There are estimated 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 insects on earth at any given moment. For everybody of us, there are 1.5 billion bugs. But some of them are so horrible, just single is too many. Here are 5 you want to keep away from at all costs.
The human botfly, Dermatobia hominis is one of several species of fly the larvae of which parasitise humans. It is also known as the torsalo or American warble fly,even though the warble fly is in the genus Hypoderma and not Dermatobia and is a parasite on cattle and deer instead of humans.
Human Bot Fly
Human Botfly
Dermatobia fly eggs have been shown to be vectored by over 40 species of mosquitoes and muscoid flies, as well as one species of tick;the female captures the mosquito and attaches its eggs to its body, then releases it.
Either the eggs hatch while the mosquito is feeding and the larvae use the mosquito bite area as the entry point, or the eggs simply drop off the muscoid fly when it lands on the skin. The larvae develop inside the subcutaneous layers, and after approximately eight weeks, they drop out to pupate for at least a week, typically in the soil. The adults are small gray flies resembling a blowfly.
This species is native to the Americas from Southeastern Mexico (beginning in central Veracruz) to northern Argentina, Chile, and Costa Ricathough it is not abundant enough (nor harmful enough) ever to attain true pest status.
Since the fly larvae can survive the entire eight-week development only if the wound does not become infected, it is rare for patients to experience infections unless they kill the larva without removing it completely. It is even possible that the fly larva may itself produce antibiotic secretions that help prevent infection while it is feeding.
Army or Soldier Ant
Army or Soldier Ant
The name army ant is applied to over 200 ant species, in different lineages, due to their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as “raids”, in which huge numbers of ants forage simultaneously over a certain area, en masse.
Another shared feature is that, unlike most ant species, army ants do not construct permanent nests; an army ant colony moves almost incessantly over the time it exists.
All species are members of the true ant family, Formicidae, but there are several groups that have independently evolved the same basic behavioral and ecological syndrome. This syndrome is often referred to as “legionary behavior”, and is an example of convergent evolution.
Most New World army ants belong to the subfamily Ecitoninae which contains the two groups, the Cheliomyrmecini and Ecitonini. The former contains only the genus Cheliomyrmex whereas the latter Ecitonini contains four genera, Neivamyrmex, Nomamyrmex, Labidus, and Eciton.
The largest genus is Neivamyrmex which contains more than 120 species. But the most predominant species is Eciton burchellii of the genus Eciton; its common name “army ant” is considered to be the archetype of the species. Old World army ants are divided between Aenictini and Dorylini.
The Aenictini contains more than 50 species of army ant in the single genus, Aenictus. However the Dorylini contains the Dorylus, these are the most aggressive species of driver ants, there are 60 species known.
Originally the Old World and New World lineages of Army Ant were thought to have evolved independently, an example of convergent evolution. However in 2003, genetic analysis of various species suggest that they all evolved from a single common ancestor which lived approximately 100 million years ago at the time of the separation of the continents of Africa and America.Army ant taxonomy remains ever-changing, and genetic analysis will continue to provide more information about the relatedness of the various species.
Africanized Honey Bee
Africanized Honey Bee
The African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) is a subspecies of the Western honey bee. It is native to central and southern Africa, though at the southern extreme it is replaced by the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis.
This subspecies has been determined to constitute one part of the ancestry of the Africanized bees (also known as “killer bees”) spreading through America.
The African bee is being threatened by the introduction of the Cape honey bee into northern South Africa. If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an African bee nest, she is not attacked, partly due to her resemblance to the African bee queen.
Now independent from her own colony, she may begin laying eggs, and since A.m. capensis workers are capable of parthenogenetic reproduction, they will hatch as “clones” of herself, which will also lay eggs. As a result the parasitic A. m. capensis workers increase in number within a host colony.
This leads to the death of the host colony on which they depend. An important factor causing the death of a colony seems to be the dwindling numbers of A. m. scutellata workers that perform foraging duties owing to death of the queen, and, before queen death, competition for egg laying between A. m. capensis workers and the queen. When the colony dies, the capensis females will seek out a new host colony.
A single African bee sting is no more venomous than a single European bee sting, though African honeybees respond more quickly when disturbed than do EHBs. They send out three to four times as many workers in response to a threat. They will also pursue an intruder for a greater distance from the hive. Although people have died as a result of 100-300 stings, it has been estimated that the average lethal dose for an adult is 500-1,100 bee stings.
Bullet Ant
Bullet Ant
Paraponera is a genus of ant consisting of a single species, commonly known as the lesser giant hunting ant, conga ant, or bullet ant (Paraponera clavata), named on account of its powerful and potent sting, which is said to be as painful as being shot with a bullet.
Workers are 18–30 mm longand resemble stout, reddish-black, wingless wasps. Paraponera is predaceous, and like all primitive poneromorphs does not display polymorphism in the worker caste. The queen is not much larger than the workers. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests from Nicaragua south to Paraguay. The bullet ant is called “Hormiga Veinticuatro” or “24 (hour) ant” by the locals, referring to the 24 hours of pain that follow being stung.
Japanese Giant Hornet
Japanese Giant Hornet
The Japanese giant hornet is a subspecies of the Asian giant hornet. It is a large insect and adults can be more than 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long, with a wingspan greater than 6 centimetres (2.4 in). It has a large yellow head with large eyes, and a dark brown thorax with an abdomen banded in brown and yellow.
Workers forage to feed their siblings. Their diet consists of a wide range of insects, including crop pests, and for this reason the hornets are regarded as beneficial. The workers dismember the bodies of their victims in order to return only the most nutrient-rich body parts, such as flight muscles, to the nest.
There, the workers chew the prey into a paste before feeding the larvae who in return produce a fluid consumed by the workers. This fluid, known as vespa amino acid mixture (VAAM), is the only sustenance workers imbibe during their adult lives, which is remarkable considering they can fly 100 kilometres (62 mi) per day and reach up to 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph).
The fluid thus enables intensive muscle activities over extended periods and is being produced artificially to increase athletic performance. In many Japanese mountain villages, the hornet is considered a delicacy when fried.
The Japanese giant hornet has three small, simple eyes on the top of the head between the two large compound eyes. As the name implies it is endemic to the Japanese islands, where it prefers rural areas where it can find trees to nest in.
From:oddstuffmagazine.com
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