Tag ovipositor

Slender Green-Winged Grasshopper

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The Slender Green-Winged Grasshopper (Aiolopus thalassinus thalassinus) is an invertebrate insect in the Acrididae family of grasshoppers.

The Slender Green-Winged Grasshopper can be brown to dark-brown with lime to grass green on its head and thighs. It is paler on its underbelly. It has large eyes, medium-sized antennae, and an elongated body. Its legs have three segments, ending with small claw-like appendages. Its back legs are enlarged, which enable it to jump long distances. The male has a pair of wings and can fly, wheres the female has basic wings and cannot fly well. The wings are green.

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Dreamy Duskywing Butterfly

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The Dreamy Duskywing Butterfly (Erynnis icelus) is a small insect in the Hesperiidae family of Skipper butterflies. It is also known as the Aspen Dusky Wing.

The Dreamy Duskywing Butterfly is dark-brown and light-brown with silvery-grey. The male and female look similar, but the male tends to be darker. The thick, brushed abdomen is dark-brown to black with grey rings. It has long antennae and long palps. 

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Silverfish

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The Silverfish (Lepisma saccharinum) is a small insect in the Lepismatidae family. It is silver, but it is not a fish. It moves a bit like a fish.

The Silverfish is a wingless insect with a metallic silvery-grey body covered in scales. Its body is a squashed oval-shape that tapers (narrows) towards its tail. It has six legs and long thin antennae. It has two long appendages at the end of its tail, called cerci (one is called a cercus). It has two small compound eyes. It can regenerate its cerci and its antennae in 2-4 weeks if they are damaged or drop off.

It moves in a wriggling motion, like a fish. It can run quite fast.

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Meleager’s Blue Butterfly

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The Meleager’s Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus daphnis versicolor) is an insect in the Lycaenidae family of blue butterflies.

The male and female Meleager’s Blue Butterfly look different. The wings of the male are iridescent bright sky-blue on the upperside and grey-bluish on the underside – with blue at the base. The wings of the female are blue bordered with dark-brown on the upperside and pale brown on the underside. The undersides of the wings are dotted with small black spots encircled by white. The hind (back) wings are scalloped, especially in the females. The body is buff-coloured and hairy. Its antennae are segmented and clubbed at the tip. 

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Spring Heath Robber Fly

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The Spring Heath Robber Fly (Lasiopogon cinctus) is an insect in the Asilidae family of robber flies. 

The Spring Heath Robber Fly is hairy with bristles and smoky-coloured wings. Its body has three parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Its dark body is long and tapered with yellow-grey bands on its abdomen. It has a short proboscis (sucking nose) and three simple eyes, called ocelli, between their two compound eyes. Its antennae are short with three segments. It has six spiny black legs. It has a sharp ovipositor (egg-laying segment). 

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Common Blue Butterfly

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The Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) is an insect in the Lycaenidae family of blue butterflies.

The Common Blue male has iridescent blue wings above with a thin, black-brown border and white fringe. The female is brown above with blue flecks, like dust, and orange spots. Both the male and the female have a row of red or orange spots along the edge of the hindwing (back wing). 

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Lord Howe Island Stick Insect

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The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect (Dryococelus australis) is an insect in the Phasmatidae family of stick insects. It is a phasmid. It is also known as the Tree Lobster. It was thought to be extinct by 1920, but it was rediscovered in 2001, and there is now a breeding program in some zoos, such as the Melbourne Zoo in Australia. 

The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect has an oblong black or dark-brown body with strong legs. Most phasmids have wings. The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect does not have wings, but it can run quickly. It has spikes on its body and on its hind (back) legs. The female has more spikes than the male. The spikes and colour help it to camouflage itself in plants and bushes. 

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Purple-Winged Hopper

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The Purple-Winged Hopper (Titanacris albipes) is a large insect in the Romaleidae family of lubber grasshoppers. It is also known as the Purple Grasshopper. The Pink Grasshopper (Tinacris gloriosa) is in the same Ramaleidae family. 

The Purple-Winged Hopper has a heavy, cylindrical, green body and rounded head. It has olive-green forewings (front wings). Its hind (back) wings are violet purple.It has six legs with receptors on each leg that can detect movement and vibrations as well as temperature.Its hind legs are large. At the end of each leg, at the bottom of the tarsus, are claws called tarsal claws which are used for gripping grass and leaves.

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Turkish Crane Fly

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The Turkish Crane Fly (Prionocera turcica) is a large insect in the Tipulidae family of crane flies. 

The Turkish Crane Fly looks like a giant mosquito. It has six very long, thin, fragile legs. The legs easily drop off and re-grow. It has a large pair of translucent wings. Its segmented abdomen is long and grey. The male has a swollen tip on the end of his abdomen and the female has an ovipositor at the end of her abdomen, which is a tube to lay eggs. 

The Turkish Crane Fly has black segmented antennae. Its nose, called a snout or a rostrum, has a beak-like tip, and the apical segment is long and protruded. Its compound eyes are large and dark.

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Sabre Wasp

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The Sabre Wasp (Rhyssa persuasoria) is an insect in the Ichneumonidae family of wasps. It is also known as the Giant Ichneumon Wasp or the Persuasive Burglar.

The Sabre Wasp has a thin black body with several whitish spots on its head, thorax, and abdomen. It has reddish legs. Its antennae are long and thin. It has two pairs of wings. The female has a very long stinger and ovipositor, which is used to lay eggs. The male does not have a stinger or an ovipositor. 

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European Crane Fly

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The European Crane Fly (Tipula paludosa) is a large insect in the Tipulidae family of crane flies. It is also known as the Marsh Crane Fly.

The European Crane Fly looks like a giant mosquito. It has six very long, thin, fragile legs. The legs easily drop off and re-grow. Its abdomen is long and grey, or brown, or dull yellow, sometimes with a central dark mark along its body. The male has a swollen tip on the end of his abdomen and the female has an ovipositor at the end of her abdomen, which is a tube to lay eggs. It has a large pair of translucent wings.

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Egyptian Cricket

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The Egyptian Cricket (Homoeogryllus xanthographus) is a small insect in the Phalangopsidae family of crickets. It is also knowns as the Beetle Cricket. It is related to grasshoppers.

The Egyptian Cricket has a black, oval-shaped body with a flat plate on its back. It has long, thread-like antennae. It has long hind legs (back legs). Near the tail of its body, it has a pair of light-beige tubes. It has transparent wings.

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Roesel’s Bush-Cricket

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The Roesel’s Bush-Cricket (Metrioptera roeselii) is a medium-sized insect in the Tettigoniid family of crickets. Bush-crickets are commonly called katydids in America, and have previously been called Long-Horned Grasshoppers.

The Roesel’s Bush-Cricket is varied in colour, but usually brown, yellow, or greenish-brown. At the sides of its pronotum are yellow striped margins. It has three yellow-green spots along its yellow abdomen. It has long antennae. It has transparent wings.

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Sawfly

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The Sawfly (Taxonus pallipes) is an insect in the Allantinae subfamily and Tenthredinidae family of sawflies. It is related to ants, bees, and wasps.

The Sawfly has a black, shiny, elongated soft body with long antennae. It does not have a wasp-thin waist. Instead, it has a broad connection between the abdomen (stomach) and the thorax (chest). It has wings with dark veins.

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Large Banded Grasshopper

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The Large Banded Grasshopper (Arcyptera fusca) is a medium-sized invertebrate insect in the Acrididae family of short horned grasshoppers. 

The Large Banded Grasshopper is a yellow-green or brownish-green colour with dark markings. It has long, strong hind (back) legs that enable it to jump long distances. Its hind legs are red, with black and white banded knees. The male has wings and can fly, whereas the female has only basic wings and cannot fly. 

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