UST GS: A Glimpse into the Queer World of Insects

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8-9 evening class Monday to Friday

If animations imitate all the insects

in their looks, antiques and sound;

we shall have encountered the creatures

we dreamed of from Mars and beyond.

      

Field cricket (Acheta bimaculata)

Daddy-long-legs or crane fly (Tipula).  It has the unique 
habit of continuously shaking, either to decoy its prey 
or keep  it virtually invisible to its predator, hence also 
called quake fly (gingined which means earthquake in Iloko) 

Preying mantis (Mantis religiosa) is notoriously 
infamous as the executioner of the insect world, 
sparing not even its own kind. But that's not all.
 The female gnaws the head of her mate during the 
act to enhance sperm release, then she proceeds 
eating the whole carcass for needed nutrition.  

 

Last instar nymph of a brown walking stick

Walking stick insects in a cluster, Museum of Natural History, UPLB

Green walking stick, UPLB

A pair of brown walking sticks, UPLB

A rare walking stick, UPLB

Walking sticks in a cage, UPLB.  Many species of stick 
insects remain undiscovered and unnamed because 
of their wide morphological diversity.  

Brown stink bug (Nezara), garden at home

Antlion (Neuroptera), adult and larva; funnel-shape 
trap pits of the antlion larvae (ukoy ukoy Ilk)

 
Tussock moth and caterpillar (higad); leaf skeleton of  
samat  (Macaranga tenarius) left behind by the caterpillar

A pair of harlequin bug, Order Hemiptera

Green tree ants (Oecephala smaragdina) attack insects 

very much larger their size.