Predator insects: list, examples. What do predatory insects eat?

Nature is a unique organism. It is difficult to imagine a more finely organized system. Despite the endless variety of forms and species of organisms that fill it, interaction and order reign everywhere. For the number of species that fill the flora and fauna, predators answer. They can be found in any community, even among the smallest creatures - insects.

Who are they - predators?

According to the definition of biologists, these are living organisms that live by eating other individuals that are smaller and weaker than them. They can completely eat up their prey or only part of it. These are active predators or parasites in a larger organism. They all need protein food at all stages of life. Insect predators are a very diverse group. They are very different from each other and belong to different classes, but you can easily name which insects by type of food are predators.

Distinctive features of an insect predator

There are a number of features for characterization to identify which insects are predators:

• are organisms that eat several kinds of creatures;
• Both adults and larvae move quickly in search of food and prey;
• may be parasites of larger organisms, but ultimately lead the host to death;
• show the quality of the predator at all stages of maturation.

Do not think that these are terrible, disgusting creatures. Most of these insects are not harmful to humans. Many of them evoke a feeling of affection.

The use of insect predators

In this large group of carnivorous creatures, predatory insects useful to agriculture are distinguished. Examples of these organisms are in any gardener's directory. This includes the ladybug, akarofagi, anthocoria, spiders, ants. Insects-predators are specially bred on the land or in laboratories. They kill pests of useful cereals, legumes and green cultures. Their useful qualities for gardeners-truck farmers are determined by what predatory insects eat.

In the wild they control the number of herbivorous relatives. Eating primarily sick and weakened individuals, insect predators preempt natural selection. Do not give the disease within the community to develop to the extent of the epidemic. Significant benefit is brought by insect predators. The list of these carnivores is very diverse in class and characteristics.

ladybug

The sweetest creature is a voracious predator. Picking it up in a meadow, on a tree or a path, many do not suspect that a ladybird is eating. Its main diet is aphid. In a day a small beetle eats more than a hundred pieces of these pests of agricultural fields and vegetable gardens. The larva of the ladybug needs up to two thousand of these insects. Ladybird benefits farmers and regulates the number of aphids. Wintering this insect remains in fallen leaves, bark of trees, mown grass. To attract the ladybug to your site, you have to plant barley or alfalfa. You can buy these insects in specialized stores for a quick powerful fight against aphids.

Ground beetle

Very fast predator. Large enough beetle with bronze outflow. Does not fly, but runs fast.

Loves light non-acidic soils, dry grass and rotted foliage. Ground beetle larva also has a high movement speed. An excellent assistant to gardeners. Destroys the larvae, caterpillars, snails and slugs. Mainly a nocturnal lifestyle. Lives in the upper layer of the soil under old leaves and fallen grass. Very active in search of food. Over the summer can eat up to four hundred caterpillars, and the larva of the beetle is even more gluttonous. Experienced gardeners, truck farmers know what benefits the ladybugs and beetles bring to their site. Thanks to them, the use of chemistry for destroying pests is reduced at times, and this is a huge plus for human health.

Ground beetle

If the garden beetle should be supported in every possible way in the garden and fields, then the grain colleague must be categorically destroyed. It feeds on useful for human cereals. Eats wheat, barley, oats, corn at the time of ear formation. The larva of the ground beetle feeds on the roots of cereals. The plant inevitably dies.

Golden-eyed lavender

Refers to the class of net-winged insects. Has large wings with a green tint.

Consumes the same as a ladybug. Likes sweet aphid discharge. The larva of the lacewort eats the aphids themselves in very large quantities. Within a day destroys up to a hundred pieces of aphids. Golden-eared ordinary will bring great benefits to the garden. In addition to aphids, she copes wonderfully with the mite, the leaf-litter, carrot, onion and cabbage fly, caterpillars and shields. To preserve the number of lacewings on the site, special houses with bait for these insects are used, they take care of providing a place for wintering and plant early-flowering plants for feeding after hibernation.

Dragonfly

For once in my life, but every man was looking at this insect. Especially attractive are beautiful iridescent wings and a mask on the head. When you see a powerful retractable jaw, there is no question: is the dragonfly a predatory insect or not?
It is a fast flying predator. Lives near water bodies. He leads mostly a single way of life. It feeds on mosquitoes, small flies and bugs. Pursuing the victim, can accelerate to eighty kilometers per hour. The chain paws grab the victim on the fly and deal with it with the help of a powerful jaw. Dragonflies differ in the shape of the wings, the location of the aircraft and the length of the body, but in all the larva leads a long watery life. Some species in this stage spend more than five years. The dragonfly larva is a predatory insect of reservoirs. Inactive, but very gluttonous. It feeds on larvae of mosquitoes, beetles and fry. The very long-winged beauty is attacked by fish, birds and large insects. Therefore the number of dragonflies is not so great.

Mantis

The insect is a beautiful green, brown or yellow hue with an interesting front paw pose. They are raised upward, as in prayer. Hence the name of the insect. Raised upward paws of the mantis means a threat to anyone who wants to attack him. This gesture shows that it is better not to approach. Also raised up paws mean that the mantis hunts. On the outer side of the limbs are sharp, like blades, thorns to defeat the victim.

Help the mantis to hunt sharp eyesight and the ability to rotate the head 180 degrees. They always see where everything is going. When eating a sacrifice, the mantis does not relax, so as not to become dinner itself. His movements are slow and unhurried.

For a man, mantis are not dangerous, although they reach 15 cm in length. He is indifferent to non-moving objects. Its food ration consists of small rodents, birds, bees, lizards, small snakes, frogs and various insects. Mantis often eat relatives if there is not enough other food. After mating, the female bites off the head of the male to satisfy her hunger. Mantis treacherous, ruthless and voracious predators. The larva is capable of eating up to 5-7 aphids per day. An adult mantis is always hungry. For a day eats 7-8 medium beetles.

Grasshopper green

The green grasshopper that lives in our strip is omnivorous. Lives and hunts in the dense grass. His larva is also a predator. Grasshoppers can easily cope with prey. A powerful bite in the back of the head is immobilized by a victim much larger than himself. They eat aphids, masonry of other insects, caterpillars, locusts. If there is not enough protein food, go for vegetarianism.

Wasp

These insects have more than 100 thousand species. They are similar in structure, but differ in the way they organize life.

There are singles, community colonies and parasites. They are different from bees. Wasps are large insects with a well developed jaw apparatus and a reusable sting. If one is humiliated once, the wasp will not perish. This is the answer to the question: "Wasp is a predatory insect or not?" In the diet of the adult specimen and larvae are small bugs, caterpillars and spiders. The wasp injects a poison into the body of the victim, which paralyzes and immobilizes the future food. Then he brings it to his house. Wasps-parasites use the paralyzed body of the victim to lay eggs, so that the young could eat. The paralyzed individual does not die for a long time and keeps freshness.

Wasps benefit gardeners. They kill many caterpillars, spiders, ticks, malicious worms.

Neighborhood with the wasps is not pleasant for everyone. Among them there are giants - these are hornets. Large, with a buzzing buzz, living in colonies, they become unpleasant neighbors if they settle under the roof of a house, eaves or an attic.

On a person, wasps do not attack just like that. If they feel threatened, then the whole colony's army is ready to deliver a preemptive strike.

Bug

Not all bugs are predators. Among them there are herbivorous species and individuals with mixed nutrition. The brightest representatives of carnivorous mites are anthocoris, Orius and reduvida. They at all stages of life actively feed on aphids, thrips, whitefly, spider mites and spiders, eggs of butterflies and beetles. Bugs rhodium feed on eggs, larvae and adults of the Colorado beetle. Macrofusi destroy the greenhouse pest - whitefly.

They are actively used in agriculture for pest control. But bedbugs need a lot of food. Destroying all pests, they will change the habitat.

Bed-bug

Active predatory insect reservoirs.

Using sensitive receptors on the legs and antennae, it catches the slightest fluctuations in water and rushes there in search of food. Hunts flies, mosquitoes, flies, insects that fall into the water. Eating eggs in water and on land, next to a pond. In the middle band, a bedbug is not harmful to humans. In a tropical climate, these individuals are much larger and have a poisonous gland. The bite is very painful, like a bee.

Common earwig

The frightening appearance with two tentacles on the back of the body is very frightening to many truck farmers. In fact, all the fables about the virulence and jumping of earwigs are fiction. Has a mixed type of food. It lives in the upper layer of the soil. Digs a lot of moves in the ground, causing damage to the roots of cultivated plants. Bites roots and stems of plants, leaves and flowers. It hunts spider mites, spiders, caterpillars, worms. Loves the aphid. For the person is harmless. The benefits to agriculture are twofold. Kills pests, but in the process of vital activity it damages crops.

Ants

In the family of ants, there are vegetarians and carnivores. Well all familiar forest and black garden ants are omnivorous. In the diet of predatory species include eggs, larvae, small insects, worms, amphibians. Ants feed their progeny with animal protein. A bright representative of this is the bulldog ant.

It is larger than a forest ant. Can attack bees and wasps. The powerful jaws of the ant do not give the victim a chance. For the garden, a large number of garden ants is fatal. They plant aphids, feed on their sweet secretions and carefully take care of increasing the number of these individuals. Forest ants are real nurses. Hunting for caterpillars, beetles and worms, they pick up dead creatures, decaying animal remains.

Flies-murmurs

This is a large family of insects. In appearance they imitate bees, wasps, bumblebees. Having an ominous coloring, they are absolutely harmless. They feed on plant foods. The larvae of all the babbits are predators. Like the ladybug, they massively eat aphids. The larva is very gluttonous. In a day can eat up to 30 individuals of aphids. If a caterpillar or other small insect meets the path, the larva of the babbler will eat it. At the initial stage, this insect leads a sedentary lifestyle and does not miss the opportunity to eat any protein food.

Spiders

All known predators. Some weave cobwebs and lure their victim there. Others shoot a sticky secret into future food and draw it to themselves. The basis of the diet of spiders is insects. All that flies, jumps and crawls, goes to dinner for spiders. Small spiders prey on butterflies, flies, mosquitoes, beetles and grasshoppers. They weave their net-traps and wait for the victim, luring it with the shock of the web. Water spiders feed on floating insects of water bodies, fry, tadpoles. Earth creatures, injecting poison into the body of the victim, immobilize it and drag it to their mink. Eat worms, beetles and caterpillars. Large spiders living in a warm climate carry a danger to birds, snakes, small vertebrates and humans.

Riders

Adult individuals eat plant food. The larva needs protein food for development. The female rider enters the eggs into the body of the victim and injects the virus. He subordinates the host organism to the development of larval parasites that feed on his internal organs. Caterpillars, beetles, large insects, even wasps serve as a home for future offspring. For a man, riders do not carry danger.

Scolopendra

All individuals of this species are predators. A fast, brisk and voracious centipede poses a serious danger to beetles, insects and invertebrates. She feels the color shades and the slightest sound vibrations. These qualities help to find the victim. Large individuals living in tropical and subtropical climates hunt snakes and birds. For a person, the bite of a scolopendra is not fatal, although it is very painful.

Fly-stick

Outwardly it looks like a large mosquito. It flies quickly and swiftly attacks the victim, is capable of hanging in the air, and then falls on the future food with a stone. Can attack the wasps, dragonflies and beetles. Injecting a strong poison into the body of the victim, it quickly sucks, then again ready to hunt.

A huge variety of insect predators are represented. List of carnivores can take a whole book. Hunting and eating living creatures, they favorably affect the number of herbivorous organisms, help a person to fight pests of agricultural activities, are a link in the food chain.