or human) blood. Other types of mosquito can carry diseases in this way, but only the anopheles mosquito can carry malaria.

  The tsetse fly – Glossina palpalis – is also a vector, and can transmit a disease called trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness. This is a very serious disease that is hard to treat, and it kills many people in central Africa.

  Found in South and Central America, the female human botfly – Dermatobia hominis – catches and lays her eggs on a mosquito. When the mosquito is feeding on a human, the eggs are transferred and start developing into a larva inside the skin of their host. They then hatch out of the skin before pupating into an adult botfly. The hatch sites can become infected, and infestation of the brain has caused death in children.

  The assassin bug – Triatoma infestans – carries the protozoa responsible for the tropical Chagas disease. The bug can transmit this when it feeds by biting and sucking blood from humans. There is no vaccine to protect against the disease, and it can lead to serious heart damage.

  The South and Central American bullet ant – Paraponera clavata – has the most potent sting of any insect. The chemical in its sting is known as a NEUROTOXIN, and it causes extreme pain as well as swelling and paralysis.

  BENEFICIAL BUGS

  Many different types of bugs perform services that are beneficial for the ecosystem as a whole, and for humans in particular. Thousands of plant species rely on bugs to spread pollen to help them reproduce – those vitally important bugs include bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, moths and ants. Other bugs, such as ladybirds and hoverflies, feed on small insects that would otherwise destroy crops.

  Ground beetles eat slugs and snails, dung beetles deal with animal waste, and many beetle and fly larvae consume dead or decaying plant material.

  Plants have evolved bright colours and nectar-secreting glands to attract bugs, because they are so important to their existence. We should always remember how important they are to ours too.

  The western honey bee – Apis mellifera – is the main species of domesticated bee, used for the production of honey. This species is also extremely important for crop pollination, with all sorts of fruit and vegetable plants relying on them for this service.

  The sacred scarab beetle – Scarabaeus sacer – is a type of dung beetle found in southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Dung beetles eat, move and bury animal waste, which benefits other animals, and also improves the nutrient levels and structure of the soil.

  Ancient Egyptians saw sacred scarab beetles rolling balls of dung to their nest burrows, and so believed that the sun must be rolled across the sky by a scarab god!

  The seven-spot ladybird – Coccinella septempunctata – is the most common ladybird in the UK. Both the adult ladybird and its larvae are voracious consumers of aphids. This in turn protects delicate young plants from aphid damage, which is why ladybirds are popular with gardeners!

  GLOSSARY

  ABDOMEN The third section of the bug’s body, containing the heart, the final section of the guts, the reproductive organs and the sting

  ANAUTOGENY The requirement of some female bugs to consume blood before they are able to produce eggs

  ANTENNAE Sensory organs that bugs use to detect smell, heat, wind and vibrations, and can also use as feelers

  APHID Small true bugs that are plant pests

  ARTHROPOD The largest animal phylum, arthropods are invertebrates with an exoskeleton and jointed legs

  BINOMIAL Double-named system for naming species

  CARNIVOROUS Meat-eating

  CERCI Appendages at the rear of certain insects. Can be sensory, defensive or a vestigial structure

  CHARACTERISTICS Defining features

  CHITIN The strong protein that makes up insect exoskeleton and wings

  CLASS Larger set in taxonomy e.g. insecta (insects)

  COLONY A eusocial community

  COMPOUND EYES Complex eyes with lots of separate lenses

  EUSOCIAL A complex arrangement of living together and dividing labour

  EXOSKELETON Hard outer skeleton

  FAMILY Large set in taxonomy e.g. formicidae (ants)

  FERTILE Having the ability to breed (have children)

  GENUS A small set in taxonomy; the first half of the species name e.g. Myrmecia (bull ants)

  HAEMOLYMPH A fluid similar to blood that transports nutrients and oxygen around the body

  HEAD CAPSULE A hard structure containing the brain, mouthparts and sensory organs

  HEXAPOD A set of arthropods with six legs

  IMAGO The final (or adult) stage in the lifecycle of an insect

  INVERTEBRATES A group of animals with no backbone

  LABIUM The lower part of the front of an insect’s mouth

  LARVA The second life stage of some insects, following the egg stage

  MANDIBLES A pair of mouthparts that can be used to hold, cut or chew the insect’s food. Some insects (such as stag beetles) have very large mandibles, which they use for fighting

  MAXILLARY PALPS A pair of appendages that certain bugs use for moving food towards the mouth

  METAMORPHOSIS The transition of an insect from one life stage to another

  NEUROTOXIN A powerful chemical found in certain bug stings that affects the nervous system of the creature (or person) stung by the bug

  NYMPH A form of the larval stage of certain insects in which the insect looks like a smaller version of the adult

  OCELLI A simple insect eye with just one lens

  OLFACTORY RECEPTOR An apparatus that certain bugs use to smell and taste things, particularly food

  OMMATIDIA The individual units that make up the compound eye

  ORDER Larger set in taxonomy e.g. hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants)

  ORGANISM A living being, such as an animal, a plant or a bacterium

  PATHOGEN A microorganism that causes disease

  PHYLUM One of the largest sets in taxonomy e.g. arthropoda (arthropods)

  PREDATOR An animal that preys on/eats others

  PROBOSCIS An elongated tubular mouthpart used by certain bugs for feeding

  PROTOZOA Tiny single-celled organisms

  PUPA The life stage of an insect in between larva and imago. Not all insects go through the pupa stage

  SIPHONING An eating technique used by bugs using a proboscis

  SPECIES The smallest set of taxonomy e.g. Myrmecia gulosa (red bull ant)

  TAXONOMY How scientists group organisms into sets

  THORAX The second section of the bug’s body, which contains the first section of the bug’s gut and circulatory system. The legs and wings (if present) are attached to the exterior of the thorax

  TYMPANEL ORGANS Hearing apparatus, rather like a drum, with a thin membrane that vibrates when exposed to sound

  VECTOR An organism that carries an infectious pathogen without being affected by the disease itself

  VESTIGIAL STRUCTURE A part of a bug’s anatomy which is genetically inherited but no longer serves any useful function

  To my parents, Michael and Diana

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by

  Pavilion Children’s Books

  43 Great Ormond S
treet

  London

  WC1N 3HZ

  An imprint of Pavilion Books Limited.

  Publisher and Editor: Neil Dunnicliffe

  Digital Editor: Renata Jukic

  Art Director: Lee-May Lim

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner.

  Text and illustrations © Simon Tyler 2017

  Bug Consultant: Rory Dimond, Buglife

  The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

  eISBN: 978-1-84365-376-9

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  This book can be ordered directly from the publisher online

  at www.pavilionbooks.com, or try your local bookshop.