The post In Celebration of National Pollinator Week 2023! appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>
Images are of a male Black-legged, long-horned native bee, (Svastra atripes), nectaring on Cowpen Daisy in Puerto Rico, Texas.
The post In Celebration of National Pollinator Week 2023! appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>The post The Fringed Diving Beetle appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>
This giant diving beetle is listed as a species of predaceous diving beetle found in North America. They are found in aquatic environments and both larvae and adult prey on aquatic insects and fish. I found this particular one, already deceased, on the ground beside one of the watering troughs on a recent ranch visit. Its green and yellow hard outer wings, that I have since learned are called elytra, were hard to miss as they stood out in quite stark contrast to the red, sandy soil that it lie motionless on.
A few beetle basics:
- Most beetles are able to fly.
- Some beetles, such as the Fringed Diving Beetle, are able to swim.
- Beetles wear their skeletons on the outside—exoskeletons.
- Beetle bodies are divided into three (3) parts: head, thorax, and abdomen.
- Beetles’ eyes are compound, which allow them to see many views of something all at once.
- The four stages of the beetle’s life cycle are: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
The larva of this beetle are known as “water tigers.”
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylyum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Adephaga
Superfamily: Dytiscoidea
Family: Dytiscidae
Subfamily: Cybistrinae
Genus: Cybister
The post The Fringed Diving Beetle appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>The post Rainbow Scarab or Rhinoceros Dung Beetle appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>These cool looking beetles are so important for their recycling ability! They help breakdown animal feces by taking it into burrows where they use it to feed their young.
Thanks to King and Chicle, there’s plenty of poo to go around as there are at least three different varieties of dung beetles at El Mesteño Ranch.
Check out this article for more information about this important bug.
The post Rainbow Scarab or Rhinoceros Dung Beetle appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>The post Cave or “Camel” Cricket appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>The post Cave or “Camel” Cricket appeared first on El Mesteño Ranch™ and Arboretum.
]]>