Category Insects, Arachnids, and Bugs

Cave Cricket

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The Cave Cricket (Phaeophilacris bredoides) is an insect that looks like a spider, but it is related to the grasshopper.

The Cave Cricket has three segments: head, thorax, and abdomen. It is yellowish-grey to brown with a long body, long antennae and long hind legs (back legs). Its legs are covered with small, dark spots. It needs long antennae to feel surfaces and its prey in the dark. It has three pairs of legs (6 legs) with one pair of antennae, and a pair of false legs near its tail to act as stabilizers.

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Garden Fruit Chafer

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The Garden Fruit Chafer (Pachnoda sinuata) is a small beetle. It is an insect. It is also known as the Brown-and-Yellow Fruit Chafer. It is related to the scarab beetle and the dung beetle.

The Garden Fruit Chafer is yellow with dark-brown central markings with yellow spots. It has a horizontal yellow bar near the base of its shell. Its shell is called a carapace, which is smooth. Its body has three parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Its head is small with two short antennae.

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Caucasus Pearl-Bordered Fritillary

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The Caucasus Pearl-Bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne dagestanica) is a butterfly in the Nymphalidae family. It is an insect.

The Caucasus Pearl-Bordered Fritillary is orange with black spots on the upperside of its wings. The underside of its wings has a row of silver-pearl markings along the edge. The caterpillars are black with white or yellow spines along their backs.

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Desert Locust

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The Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) is an insect, similar to a grasshopper.

The Desert Locust is green, grey or brown to match the colour of the foliage (plants) around them. During the swarming phase, it becomes yellow with dark markings.  When they are grey, their underbelly and face are pink. When they are older, their underbelly is yellow. It has long antennae. It has long wings and long legs.

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Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

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The Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) is a damselfly (Zygoptera) from the Calopterygidae dragonfly family. It is an insect.

The Banded Demoiselle has an iridescent dark blue-green body with greenish tinted, translucent wings. Each of its four wings has a wide brown band. Females have a metallic green or bronze body with greenish tinted wings, without the brown bands. The last three body segments are white, and are referred to as the ‘white rear light.’

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Scarce Swallowtail Butterfly

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The Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) is a butterfly. It is also called the Sail Swallowtail or the Pear-Tree Swallowtail. It is not scarce. It is quite common and widespread across Europe, except northern Europe. However, it is a protected species in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia, and Slovakia.

The Scarce Swallowtail is creamy-white to pale-yellow. On its front wings, there are 6 dark-coloured tiger stripes and wedge-shaped markings. On the outer edges of its hind wings (back wings), there are blue crescent markings with an oblong orange spot at the back corner of its long tail.

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European Hornet

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The European Hornet (Vespa crabro) is the largest wasp in Europe. It is an insect – a vespine.

The European Hornet is black and yellow, with reddish-orange wings. Its abdomen is yellow striped with black markings. Its has hair on its thorax and abdomen, but it is not as hairy as bees. Males have seven segments on their abdomen, whereas females have six segments. Its eyes are shaped like the letter C. Females have a stinger at the end of their abdomen. Males cannot sting. Males have antennae with 13 segments, whereas females have 12 segments.

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Carpenter Bee

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The Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa caffra) is an African insect.

The Carpenter Bee has six legs, two pairs of wings, and three body parts: (1) head, (2) thorax, and (3) abdomen. It has a shiny black body with two yellow bands or orange-red bands. It has black wings. Its two antennae are medium-sized. It is not a Bumblebee, because a Bumblebee has a hairy body.

It collects pollen from plants on its hind legs. It is a pollinator (it pollinates flowers), but it does not make honey or honeycombs.

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Spider Webs

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Most spiders use webs to trap their prey. Some spiders catch up to 250 insects a day in their web. Spiders use the hairs on their legs to detect web vibrations, which might indicate that their prey has landed on the web.

Spider webs are made of durable silk from their spinnerets and silk-producing glands located on their abdomen.

Some spiders make a new web every day and other spider webs can last for several weeks.

To make a web, a spider must think about its location, the best anchor points, size, and weather conditions, such as wind, rain, frost, and snow.

There are about 40,000 different known species of spiders. Different spiders make different shaped webs, such as thread webs; spiral webs; cobwebs (tangled webs); funnel webs; sheet webs, and canopy webs.

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Tent-Web Spider

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The Tent-Web Spider (Cyrtophora moluccensis) is an arachnid in the Araneidae family of Orb-Weavers. It is also called the Dome-Web Spider.

The Tent-Web Spider is varied in size and colour, but is usually yellow to green to brown-black. It has 2 body parts: the cephalothorax (head and chest), and the abdomen. On its head, it has up to 8 eyes, and 2 fangs in its mouth. Next to its mouth are 2 structures, like mini antennae, called pedipalps. Its abdomen has colourful markings. Its abdomen is where it has its spinnerets and silk-producing glands used to make its web. It has 8 legs, and each leg has 6 joints. Its legs are usually striped and contain hair-like spikes. Its leg hairs detect smells and vibrations.

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European Leaf Mantid

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The European Leaf Mantid (Mantis religiosa eichleri) is an insect known as the praying mantis in the Mantidae family. It is related to termites and cockroaches, and is not related to grasshoppers.

The European Leaf Mantid has a triangular head with two large bulging compound eyes and three small simple eyes, with a pair of antennae. It has a flexible neck, and a long thin green or brown body. It has two sets of wings and long thin legs. When it is resting, it often has an upright posture. Its fore-legs (front legs) are often folded, as if it is praying. The fore-legs are raptorial legs, because they have spikes that can grasp its prey. It has two-toed claws.

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