Ever notice those really tiny animals
crawling and flying and buzzing around?
They're called insects, or bugs. Insects
are small animals with
six legs, three body parts,
and a hard outer shell called an
exoskeleton. They often have antennae and
wings. Let's take a look
at 10 bugs that might be living in your
backyard. 1. Butterfly
Butterflies are one of the most beautiful
insects we find in our garden.
Butterflies have four
brightly colored wings made up of tiny
scales. Butterflies use
their gorgeous wings to fly from
flower to flower, but they don't fly in a
straight line. We call this
fluttering. In fact, we call a
group of butterflies a flutter.
Butterflies like to eat the nectar from
flowers and have taste
receptors on their feet. 2. Moth Moths
may look similar to
butterflies, but they are different.
They tend to have dull colors and are
usually smaller than
butterflies. But here's a giant
moth. Yikes! Moths are usually active
during the night, while
butterflies are active during the
day. Moths' bodies are thicker than
butterflies, and when resting, they
spread their wings at their
sides. Butterflies rest their wings
together and upright. Still
can't tell the difference?
Look at their antennae! Moth and tanna
are usually feathery, while
butterfly and tanna are straight
with a bump at the end. 3. Caterpillar
Caterpillars aren't one kind of insect.
It's a life stage of
certain insects like moths and
butterflies. These bugs start as eggs,
then hatch into a
caterpillar, which crawls around,
eating a lot. Each time they get bigger,
they molt and shed their skin. When
they're nice and big,
they wrap themselves up in a soft cocoon
if they're a moth caterpillar, or a hard
chrysalis if they're
a butterfly caterpillar. After a couple
of weeks, they then emerge as
a beautiful moth or butterfly
with wings. Most caterpillars are
herbivores, meaning they only
eat plants. Caterpillars eat
differently than adult butterflies and
moths. A caterpillar
eats plants with its mouth.
Butterflies and moths use their long,
straw-like tongues to
drink nectar out of flowers.
4. Bees Bees live in hives and make
honey. A single hive can have up to
80,000 bees. All hives have
a female leader known as the queen bee.
The queen bee is
recognized by her larger size.
Worker bees collect nectar and pollen
from flowers and bring it back to the
hive as food for the
queen bee, workers, and baby bees, also
known as larva. Bees make honey by
chewing up nectar and
spitting it out into the honeycomb. Then
they dry it out by waving
their wings. When a worker bee
finds new plants to gather nectar from,
it alerts other bees
by doing a waggle dance.
5. Ladybugs Ladybugs are a type of
beetle. Ladybugs are not just female
bugs. They can be male too.
Some ladybugs have black spots on their
backs, while others
don't. Ladybugs got the name
ladybugs because in Europe during the
middle ages, farmers realized that
ladybugs saved their crops
by eating aphids and mites, small bugs
known to eat the farmer's
plants. Farmers were so thankful
for the ladybugs, they began to call them
the "beetles of our lady." And after
that, it was shortened
to ladybug. 6. Praying mantis Another
insect that is welcomed by
farmers is the praying mantis.
Praying mantises also eat bugs that are
harmful to plants. They can
also eat spiders, lizards,
frogs, and small birds. Praying mantises
can turn their head 180
degrees. That's half a circle.
Humans can only turn their head 90
degrees. Praying mantises
get their name because they
are often seen holding their front legs
together. Many people think
it looks like they're praying.
They are great at camouflage, adapting
the colors that help
them blend in with plants.
7. Ants Like bees, ants live in colonies
and serve a queen ant. Ants
live in an ant hill made by
worker ants. This looks like a small hill
above ground, but
underground there are many complicated
tunnels. The worker ants also gather food
to bring back to the queen and the
colony. They can also
act as soldiers if their colony is being
threatened. Average ant colonies have
around 5,000 ants. There
are super colonies, which can contain
millions of ants. Ants can
lift up to 20 times their body
weight. That's like a human lifting a
car. 8. Firefly
Fireflies are actually not a fly,
but a beetle. Fireflies are often
identified at night by their
ability to glow. All fireflies
glow, even the eggs glow. Fireflies blink
their glowing abdomens at
each other to attract mates.
They may also glow to alert potential
predators that they taste
bad. Fireflies glow by a chemical
reaction produced inside them. Their
light is very efficient. In
fact, their natural glowing
light is about 10 times more efficient
than a common light bulb. 9. Cricket
Crickets can often be heard at nighttime.
Only male crickets chirp
in hopes of attracting a
female mate. Crickets chirp by rubbing
their wings together. The
intensity of their chirps is
determined by the temperature. The warmer
it is, the louder they
chirp. If it's too cold,
the crickets won't chirp at all to
conserve energy. Crickets
are omnivores, which means they
will eat almost anything. You might think
crickets are the same as
grasshoppers, but crickets have
long antennae, while grasshoppers have
short antennae. Also,
grasshoppers sing by rubbing
their legs together instead of their
wings. Crickets are considered
good luck in Japan and China.
10. Mosquito Mosquitoes are related to
flies. While it's annoying
to have a fly in your house,
a female mosquito in your house may try
to suck your blood, leaving
you with a very itchy bump.
Only female mosquitoes crave blood. Male
mosquitoes only siphon
nectar juices from plants.
While it's referred to as a mosquito
bite, mosquitoes don't
bite. Instead, their mouth is
shaped like a long upside-down funnel
with a narrow pointed end
that pierces their victim so
they can sip out their liquid. Yuck!
Mosquitoes flap their wings
a thousand times per second,
creating a very distinctive buzzing
sound. Mosquitoes like to
be near water, so to keep
mosquitoes from coming around your house,
put that kiddie pool away
when you're done using it.
Those are 10 insects that might be living
in your backyard. Have you seen them
crawling around your
neighborhood? Do you like bugs? Do they
give you the creeps? Let us know in the
comment section below.