Insects

[Rough Draft]

Early in my romance with my honeybees when I was still learning their rhythm, I would often go to the hive and listen to the layered orchestration of their collective buzzing. I remember the day when I looked down with a growing horror as I saw one of my bees stumbling and struggling against a nightmarish creature. After taking this picture, using great force, I was able to pry and tear away this succubus. Lamenting my dying bee, I left her near the entrance of the hive so that she could smell the pheromones of her mother as she passed into death. Who was that beautiful, terrifying and lethal creature?

So mysterious.......it was an assassin bug! If you look carefully, the assassin bug has no mouth, instead it has a truly frightening proboscis that drills into the exoskeleton of its prey and then injects a slurry of venom that first paralyzes and then liquefies the insides of its prey. This saliva also contains enzymes that digest the prey (imagine injecting your stomach into your food and digesting it right there). To consume, the insect sucks the digested insect-liquid through its proboscis.

So curious, I wondered whether the world of science had ever explored the the proboscis of the assassin bug...and, my, did they. The image to the left is a detailed proboscis and the image to the right is an electron microscope image of the the tip and you can see a mixture of hair and deadly assassin grade saw.

Wenk, Peter, Silvia Lucic, and Oliver Betz. "Functional anatomy of the hypopharynx and the salivary pump in the feeding apparatus of the assassin bug Rhodnius prolixus (Reduviidae, Heteroptera)." Zoomorphology 129.4 (2010): 225-234.

Then, one day, my Sacred MasterTree III cleaved into two and fell onto Maple Street. I had to order its complete death because the remaining tree was on the verge of collapse. After the chainsaws tore my tree apart and left all of her body parts scattered throughout my lawn, I walked through the debris of wood and leaf...and found another assassin bug. As I looked at this bug with sad eyes, I noticed its gorgeous hairy legs. I thought, there is no way I could learn more about those seductive hairy legs...certainly no one would have spent years and years studying them......but I was gladly surprised...because not only did someone study them...they even took electron microscope images of those amazing legs.

A year later, on a day consumed with clouds beneath the approach of autumn, I picked raspberries pregnant with juice from my backyard patch, and then...to my surprise I found an assassin bug clinging to a raspberry. As I watched this creature with a deadly proboscis and spiked haired legs walk on my hand, I wondered about their hunting strategy. Previously, I had learned that their hairy legs were sticky so that they could ensnare their prey...but what about how they stalked their prey? I discovered a paper that revealed how assassin bugs stalk the king of predators....the spider! First they slowly and quietly approach the liar of the spider while secretly snipping away any strands of webbing in their way. Then, when they are close enough, they lure the spider in by gently vibrating the web, emulating how a trapped insect would vibrate. When the spider comes close, they pounce.

Wignall, Anne E., and Phillip W. Taylor. "Predatory behaviour of an araneophagic assassin bug." Journal of ethology 28.3 (2010): 437-445. ).

I remained fascinated at the idea that assassin bugs could vibrate a spider web to lure a spider out. Could I be so seductive to a spider? I found many spiderwebs with with waiting spiders in my backyard. But no matter how hard I tried to vibrate the web, I was never successful in enticing the spider. Why? Another paper revealed that spiders can distinguish a variety of different vibration patterns, each which communicate something different. This paper described that some predators that use a mimic strategy would emulate sexual signals. This paper wondered whether assassin bugs do something similar, finding that assassin bugs do not emulate sexual signals of spiders and they do not even emulate vibration patterns of specific species of prey but instead use a generic vibration that means 'prey' to a spider.

Wignall, Anne E., and Phillip W. Taylor. "Assassin bug uses aggressive mimicry to lure spider prey." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 278.1710 (2011): 1427-1433.

A week later as I was combing through my raspberry bush, my heart fluttered as I saw two assassin bugs on top of each other. As I exposed them into the bright sun, they climbed onto my hand and let out a nervous poop. And there we were together, a human, 2 mating assassin bugs and some fresh liquidy poop. To be part of the special moment was a true honor. Naturally, I began wondering whether anyone had spent years watching and studying assassin bug reproduction....and then I found a fascinating paper. In this paper they describe that after the female lays the eggs, the men guard and protect the eggs.......but when they get hungry, they devour the eggs at the edge of the pile. In their defense, one idea is that the eggs at the edge would most likely be infected by parasites left by wasps. However, when researchers placed uninfected eggs at the periphery the guarding male still ate them. The paper concluded that male assassin bugs ate their own children, in eggs, as an alternate source of energy. Interestingly, males also were observed to adopt other assassin bug's eggs and when guarding the whole group, they would not preferentially eat the other parents' eggs.

Thomas, Lisa K., and Andrea Manica. "Filial cannibalism in an assassin bug." Animal Behaviour 66.2 (2003): 205-210.

(Leg, part 1) Ohh no!!!! Someone call the police! I just found a solitary leg in my garden! Who's leg is it?...and where is the rest of the creature? It is one of the most breathtaking and beautiful legs that I have ever seen in my entire life. How is such a scintillating metal green color even possible in nature? Look at the gorgeous spiked hair on it. Oh...new news...everybody, no need to panic, the Detectives are here...I hvae to go, but I'll let you know what they find....

(Leg, part 2) When the detectives arrived, they conducted a thorough investigation but after several hard minutes of searching they could not find rest of the body.....and then...they found another dead creature (with all of its legs). It looks like these two friends were out for an early morning walk and one of the friends was completely consumed (except for the leg) and before the assailant could consume the second, he or she must have been frightened away.

Most likely this is the Green June Beetle (Cotinis nitida). Here are some facts from Wikipedia:

"- Mating occurs in the early morning. The male is attracted by a strongly scented milky fluid secreted by the female. Mating last only a few minutes after which the female enters her burrow or crawls under matted grass. Once the mating process has taken place, the female will lay between 60 and 75 eggs underground during a two-week period.

- Birds will also attack the adult, notably the common crow, common grackle, mocking bird and blue jay." [for next iteration, look at the science of the color]

(leg, part 3) Once the detectives left, I started my own investigation into the Green June Beetle. I wondered, is it possible that some graduate student has spent 6 years of their lives studying this beautiful beetle? And the answer was....yes! Have you ever wondered what the vulva, penis and anal opening of the Green June Beetle looks like? Well wonder no more...take a look at the figure below!

Pszczolkowski, Maciej A., Kent Hampton, and Donn Johnson. "Sexual characteristics in a midwestern USA population of Cotinis nitida Linnaeus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) and consequences for determining gender." The Coleopterists Bulletin 62.4 (2008): 527-535.

(Sweat, part 1) Ohhhh nooooo! Not again! Call the detectives! Once again I have found a breathtakingly beautiful creature in my garden that has passed away (the whole body was intact but I accidentally decapitated it while taking the picture). Who could this be? Find out next time!

(Sweat, part 2) Breathtaking and heavenly shimmering, sadly I found this creature no longer living underneath my car's windshield. Who is it? Find out tomorrow. (Also, if you ever want to see any of the insects in this series, they are now part of my permanent collection exhibit in my house).

(Sweat, part 3) Nearly touching heaving, upside down with planetary petals and asterisk shaped pollen like starts, this is the Sweat Bee (most likely Agapostemon)! These bees are native to our land and therefore are part of our identity...get to know them! Unlike honey bees, they do not produce honey but they are extremely valuable pollinators. Most interestingly, unlike honey bees who are territorial and only have one queen per hive, this type of Sweat Bee lives in a communal colony. That is, one entrance leads to many smaller burrows, where each burrow has a different female. This is to enhance protection. Below is a wikipedia article followed by a really awesome article on the different types of bees in Massachusetts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agapostemon

https://ag.umass.edu/…/pdf-doc-…/2-1-17_a_review_on_bees.pdf

(Sweat Bee, part 4) Some lovely family friends gifted this house filled with many small holes for my birthday. It is meant to provide nesting sites for many of the solitary native bees of our land. These bees, like the breathtaking metallic green Sweat Bees, lay their children in small holes and leave a love package of food for them to consume on their own. A wonderful review of the bees of Massachusetts, written by UMASS, is provided in the link below. As you can see behind my house, I am a strong advocate of having a biodiverse backyard that has plenty of natural nesting sites for all of our native creatures and plants.

They are all part of our identity and destroying biodiversity in favor of a single species of grass seems sinful to me. This report supports the idea of having 'messy' lawns:

" Most of us like the aesthetic of manicured landscapes.

However, this requires the removal of wildflowers and

debris that bees utilize. Many of the plants we consider

weeds (like dandelions, fall asters, goldenrods) are great

resources for native bees, and patches of bare ground,

as well as dead trees, wood piles and twigs are nesting

habitat. Consider allowing some wildflowers and debris

to remain around the landscape."

https://ag.umass.edu/…/pdf-doc-…/2-1-17_a_review_on_bees.pdf

(Sweat Bee, part 5) After receiving the beautiful gift, I was slightly saddened when I read a document written by umass that said that these shelters were usually ineffective.....and then I saw it! One of the holes was packed with dirt....AND THEN...I saw an insect carrying small twigs and pebbles into the second hole. I couldn't believe it! In this picture, you can see the insect entering into the hole in the right. I watched it across several hours and in the beginning it brought small twigs and towards the end it was more pebbles. I haven't had time to ID it...maybe some type of wasp (though definitely not a sweat bee). It blew my mind watching the insect search for the perfect material and build this nest.