Singing Insects

You must have heard the shrilling sound of certain insects at night in the rainy season that passed by. Ever wondered where they have gone these days? Have they died or gone somewhere?

Many insects like crickets and grasshoppers are heard during the rainy days, i.e., late summer and early autumn. They make sounds and it is hard to locate the source of sound. It can irritate a person and they leave you with no other option than to tolerate their song.

During winter the grasshoppers and crickets slow down their activities and hide themselves in a suitable place such as cracks and crevices in the rocks etc.

Insects do not have the ability to regulate their temperature by generating body heat so they are ectothermic. They take on the temperature of their surroundings. You avoid going out of your home to play when it is very cold outside. Similarly these singing insects too find a quite place for themselves and stop activities to conserve heat.

In many cold countries, where winters are longer and freezing, adults and nymphs die. But how do they appear all of a sudden when the temperature rises? Yes, because when the winter ends, their eggs hatch into new crickets and grasshoppers. And they survive the winter season as eggs.

How will you know that the song whose source you are unable to identify is of a grasshopper hopping around outside or of a cricket’s? Well, crickets sing during the night and the grasshopper during the day. In movies to portray a scene of night, a background shrilling sound of cricket, called jhingur in Hindi is played.

Every cricket and grasshopper is not a singing insect. Only males sing to call females for mating or warding off other males. So when they sense the correct time for mating they start singing.

Now the big question is how do the singing insects sing? Do they have vocal cords in their necks as we do? It is strange but the sound which they produce is not generated by some vocal cords. They sing by rubbing together their two parts of the body.

Crickets rub together roughened parts of their wings. Grasshoppers rub their legs against their forewings. The legs of a grasshopper have a row of ‘tiny-pegs’ on them which they rub against the hard vein on their forewings.

What is even more strange is that these singing insects have ears on their first pairs of legs or on either side of their abdomen!

Singing of crickets is considered a sign of good luck in China. They are popular pets there and kept in cages. In some European countries particularly in Iberian Peninsula, Mexico, South East Asia people use ‘cricket fighting’ as a gambling sport.

What do the singing insects eat, do you know? Like different people eat different things, some prefer to eat non-vegetarian food and some eat vegetarian food. Similarly different singing insects eat different things. Grasshoppers are vegetarian but crickets eat small insects, plants and moulds. 

Turtles and Tortoises

Humanoid Turtles are seen in action cartoons telecast on a TV Channel and are shown to display behaviour opposite to the turtles found in nature. Contrary to the wise, careful and slow- turtles and tortoises, found in nature that survive harsh conditions by acclimatizing; Ninja turtles are aggressive, trained with ninja skills and act as saviors.

Turtles and tortoises are recognized by the hard, rounded shell that they carry on their backs. They have four legs and a tail. They have scales on their bodies, females are egg laying and they do not have capability to generate body heat. They retract their limbs inside their shells to survive in the chilling weather and move out in the sun to get heat. They are cold blooded and are reptiles.

Ever wondered despite having similar traits, why turtles and tortoises have different names? Well, it is a matter of fact. Similar looking turtles and tortoises are different on account of their body size, structure and habitat, they dwell in. Turtles are aquatic while tortoises are land dwelling. The turtles that live in fresh water bodies- rivers and streams and seas and oceans, have streamlined shells, webbed feet and long claws. 

But, the tortoises have relatively rounded shell and bent legs with short and sturdy feet, as they live on land. The small sized turtles feed on frogs, shrimps, snails and aquatic plants but tortoises that are large sized are vegetarians.

The shy turtles and tortoises are animals in armour. They never strike like a warrior does, but they withdraw their heads and limbs when threatened. The upper part of their shell is called ‘carapace’ which means shield and the lower part is called ‘plastron’ which means breast-plate. Both the parts are connected by bridges. Despite having these basic differences, they are similar in that they have common ancestors and are endangered.

The loss of their habitats and nesting sites, pollution and poaching has led to the decline in their numbers. Human encroachment for activities like fishing etc, have led to decline in their numbers due to destruction of their eggs in their nesting sites on the beaches. Orissa is famous for the nesting site of Olive Ridley Turtles along the Rushikulya beach. Female turtles congregate on the beach for mass nesting in the month of February, annually in large numbers. The turtles that come out of eggs leave for the seas.

We come to hear of news reporting their plight and environmental campaigns that are organized to protect them, frequently. Like, in the last December, railway police seized a consignment of 115 turtles being poached from Varanasi to Kolkata. This was a serious offence as such activities can lead to extinction of many species.

Turtles and Tortoises are an integral part of our environment. We need to protect them. India Turtle Conservation Program (ITCP) is a program, jointly hosted by Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT). It is being implemented in partnership of World Wild Fund (WWF) and other organizations repute so as to ascertain the global mission of TSA to reduce the turtle and tortoise extinction to zero. International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recognized them as vulnerable and put them into red data list. 

Turtles and Tortoises are considered endangered and are put under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. That means, it illegal to keep an Indian species of turtle or tortoise as pet or indulge in turtle and tortoise trade. You can’t make them pets and keep them in your homes to call upon them when you are back, but you can do one thing for sure and that is you can adopt them as celebrities do. Just pay the agencies for sustaining an animal and they will take care of your subject.

Honey Makers

“Hello honey bunny”, a ringtone being popularised on television by a mobile company, is as sweet as honey but at the same time it is funny too. Honey is a tasty little treat by little insects who work together to live together.

Now, what insects are the honey makers? Bees, is the most common answer. But that is not true. Every bee does not make honey, only honey-bees make honey. And, there are certain ants, e.g., honey-ants and wasps, e.g., polistine wasps, which make honey. But only honey-bees make honey sufficient to be extracted for human use. Honey produced by honeybees is a good food rich in nutrients but honey produced by other insects can be toxic.

Such is the spirit of working as a team that these honey making--social insects visit scores of flowers to collect nectar and store them in their nests, that is after a certain period of time, processed into honey. The worker bees store honey to feed the larvae and keep it as a food reserve for the bee-colony for winters.

Honeybees live in a colony with a gradation of labour. Every member living in the colony has a specific and an important role to play. Queen is both the heart and sole of the colony. She builds the colony and is the only fertile female. Other females in the colony are sterile.  Generally, she is the mother of the colony and her job is to lay eggs and keep the colony together by secreting pheromone.

Pheromones are chemicals that sensitize the sense of smell of other insects of the same colony; secreted to attract males called drones, and to keep other females in the colony infertile. The fellows in the colony recognize this distinct smell of their colony and keep on working together. The workers make the nest, defend the nest from predators and take care of the brood or the larvae that will mature into adults. 

Drones’ or the males’ only job is to fertilize the queen’s eggs. Eggs, that are fertilized become females, and that are left unfertilized develop into males or drones. Drones don’t have stingers unlike workers in the colony. The stringers in the bodies of the workers are actually modified ovipositors, or organs to deposit pollen and are barbed. Whenever a worker is threatened, she stings her stinger into the victim and tears off her abdomen in the process to pull it out, and dies.

Honey bees, popularly called as ‘Madhu-makhi’ is not a makhi or a fly, in fact. As, bees have two wings on the either side of their bodies unlike flies that have only one. Wasps like bees have two wings on either side of their bodies. Wasps and bees appear to be similar. But it is easy to identify them. Wasps have elongated bodies and slim waists and bees have hairy bodies.

The honeybees are pollinators actually. They visit flowers to suck nectar and in the meantime transfer pollen grains from one flower to another, like butterflies (titlee) and bumble-bees (bhanwara). The sterile females or worker bees store pollen and nectar in their nest or beehive. 

The cells in the bee-hive is made up of bees’ wax, unlike the nests of other social insects like hornets, paper-wasps, yellow jackets and ants that are made up of processed wood pulp or mud. Inside honeycombs or cells specified to store honey in the hive, nectar is stored and transformed into honey by the action of certain enzymes.

The amount of honey stored in the cells of the beehive is significant to be extracted for human use. Apart from making honey they also secrete ‘royal jelly’ from specific glands in their bodies which are fed to larvae in their initial days. A virgin queen feeding on the royal jelly after certain days develops to be the queen.

When the colony has two queens, either of the two leaves the hive with some members of the colony to establish the colony in a different place. The quest for a new suitable place is carried out by the workers in different directions which report to the queen at a certain place and justify the place by communicating through a dancing gesture called ‘waggle dance’. When the enthusiastic bee manages to convince her fellows, the beehive is established on the spot that she suggested.

Honeypot ants are unique insects as they store liquids in their bodies. When food is scarce, they regurgitate the liquid stored, after their antennae being stroked by the worker ants.

The honey making bees are reared to extract honey. Beekeeping or the rearing of bees to obtain a produce of honey is called apiculture. Apiculture is carried out in an apiary or a place where beehives are kept. Handling honeybee colonies can be difficult as the workers bees by habit defend their hives and sting but for the sweetness and profit that beekeeping yields, the vocation is carried out.

Cockroaches!

If anybody known to you would choose to have cockroach as pet, what would you say? Weird! People have a general dislike for cockroaches. Only a person who has deep interest in study of insects or entomology would prefer to do so.

Cockroaches can make life unbearable by merely appearing in the dream. The thought of a cockroach in the shoe to be worn, in the plate or flying in the room at night can irritate a person. How little they take to make life unbearable.

Some say cockroaches are evil, some say they are disgusting. But the reality is they are smarter than many animals, because of their survival strategies.

They are the most resilient species on earth. And are constantly under estimated by human beings. People like cartoonists and painters, have noticed them. Their images in comic books, magazines and other records tell us how they prevail in the cultures across the globe.

They are fascinating, sometimes we don't even realize. The cockroach poses a special challenge to our capacity to feel compassion, like we feel for other animals specially the wild. Do they need our sympathy? Certainly not, as they have already survived for 300 million years, or so.

When anybody who loves cleanliness, would enter into kitchen and see cockroaches around, he/she would shake head and say, "of what on earth are cockroaches made of?" They are relentless; they will survive after every attempt you take to get rid of them.

Cockroaches feed on dead and decaying plant and animal matter, trash, dung, wood and leather etc. They are scavengers basically. They help in cleaning our environment. But then also, they are disliked. Yes, because they are pests.

They harbor in our homes and feed on human and pet food. They do not act as hosts for diseases but they do passively carry microbes on their body which can cause disease. They leave an offensive odour and allergens in their excreta and body-parts also called ‘roach dust’ can cause allergy and asthma to those who are allergic.

These pests are enormous in number and spread on the whole of the earth. Cockroaches thrive in hot and humid environment and hide in cracks and crevices. They are nocturnal in their habits.

Cockroaches are very cautious and hide after feeling vibrations of human feet in the night. They can feed on anything and everything. It is said that only a cockroach can survive after a nuclear holocaust!

So if you don’t want to have cockroaches establishing their homes in yours, you would have to clean up. If you have a filthy kitchen or toilet, they will spread the whole of the filth in your house. Keep your surrounding clean and never think of making cockroach your buddy.

Cockroaches are smart creatures in the manner they have survived. We can relate their survival strategies so that we can celebrate life. As every life that survives on earth is a proof of unremitting willingness to live. We must adhere to do what we are supposed to do at that moment.

Coral Reef

Sprawling apartments has been phenomenal in the growth and development of Ranchi. Similarly in the marine waters, growing coral reefs are apartments to diverse animals. Do you know what a coral reef is? Well, it is a ridge or elevated part of a relatively shallow area of the sea floor approaching the surface of the sea.

Coral reefs are massive wave resistant structures built largely by coral and consisting of skeletal and chemically precipitated material. These are made by polyps i.e. animals belonging to the Coelenterata.

There are basically three types of coral reefs: Fringing reefs, Barrier reefs and Atoll. 

The fringing reefs develop along the shoreline and from the shoreline and form a channel or lagoon between the reef and the shore. The atolls are island made of corals.

Lakshadweep is called a ‘coral island’. Do you know why it is called so? Well, because the whole landmass has been generated by piling up of dead polyps, layer by layer and the formation has taken many years!

The coral reefs are most complex ecosystems found on the planet. 

These are found in great concentrations between 4 degrees north and south latitudes in western portions of all major oceans. They generally extend to about 30 degrees north and south of equator. They develop at a temperature not less than 20 degrees Celsius. This is the reason why they are not found in very cold seas.

Coral reefs are very important as they are home to many sea dwelling creatures like colourful fishes, conch, squids, octopuses, crabs etc. Coral reefs form important ecosystems. They also provide food to different animals like star fish. These support fish production up to 2.5 lakh tonnes per year.

Coral reefs control the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere and in the sea water. Coral reefs check sea waves against going towards sea coasts by reducing their speed.  They are helpful in controlling Greenhouse Effect as they absorb carbon dioxide.

Not only do the reefs help in maintaining ecological balance in the marine waters, they also provide different types of raw materials for industries. Coral is used in making jewelry, in repairing bones.

Coral Reef is an example of symbiosis between animals and plants. Many algae grow in the corals, algae provide food to them and they provide shelter. The algae- zooxanthellae and the coelenterates exchange gases. To reach for light corals grow to occupy vast expanses in the oceans and seas. Coral reef is the largest living structure visible from the space!

The multiplying coelenterates lead to the increase in the mass of the coral reef. But in doing so, the coral reef is exposed to physiological stress. The stress is caused by conditions such as light, temperature of water and non-availability of nutrients.

When exposed to stress corals expel the algae out and turn white. This is called coral bleaching.  It is not that only warm water causes coral bleaching cold water also has the same effect. Coral bleaching is evidence that the corals are experiencing stress and if they are further stressed, they can die. It is matter of great concern worldwide.