Tag Archives: life cycle

Unusual insect life cycles: Bug basics #3

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My latest YouTube video. Unusual insect life cycles: Bug basics #3.

Some insects, such as whiteflies and thrips, go through a life cycle that is in between complete (holometabolous) and incomplete metamorphosis (hemimetabolous). This ‘half way’ type of life cycle is known as ‘intermediate metamorphosis’.

Whiteflies are members of the family Aleyrodidae in the sap-sucking bug Order Hemiptera. The whitefly life cycle is egg, nymphs to adult. But the 4th instar nymph stops feeding, becomes opaque and becomes a ‘puparium’ – a pupa within a nymph skin. The adult whitefly forms inside the puparium and eventually emerges from it.

Thrips are in an insect order of their own, Thysanoptera, and there are more than 500 species described in Australia so far. The thrips life cycle goes from eggs through two actively feeding larval stages (instars) and two non-feeding stages, the prepupa and pupa, before becoming an adult.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Bug Basics #2: Insect life cycles

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My latest YouTube video. Bugs Basics #2: Insect life cycles

As I mentioned in Bug Basics #1 there is more than one type of insect lifecycle.

The insect life cycle that most people know is one of complete metamorphosis (holometabolous). Insects such as beetles (Coleoptera), moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera), wasps, ants and bees (Hymenoptera), lacewings (Neuroptera), and flies (Diptera) all have a life cycle of complete metamorphosis. The cycle usually goes egg, larva, pupa, adult.

The other type of life cycle detailed in this video is the life cycle of incomplete metamorphosis (hemimetabolous). Bugs (Hemiptera), grasshoppers (Orthoptera), mantids (Mantodea), earwigs (Dermaptera, and cockroaches (Blattodea) all have this life cycle. The cycle usually goes egg, nymph, adult.

In the video we look at examples of these life cycles and I give tips on what it means for pest management and beneficial insect encouragement.

I hope you enjoy the video.

A good start in life

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One of the most vulnerable stages in an insect’s life cycle is the egg stage, or when larvae first hatch from eggs. What can adult insects do to ensure their young survive these sensitive stages?

Social insects such as ants, termites, and some bees and wasps are experts at protecting offspring. Their colonies are highly organised with a caste system made up of reproductives (fertile queens and males) and sterile workers. In a colonial structure such as this offspring are produced by the reproductives, and protected within the nest by workers. In other words the entire colony is focused on the well-being of the next generation.

Non-social insects have different strategies. Predatory wasps of the families Crabronidae, Sphecidae and Vespidae either construct mud nests or dig nest burrows. These wasps hunt for an insect or spider to sting and immobilise, then place it in the nest to lay an egg on. The hatching wasp larva will be safe and sound inside a well constructed nest (such as a mud nest), or a hidden nest (burrow), with plenty to eat. Check out this Sphex sp. (Sphecidae) wasp hauling a paralysed locust into a burrow she dug (below).

Locust predator

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