insects – Page 4 – סלומה

The cocoon of the bagworm moth is always different, depending on the materials that the caterpillar forged to built it with.

Night-flowering silene harboring the bubbles produced by a spittlebug nymph.

Wax-tailed planthopper with abdominal filaments of ketoester wax.

Drosera burmannii.

Certain species of tarantula actually keep frogs as pets in a mutually
beneficial relationship called symbiosis. Insects frequently eat the
eggs of the tarantula, destroying the nest and the tarantula’s future
offspring – and so, in exchange for the frog eating the insects that
enter the spider’s burrow, the tarantula will in turn protect the tiny
frog from other predators.

Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used a nutrition for
larvae and queen bees. When worker bees decide to make a new queen
because the old one is either dying or dead, they choose several larvae
and feed them royal jelly in specially constructed queen cells. This
triggers the larvae to develop with queen morphology, including fully
developed ovaries needed to lay eggs.

The Cordyceps Fungus

This parasitic fungus preys on insects, slowly invading and
overtaking its host. Some Cordyceps species can exact a degree of mind
control on its victim, forcing them to climb up high in their last
moments so the Cordyceps’ spores can fall down on more victims below.

Scratching is a method to release honey from wax-sealed cells that is laborious yet gives much more control, which in this case allowed the extractor to save the capped drone brood present in the middle of
the honey-filled comb.

Wax-tailed planthoppers.

Cordyceps fungus causing fruiting bodies.