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Invertebrates spread bacterial, viral and protozoan pathogens by two main mechanisms. Either via their bite, as in the case of malaria spread by mosquitoes, or via their faeces, as in the case of Chagas' Disease spread by Triatoma bugs or epidemic typhus spread by human body lice. Many invertebrates are responsible for transmitting diseases.
The flat morph aphids are aggressive mimics with a "wolf in sheep's clothing" strategy: they have hydrocarbons in their cuticle that mimic those of the ants, and the ants carry them into the brood chamber of the ants' nest and raise them like ant larvae. Once there, the flat morph aphids behave like predators, drinking the body fluids of ant ...
Bed bug nymph, Cimex lectularius, engorged with human blood. Chagas disease is a modern-day tropical disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by kissing bugs, so-called because they suck human blood from around the lips while a person sleeps. [92] The bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is an external parasite of humans. It lives in bedding ...
How to Identify Them: At the risk of stating the obvious, mosquitoes are long, slender flying insects with long, thin legs and needle-like mouthparts—and while the size varies by species, most ...
A midge is any small fly, including species in several families of non-mosquito nematoceran Diptera. Midges are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land area outside permanently arid deserts and the frigid zones. Some midges, such as many Phlebotominae (sand fly) and Simuliidae (black fly), are vectors of various diseases.
Hoverflies, also called flower flies or syrphids, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the larvae eat a wide range of foods. In some species, the larvae are saprotrophs, specifically ...
The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of certain insects have been eaten by humans from prehistoric times to the present day. [8] Around 3,000 ethnic groups practice entomophagy. [9] Human insect-eating (anthropo-entomophagy) is common to cultures in most parts of the world, including Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New ...
Mayflies have ancestral traits that were probably present in the first flying insects, such as long tails and wings that do not fold flat over the abdomen. Their immature stages are aquatic fresh water forms (called "naiads" or " nymphs "), whose presence indicates a clean, unpolluted and highly oxygenated aquatic environment.