How many beetles

Whirligig beetles Gyrinidae family , which swim on the surface of ponds, have divided eyes: one half for vision under water, the other for seeing above the water so they can find food that drops in or floats by. Most beetles can fly, although they do so in a slow, clumsy manner. Water beetles are good swimmers, and many can fly as well. Some beetles that live in deserts have lost the ability to fly. All beetles have jointed legs, but leg shape and size varies, depending on the beetle's lifestyle.

For example, long and slender legs are made for speed ground beetles, Carabidae family ; broad and ridged legs are for digging dung beetles, Scarabaeidae family ; legs curved and shaped like a paddle are for swimming water beetles, Hydrophilidae family ; and large hind legs are for hopping flea beetles, Chrysomelidae family. Some even have a sticky pad on the bottom of each foot to help them walk up slippery surfaces. All beetles have a pair of claws on each foot.

Many beetles need the sun to warm their bodies before they can run or fly quickly. Stay safe! Beetles have a lot of different ways to protect themselves from becoming someone else's lunch. The hard, shiny elytra is often enough to keep a beetle safe from other insects, or other beetles! Dome-shaped leaf beetles Coccinelidae family and ladybird beetles Chrysomelidae family pull their legs and antennae under this "shell," just like a turtle does. Some ladybird beetles release sticky yellow blood from their legs to gum up the antennae and mouthparts of the attacker.

Flightless ground beetles squirt out jets of formic acid, which burns the skin and causes eye damage. Leaf beetle larvae are so poisonous that people of the Kalahari Desert use them to tip their hunting arrows. Brightly colored or patterned beetles usually taste very bad to predators. And camouflage works great for beetles living under rocks or bark, or in the soil. Beetles have lived on Earth for about million years and can be found almost everywhere, from deserts to lakes, rainforests to polar ice caps.

Most beetles live on land. They tunnel underground, or in wood, or in the carcasses of animals. Some live in the nests of ants and termites: the nest protects the beetle from predators, and the beetle keeps the area clean by eating the ants' waste!

Beetles eat almost everything: plants, other insects, carcasses, pollen, and dung. Some beetles living in water eat small fish and tadpoles; Phosphuga atrata eats snails. Most beetles have a very good sense of smell to help them find food. In North Carolina, soil samples to a depth of 5 inches yielded a calculation that there were approximately million animals per acre, of which 90 million were mites, 28 million were springtails, and 4.

A similar study in Pennsylvania yielded figures of million animals per acre, with million mites, million springtails, and 11 million other arthropods. Even specific insect species have been found to be quite numerous, with calculations of from 3 to 25 million per acre for wireworms larvae of click beetles. Certain social insects have large numbers in their nests.

An ant nest in Jamaica was calculated to include , individuals. A South American termite nest was found to have 3 million individuals. Locust swarms are said to hold up to one billion individuals. These great numbers of insect species and individuals were created by a number of factors including their long geological history, the capability of flight, their small size that allows survival in many various habitats, their ability to store sperm for delayed fertilization, and their general adaptive abilities to the environment.

Insects have remarkable fertility and reproductive abilities, which have usually led to the vast numbers of individuals in nature. East African termite queens have been recorded to lay an egg every two seconds, amounting to 43, eggs each day.

As predators, they reduce populations of problem insects, especially caterpillars. Ladybird beetles are widely known to be important predators of aphids, and can be purchased commercially for this purpose. Detriments of beetles. A small percentage of beetles can be said to be harmful to products of humans.

Some bark beetles kill thousands of trees in western forests each year. Agriculture in the United States is in constant threat of serious beetle pests, the prime examples being the Cotton Boll Weevil and the various species of Rootworms. Many stored foods are ruined, these including meats, dairy products, flour, meal, cereals, stored grain, nuts, and fruits. Varieties of beetles. Weevils Curculionidae constitute the largest family of beetles, and are arguably the largest Family of insects. There are approximately Families of beetles in the United States.

Prized by Collectors. The beauty, size and variety of beetles cause them to be very popular among collectors of items from nature. Especially valued by collectors are large, tropical species of buprestid Buprestidae and long-horned Cerambycidae beetles.

Scarab Scarabaeidae beetles are sometimes remarkably colorful with attractive patterns also. Have you ever picked up a June beetle? Many, like the ten-lined June beetle, will squeal when you do. Both male and female bark beetles chirp, probably as a courtship ritual and a means of finding one another. Species in certain beetle families produce light. Their bioluminescence occurs through a chemical reaction involving an enzyme called luciferase.

Fireflies family Lampyridae flash signals to attract potential mates, with a light organ on the abdomen. In glowworms family Phengodidae , the light organs run down the sides of the thoracic and abdominal segments, like tiny glowing windows on a railroad boxcar and thus their nickname, railroad worms. Glowworms also sometimes have an additional light organ on the head, which glows red! Weevils, easily recognized by their elongated, almost comical beaks, are really just a type of beetle.

The superfamily Curculionoidea includes the snout beetles and various types of weevils. When you look at a weevil's long snout, you might assume they feed by piercing and sucking their meal, much like the true bugs. But don't be fooled, weevils belong to the order Coleoptera. Just as all other beetles do, weevils have mandibulate mouthparts made for chewing. In the case of the weevil, however, the mouthparts are usually tiny and are found just at the tip of that long beak.

Many weevils cause significant damage to their plant hosts, and for this reason, we consider them pests. The first beetle-like organisms in the fossil record date back to the Permian Period , roughly million years ago.

True beetles — those that resemble our modern-day beetles — first appeared about million years ago. How have beetles survived for so long, and withstood such extreme events? As a group, beetles have proved remarkably adept at adapting to ecological changes. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.