Irina Leonidovna Ermolaeva, a specialist in plant protection from pests and diseases, tells the story.
In our gardens there are not only visible enemies, but also friends. These are various predatory beetles, ground beetles, hoverflies, ladybugs, ants and spiders, which, while feeding, invisibly help us by destroying pests at different stages of development.
To attract beneficial insects and to stimulate them active work nectar plants should be sown, i.e. plants that attract such helpers. These are phacelia, mustard, buckwheat, carrot seeds, onions, etc. Moreover, it is necessary to create a flower-nectar conveyor - sow them in different terms in the aisles or in empty spaces.
Tahina fly
One of the many beneficial insects is the tahina fly. The range of pests it destroys is simply huge, and its efficiency is high. Suffice it to say that the number of silkworms, sawflies, leaf rollers, moths, and tahini moths is kept under constant control. The survival and accumulation of these flies is facilitated by the presence of flowering carrots, parsnips, honey and other umbelliferous crops.
The body of tahine flies is usually covered with strong bristles, and therefore they are also called hedge flies. The family of tahina flies includes about 5 thousand species.
Tachin flies find their hosts in different ways. Some types of flies lay their very small eggs on the surface of a leaf, where the caterpillar feeds. Caterpillars, eating a leaf, swallow eggs, then larvae appear inside the caterpillar, which feed on the body of the host insect, which leads to its death. Other species lay eggs directly into the body of the host insect. And finally, there are species of tachinas, the larvae of which find a host themselves and gnaw into his body.
Tahini flies lay a large number of eggs, and therefore one fly can destroy many caterpillars.
Ants and spiders
Ants and spiders do a great job of killing pests. You can sow coriander and anise next to cabbage. When sown at the same time, they bloom from May to September. Their flowers feed many beneficial insects and do not attract butterflies, whose caterpillars damage cabbage.
Ants are orderlies. They build their homes in and above the soil and are of great benefit. Numerous ant passages make the soil looser, and this improves breathing conditions for plant roots. While getting food for themselves, ants bring a huge number of insect pests and their larvae into the passages and chambers of the anthill: the inhabitants of just one anthill destroy on average up to 20 million garden pests per year. But it is worth monitoring the increase in the number of ants, this can lead to oppression of the garden, and because of the favorite delicacy of ants, which is secreted by aphids, they also contribute to the settlement of aphid colonies. Here you need to think about whether it is worth leaving ants in your areas or not.
Spiders. A significant part of the prey of spiders of the families of jumping spiders (Salticidae), funnel-web spiders (Agelenidae), wolf spiders (Licosidae), and side-walking spiders (Thomisidae) consists of such dangerous pests, like a harmful turtle, Colorado potato beetle, meadow moth, different kinds moths, many dipterans.
Attention! I would like to warn you that beneficial insects, like pests, overwinter in the bark, leaves, and soil garden plot. And in the summer, you shouldn’t catch all the insects you see in the garden, because you can leave the garden without defenders - beneficial insects, which are called entomophages.
ladybugs
Everyone knows what a ladybug looks like, but not everyone knows what benefits it brings. She is prolific and lays eggs in small groups of 30, the eggs are yellow, similar to the eggs of the Colorado potato beetle and hawthorn butterfly.
An adult beetle eats 100–200 aphids per day; the larvae are ten times more voracious than mites, whiteflies (Aleyrodidae) and scale insects (Coccoidea).
Ladybugs will be attracted to our garden by plants of the Asteraceae family: daisies, tansy, or yarrow.
Ladybug larva
Ground beetles
These workers can be seen in the process of digging or loosening the soil. These are nocturnal predators that hunt insects living in the soil: pupae of fire butterflies, moths, larvae of click beetles (wireworms), and gall midges. Destroy slugs and caterpillars. The menu of one ground beetle per day is about one hundred moth larvae, 5 adult moth caterpillars and 5–6 weevil larvae. And the larvae are much more voracious than adults; they sit in dug holes and grab insects crawling by.
To have more ground beetles in the garden, take care of soil fertility. Those. apply in spring and autumn organic fertilizers, humus, etc.
Lacewing
This is a gentle and slender insect. The color is soft green. Adult insects feed on flower nectar, aphid honeydew, pollen, as well as the mites and aphids themselves, destroying up to 4,000 individuals per day. The larvae suck spider mites and aphids. The lacewing prefers cool, shady places covered with fern thickets for breeding.
Ktyri flies
The two-centimeter black fly cannot be confused with any other fly. Powerful paws armed with bristles and suckers. A strong proboscis, pointed at the end, protrudes from the flattened head. They can pierce even such a strong shell as beetles have.
Ktyri, destroying the mass harmful insects, bring undoubted benefits. Their menu includes beetles, flies, flies, leafhoppers, butterflies and even caterpillars. Not only adult insects are useful, but also larvae that live in the soil and destroy the larvae of click beetles, beetles and darkling beetles, locust eggs and caterpillars that gnaw at the cutworm.
Interesting. The largest birds reach 5 centimeters. You should not touch the birds with your hands - their bite is as painful as a bee sting.
Such flies are attracted to plants from the aster family - goldenrod, chamomile, daisies, as well as various types of mint - catnip, peppermint and spearmint.
Trichogramma
This is an egg eater, the mass reproduction of which has already been put on an industrial basis. Trichogramma females lay their eggs in the eggs of many pests - codling moth, yellow and pale-legged gooseberry sawfly, meadow moth, cabbage cutworm, cabbage whitefly and others.
Since these insects are very small, they take nectar from small open flowers such as anise and dill. Plants of the celery family provide a good shelter for them.
From the above it follows that the more nurse plants you have in your garden, the fewer problems you will have with pests. These plants can be placed along the edges of the garden or border areas with vegetables. Plant species should be selected so that they bloom for a long time, replacing each other. Marigolds, alyssum, tansy, chamomile, and daisies are suitable for this. Savory, lavender, hyssop, basil, rosemary, and oregano bloom for a long time.
We can name many more beneficial insects - our helpers. But their number is still less than that of pests. Birds, frogs and toads, dragonflies, spiders - many animals help keep your garden pest-free and healthy. But they themselves do not have protection from chemicals.
Chemical treatments primarily destroy beneficial insects, since for a number of reasons they are more sensitive to chemicals and, in addition, their numbers are much smaller. Against the background of an abundant food supply and the absence of natural enemies, the pests remaining after treatment begin to multiply intensively. First of all, this applies to sucking pests - aphids and mites, which produce several generations during the growing season.
This information is for chemistry lovers and for those who consider it necessary to destroy everything that flies, crawls, and jumps around the site.
Beetles, or, as they are also called, Coleoptera, constitute one of the orders of the thriving class of modern invertebrate animals on Earth - insects. Bugs are ubiquitous. They can be found in any place, even seemingly unsuitable for life. They live in soil and water, on flowers, grasses and tall trees, in the hot sands of deserts and in the swampy subpolar tundras. Beetles are found in animal burrows and bird nests, in food supplies and in tree trunks.
Among the beetles there are orderlies of nature who destroy manure and animal corpses, destroy thin branches falling from trees and turn mighty tree trunks into dust. There are bugs that are harmful to humans: they destroy wooden buildings, they eat grain in warehouses, potatoes and vegetables in vegetable gardens, fruits and berries in orchards. But there are also useful ones. Many predatory species beetles eat harmful insects, sometimes acting as crop protectors.
A special group of beetles consists of species that have adapted to life in human dwellings and buildings. They are called synanthropic. Among them are famous lovers of woolen carpets and fur coats, museum collections and antique furniture.
Like other insects, beetles have a chitinous covering that forms exoskeleton. In them it is especially well developed, which gives them special strength and serves as good protection.
The body of beetles, like all other insects, consists of three main sections: the head, thorax and abdomen. The chest, in turn, is divided into three parts: the anterior (prothorax), middle (mesothorax) and posterior (methothorax). The prothorax is the most developed. It is movably articulated with the head and mesothorax. The mesothorax is fixedly attached to the metathorax, and the metathorax to the abdomen. The entire dorsal part (tergite) of the mesothorax, with the exception of a small triangular formation - the scutellum, is hidden under the elytra.
The two pairs of wings have completely different structures and purposes. The front (upper) wings are attached to the mesothorax. They are dense and leathery, devoid of veins and are called elytra, or elytra. The tergite holds the bases of the elytra together when they are folded. During flight, the elytra remain motionless and raised, playing the same role as the stabilizer on airplanes - they provide balance to the flying body. Their equally important purpose is to cover and protect the large membranous hind wings folding lengthwise and crosswise. These wings represent the beetles' main flying apparatus. They are called flight ones. Usually they are transparent, with veins, which have the same purpose as the backs of an umbrella - they give the entire plane of the wing the necessary rigidity.
There are, however, beetles that do not have flight wings, as a result of which they will never take to the air. And female fireflies don’t even have wing covers.
Beetles are characterized by complete transformation. This means that any of them develops sequentially in four stages. After mating, the female lays eggs - this is the first stage. A mobile larva emerges from the egg—the second stage. While feeding, the larva grows, shedding its skin from time to time. After several molts, it turns into a pupa. The pupa is motionless; Only when you disturb her does she begin to bend restlessly from side to side. At the pupal stage it occurs magical transformation larvae into an adult beetle - imago. With the appearance of a young beetle it ends life cycle development. If an insect goes through one such cycle over the summer, then the species is said to develop in one generation or have one generation. Some species manage to form two or even three generations in a season. Others, on the contrary, require several years to fully develop.
The body color of beetles is very diverse. It depends on the presence of coloring substances - pigments - in the integument of the body and on the structural features of the integument. Even within the same species, individuals can vary greatly in color and tone. This is what explains the differences in the description of the color of one type of beetle by different authors. The same can be said about the size of the beetles. Among our beetles there are pygmies, less than a millimeter in size (featherwings), there are also giants, reaching 15 or more centimeters (Hercules, relic woodcutter). But even within the same species, the body size of different individuals can vary greatly, which is most often associated with their nutrition at the larval stage.
The coloring of male and female beetles is also often different. In some cases, individuals of different sexes differ in surface structure and appearance. In males, various outgrowths in the form of claws, horns, and growths of various shapes are often clearly visible on the body. All these formations most often serve the purpose of protection and are used during the struggle for possession of the female. The external dissimilarity between a female and a male is called sexual dimorphism.
Beetle eggs are usually oval, translucent, and light in color. Larvae with a well-developed head and gnawing mouthparts lead a predominantly secretive lifestyle. As a rule, they differ sharply in appearance from adult individuals, but in some species of beetles they are similar to them, although they lack wings. Pupation at different types usually occurs in shelters: in the ground, under the bark or in the wood of trees where the larvae lived. Before pupating, the beetle larvae make a so-called cradle - a kind of nest, where, under the sewing up of its shell, the mystery of transformation - metamorphosis - takes place. Most aquatic insects also pupate in the ground along the banks of reservoirs.
Some readers may find all these details unnecessary. But not entomologists, specialists who have dedicated their lives to the study of insects. It is by the totality of external (morphological) characteristics, lifestyle, and behavior that they distinguish one species from another. Sometimes such differences are so small and unnoticeable that they are discovered only by highly qualified taxonomists. Typically, there are only a few such specialists in the world for each individual group of insects, and they work in well-known museums or zoological institutes. It is they who are turned to when necessary to recognize little-known insects. There are excellent entomologists and taxonomists among amateurs. Each of them has their own home collection, sometimes exceeding in number collected species state collections. There are especially many collectors who collect butterflies and beetles. The latter are called coleopterologists (from the Latin name of the order of beetles - Coleoptera).
The biology of beetles is very diverse. In this respect they are superior to almost all other orders of insects. Oral apparatus All beetles have a gnawing habit, which allows them to feed on a wide variety of food: from soft, raw food to extremely hard, dry food. Among them there are carnivores (predators and corpse eaters) and herbivorous forms (phytophages), which can feed on different organs of the most various plants. There are also saprophages; their favorite food is decomposed, rotted organic remains.
No one knows how many species of beetles live on our planet. At least more than 300 thousand have been described, although in reality there are almost certainly 2–3 times more. This is confirmed by the results of recent studies conducted in tropical forests. There, using the “toxic knockdown” method, i.e. While applying a pesticide to dense, closed crowns using a helicopter, under their canopy on pre-spread bedding, entomologists discovered an unimaginable number of hitherto unknown species of insects, including beetles. Calculations have shown that the number of new species is 2-3 times higher than the number of insects previously known here.
On the territory of Russia and neighboring countries (within former USSR) entomologists count over 20 thousand species of beetles, uniting them into almost 90 families. Representatives of each family are characterized by morphological, biological and behavioral characteristics unique to them. There are large families, uniting thousands of species, and there are small ones, in which only a few species are known.
On this site you will get acquainted with more than 40 species of beetles. It is difficult to accurately describe the habitat boundaries of each beetle species. Their life zones—areas—usually cover the territories of a number of neighboring countries. We will not point out every time that the given data on the number of species in a particular family refer to the territory of the former USSR. But this should not be forgotten, since some species live, for example, only in Central Asia, and some - only in Transcaucasia.
As for the individual species of beetles described on the website, they are all inhabitants of Russian spaces: forests, gardens, fields, and reservoirs. Among them are our immediate neighbors, who can be found inside homes, in a bag of flour or dried mushrooms, in wooden wall at home or in an antique piano. These are the most common and typical species of beetles for the fauna of Russia - representatives of 24 families.
Entomologists use different rules and systems for the sequential arrangement of families in their description, including beetles. For the convenience of readers on our website they are arranged in the Russian alphabet.
The high number of insects is explained by their high fertility and a perfect set of adaptations for survival in a wide variety of conditions. Almost all substances of organic origin are used by insects for food. Therefore, insects, as one of the most essential components in terrestrial ecosystems, play a huge role in the transfer of matter and energy, utilize almost all substances supplied by plants and animals, and themselves serve as food for many vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Their role in the soil-forming process is enormous.
The practical importance of insects is difficult to overestimate. Every year, 1/5 of the planet's harvest goes to feeding an army of pests. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests are destroyed by pests such as Siberian and gypsy moths, construction wood spoiled by bark beetles, longhorned beetles, and golden beetles. Various bloodsuckers carry deadly diseases and annoy people and animals with their bites.
Insects are a multifaceted miracle of living nature; they have their own special purpose on Earth, which is difficult to overestimate. They are excellent pollinators, soil formers, nature's orderlies, and what is important for humans is that insects improve soil fertility, curb the excessive spread of many agricultural pests, produce honey and medicinal substances, dyes of rich flowers, and silk. More than half of our diet comes from plant foods. And 15% of it owes its harvest to pollinating insects. They also pollinate most plant foods for animals. In addition, we enjoy admiring the beauty of the bizarre shapes, patterns and colors of the body, as well as the gracefulness of movements. Only a small part (about 1%) of insects causes involuntary damage to human activity. But this is nothing compared to the important role they play in people's lives and in maintaining the natural ecological balance.
More than 80% of plants are pollinated by insects, and it is safe to say that a flower is the result of the joint evolution of plants and insects. The adaptations of flowering plants to attract insects are varied: pollen, nectar, essential oils, aroma, shape and color of the flower. Adaptations of insects: sucking proboscis of butterflies, gnawing-licking proboscis of bees; special pollen-collecting apparatus - in bees and bumblebees there is a brush and a basket on the hind legs, in megachila bees - an abdominal brush, numerous hairs on the legs and body.
Insects play a huge role in soil formation. Such participation is associated not only with loosening the soil and enriching it with humus by soil insects and their larvae, but also with the decomposition of plant and animal residues - plant litter, corpses and animal excrement, while simultaneously fulfilling a sanitary role and the circulation of substances in nature.
They perform a sanitary role the following types insects: coprophagous - dung beetles, dung flies, cow flies; necrophages - carrion beetles, gravediggers, leather beetles, meat-eating flies, carrion flies; insects - destroyers of dead plant debris: wood, branches, leaves, pine needles - borer beetles, longhorned beetle larvae, golden beetles, horntails, long-legged mosquitoes, carpenter ants, fungus gnats, etc.; insects - orderlies of reservoirs feed on rotting organic substances (detritus) suspended or settled on the bottom - larvae of mosquitoes, or bells, mayflies, caddis flies, purify the water and serve as a bioindicator of its sanitary condition.
Beneficial insects, especially bees, play an important role in human life. Firstly, they contribute to solving a medical and biological problem - prolonging people's lives, and secondly, a socio-economic one related to nature conservation. These little friends and helpers of a person form an important link in the chain of factors that have a beneficial effect on improving his health. Great importance silkworms are useful to humans, among which there are several cultivated species that provide raw materials for the production of natural silk (mulberry and Chinese silkworms); cochineal worms, which form natural carmine in their bodies; Lacquer bug is a source of shellac. The world of insects is complex and diverse. Hence, the study of their structure, development and life activity is of great interest, especially insects with complex behavior: ants, bees, termites, folded winged wasps, which will no longer evolve in their intelligent life, since they are highly organized creatures.
Insects are creatures belonging to the class of invertebrate arthropods. Of all earthly creatures, only they managed to adapt to life in literally all climatic zones. Their numbers are very significant, as well as their ability to reproduce in huge quantities and in short time. They are present literally everywhere and can be unpleasant and annoying, cause inconvenience, and sometimes outright harm. It seems everything is clear with them. But we must not forget that nature is merciless towards species that turn out to be useless or unnecessary. So why does nature need insects?
Insects are small in size, but very numerous and diverse. It is difficult to overestimate the impact they have on the Earth's biosphere. The brightest and famous example beneficial insects - bees that collect honey and at the same time pollinate plants. What about the rest - caterpillars that eat huge amounts of greenery, biting mosquitoes and midges and other little things, the usefulness of which is not at all easy to notice at first glance?
First of all, it should be said that not only bees contribute to the pollination of plants. Many insects - butterflies, bumblebees, beetles, flies - need pollen and nectar and visit a huge number of flowers every day, thus cross-pollinating them. Some types of plants are so adapted and so dependent on certain types of insects that in their absence they are not able to bear fruit.
As is known, insect larvae - caterpillars - feed on the leaves of wild and cultivated plants. Over many millions of years, plants have adapted to possible insect damage. About one-fourth of the leaves are not necessary. These are spare leaves. Damage, as a rule, only stimulates the growth of green mass of plants.
Sometimes caterpillars damage trees in the forest, so much so that they leave them completely without leaves. However, around mid-summer, greenery will still appear on the trees. In the fall, the layer of fallen leaves will not be too thick and by next spring the forest floor will turn into humus with the help of earthworms and other soil organisms. The accumulation of fallen and unprocessed leaves harms the forest. The access of water and air to the roots of the trees becomes difficult, and they begin to die; the seeds remain on the surface of the leaf litter and cannot germinate. In addition, caterpillar excrement scattered throughout the forest means tens of kilograms of additional fertilizer. Of course, all of the above does not apply to cases of “explosive” reproduction of insects, in which a violation of the ecological balance occurs.
There are quite a few species of insects that perform sanitary and soil-forming functions. They accelerate the decomposition of animal droppings and their remains, promote the movement of humus into the soil and literally plow it up, creating conditions for normal development plants. These are all kinds of dung beetles and flies, meat-eaters and carrion-eaters, grave-digging beetles, etc.
Insects are very prolific. The larvae of some flying insects can be found in almost every puddle. They are able to accumulate valuable microelements in their bodies that enter the water from the soil. Flying insects that develop from larvae carry them away, fertilizing the soil. Considering that their biomass is huge, we can say that it is important element soil formation.
Finally, we should not forget that for some species of animals - birds, fish - insects and their larvae are, if not the main, then a very important link in the food chain.
The role and importance of insects in nature is enormous. The number of insect species far exceeds the number of species of any other group of animals; according to rough estimates, at least 108 billion insects simultaneously live on our planet.
The positive activity of insects in nature is expressed in their pollination of plants, for example, about 30% of European flowering plants are pollinated by insects. Some plants are not able to reproduce without special pollinators. Clover yielding in New Zealand excellent harvests, did not produce seeds until bumblebees, which were absent there, were introduced as clover pollinators. Main role Hymenoptera and especially bees and bumblebees play among pollinators; the second most important are dipterans and the third are butterflies.
Insects are of great importance in soil-forming processes, especially termites and ants. These insects, like the larvae of many insects living in the ground, loosen the soil with their passages, promote ventilation and moisture, and enrich it with humus. Without the activity of insects, for example, the decomposition of litter is impossible coniferous plants, and where this does not occur, peat-like infertile layers accumulate. The destruction of animal corpses and excrement by insects is of great sanitary importance.
The role of insects in the cycle of substances in nature is enormous. Almost every class of vertebrate animals (especially birds and mammals) has entomophages - forms that feed exclusively on insects.
The negative consequences of insect activity are no less significant. Thus, many of them feed on living plant tissues, causing significant harm. Damage caused by insects is varied and affects various plant organs: root system, stems, trunks, leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. In some cases, this may be the destruction of plant tissue - gnawing, boring holes (passages gnawed in leaves are called mines). In other cases, the presence of insects leads to the formation of galls, which are growths of parts of the plant. Both of these lead to a weakening of the plant organism, a decrease in its resistance to fungal and other diseases, a decrease in the production of fruits and seeds, and often to death.
Failure to comply with precautionary measures leads to the introduction of insect pests into such areas globe, where previously they were absent. Not finding natural enemies in the new conditions, pests begin to multiply quickly. The absence of protective reactions developed over a long period of time in the plants on which the pest settles leads to the fact that the damage caused increases significantly.
The harmful properties of insects can sometimes be used by humans to their advantage. Successful experience the use of insects to limit the spread of certain plants (in Australia, for example, specially acclimatized leaf beetles destroyed St. John's wort, which was growing rapidly on agricultural land) allows us to hope for the development biological methods weed control.
Sometimes the transfer occurs through simple contact with transmitting insects, for example, when they contaminate food, etc. In this way, various diseases are spread by the house fly (Musca domestica), capturing bacteria, helminth eggs and transmitting them to humans. Flies carry about 70 species of different organisms, many of which are causative agents of dangerous diseases (cholera, diphtheria, etc.).
