Insect bear - an alien from another planet

It seems that the creation of many Hollywood monsters of directors was inspired by a bear insect. And not surprising, because this relative of an ordinary domestic cricket, and in its natural size, terrifies many summer residents and gardeners, and even enlarged and embellished the film industry workers and even more so. The only ones who enjoy this garden monster are the fishermen. They say that catfish well takes on a bear.
And here’s what the bear looks like in high magnification in the photo.

Biological characteristics of the insect

Classification

The common bear belongs to the family of the same name. In turn, higher in the hierarchy is the superfamily of crickets from the suborder of Long-mustached and the order of Orthoptera.

Dimensions

The size of the bear against the background of many other insects is amazing. In length, her body, not counting the mustache and tserok, reaches five centimeters. The thickness of the insect's abdomen is about one centimeter in diameter. The length of both mustache and tserok is about ten millimeters.

Our help! Cerci are appendages at the end of the abdomen of some types of insects. They are sensory organs, as in a bear, or are transformed into forpses, like in two-tails.

Description

Let’s describe what the bear looks like. Her body consists of two departments:

• The cephalothorax, its size is approximately 12-15 millimeters, has a hard shell. The structure of this part of the body allows you to partially hide the head of the insect under the carapace.
• The abdomen is 30-35 millimeters long. A pair of wings is attached at its base, often extending over its length along the length. At the end of the abdomen are filiform appendages - cerci.

The oral apparatus of the bear is gnawing with powerful jaws capable of biting through the hard bark of root crops. Near the mouth are antennae and a pair of small short tentacles.

The front legs are transformed into a kind of shovels, allowing the bear to easily dig moves in the soil. Hind legs, unlike grasshoppers or crickets, are simpler; they are not intended for jumping an insect, but only for simple movement on the surface or inside their own moves.

The wings of the bear allow it to take off in warm weather, when the muscles are warmed enough to perform such work. True, the bear flies rarely and reluctantly, more often it chooses movement on the ground.

The color scheme of the body of the bear is expressed in brown and brown tones of varying degrees of intensity and tonality of staining.

Where does the bear live?

Medvedka lives throughout mainland Europe with the exception of the countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Its varieties are found in West and Central Asia, as well as in North Africa and the Caucasus.

In countries of East Asia and Africa, the bear is used as food, like many other insects. They are an excellent protein supplement to plant foods. For those who want to get acquainted with an exotic dish, we offer a simple recipe.

Recipe! In a frying pan of vegetable oil, fry the garlic for 5 minutes. Add the bear, grasshoppers and other locusts and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy your meal! 🙂

In Russia, the bear (cabbage, as it is called in some places) is found in almost the entire European part, excluding the northern regions.

As for habitats, the insect is found in soils heated by the sun, with mostly moist soil. Therefore, she loves soft warm beds irrigated by gardeners, especially in greenhouses and greenhouses. Often a bear can be found along the banks of ponds, from where it is washed off by coastal waters. That’s where some predatory fish’s love for such bait comes from.

Lifestyle

It is difficult to meet a bear in the afternoon, since it leads mainly an underground lifestyle and is chosen mainly in the dark on the soil surface.

In May-June, the bear appears on the surface more often than usual. During this period, their reproduction occurs, and instincts move insects to come closer to each other.

Insects live at a depth of up to 20 centimeters, and for wintering they can dig into the soil up to one meter, although compost and dung heaps are favorite places for hibernation.

Moving on their own moves, they communicate with each other, or rather give signals to fellow tribesmen. What sounds does the bear make? Yes, the same chirping as grasshoppers, only many times stronger. Biologists say that in this case, the insect emits up to 1.2 mW of energy, which is 200 times higher than that of a cricket. A person at night can hear the chatter of a bear from a distance of six hundred meters.

In the afternoon, the bears also chatter, but less intensely. The fact is that the birds that feed on these insects learned to find them by sound, and in combination with daylight such a hunt may be the most successful.

Breeding

After mating, the female lays more than five hundred eggs in a pre-prepared mink. It looks like a huge earthen cocoon with lots of eggs.

In mid-summer, young larvae emerge from the eggs, resembling an adult insect, only with a less protected body and developed hind legs, like a grasshopper. In addition, the larvae are devoid of wings and are blind, like newborn kittens.

Before the transformation of larvae into an adult, it may take from a year to two. In this case, the insect passes from eight to ten molts, each of which prepares the body of the nymph for adulthood.

Thus, we see that the bear does not have a pupal stage in development, and the larva, in fact, is an infant form of imago. This kind of insect development is called "incomplete transformation."

Our help! Larvae of insects with incomplete transformation are not only similar in appearance to adults, but their behavior and nutrition are similar to adults.

Nutrition and harm

What does the bear eat? The answer to this question seems to be simple, but also complex at the same time. It would seem that if insects gnaw the roots of cultivated plants and eat up the roots of seedlings, then the answer is clear, but it wasn’t there.

Still, many biologists are inclined to believe that the main preference for the bear is animal food:

• Worms
• larvae of other insects;
• dead and alive insect.

As for damage to root crops, this can happen because. that the plant just met a bear on the way. In favor of this is the habitat of these insects along the banks of the rivers, where root crops usually do not grow.

Is the bear dangerous for seedlings? Undoubtedly. The fact is that, digging its own moves, the bear sometimes simply does not pay attention to small roots and breaks its tunnels directly through their places of growth. This underground armored train will not turn off sleep a siding to circumvent such an insignificant obstacle as the root of a cabbage seedling.

Since the larvae of the bear, as mentioned above, are an exact copy of an adult insect, they feed on almost the same larvae and worms as their parents. A weaker gnawing apparatus does not allow the larvae to damage root crops, but the soft tender roots encountered on their way will supplement their diet.

Benefit

Indeed, the unexpected title of the chapter about the bear.However, such a terrible beast is of benefit to man.

1. Bears, digging their moves, aerate the soil. Air, getting through their passages underground, brings in oxygen necessary for the vital activity of microorganisms.
2. The bear is eaten, and dishes from them in Thailand and other countries of East Asia are considered delicacies.
3. Dried insects make healing powders that help against tuberculosis and cancer.
4. Bears, like grasshoppers and locusts, are excellent fishing bait. They peck at it: catfish, burbots, chubs, ides, barbel and other types of fish.
5. As a predator, the bear eradicates many other insects and their larvae, thus significantly helping to protect cultivated plants.

As you can see, this scary-looking insect has many advantages. Whether it specifically harms your garden-garden depends on the number of individuals on the site and the conjuncture of their behavior. Before you start a fight with a bear, carefully weigh the pros and cons, and then draw a conclusion.

Many readers ask if the bear bites or not. We answer, as such, a bite of a bear is impossible because of the peculiar structure of the mouth. The insect can pinch you with its front legs, and then, if you insert her finger.

Cultivation of the bear

If the bear is useful, then it is worth breeding, which some people successfully do. Adults are sold for medicine or at exotic restaurants. Someone just loves to watch their livelihoods and keeps them like aquarium fish, fishers grow as future bait.

So, when keeping it at home, the bear is fed:

• worms;
• meat leftovers;
• hamarus, food for aquarium fish;
• caught and crushed insects;
• small porridge.

But potato, radish, cucumbers and apples bear in spite of popular belief in captivity practically does not eat.

Interesting around us and below us. Video about the bear: