Top 20 Most Common Insects in Zacatecas
Insects, diverse and captivating, are remarkably adapted to various habitats within Zacatecas. This region's geographical diversity, from arid plains to mountainous terrain, results in an incredible array of insect species. These tiny creatures play crucial roles in the ecosystem, from troublesome pests to beneficial pollinators. Through our 'Top 20 most common insects,Zacatecas', we will explore the fascinating relationship between Zacatecas's environments and its diverse bug life.
Most Common Insects
1. Monarch butterfly
The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is the most recognizable butterfly in North America. It is best known for its appearance, but should be better known for the fact that it has a 3000-mile migration that takes the butterfly 4 generations to complete. Their diet is also a natural deterrent for predators, as they eat milkweed, a poison that induces vomiting.
2. Thasus gigas
Thasus gigas is a species of leaf-footed bug in the family Coreidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
3. Western honey bee
Western honey bee(Apis mellifera) is the most common species of honeybee in the world. Among the first domesticated insects, its cultural and economic impact on humanity has been vast and far-reaching, providing honey, wax and its services as a pollinator. Western honey bee faces challenges worldwide, such as colony collapse disorder, and populations are thought to be decreasing.
4. Western spotted orbweaver
The western spotted orbweaver (Neoscona oaxacensis) has a large, round abdomen that's brown with white spots. It builds its webs in open areas, making it easy to spot. Its webs are circular like other spiders, but instead of making a stabilimentum web like other orb weavers, its webs are more sporadic and spaced out.
5. Banded argiope
The banded argiope (Argiope trifasciata) can be distinguished by its zebra-striped pattern, with either red and white or black and yellow stripes. It builds orb-shaped webs, and then it waits upside-down in the center of the web for prey to become entangled. The females spend a lot of time guarding their eggs, and they can deliver a painful bite if threatened.
6. Mexican silverspot
Dione moneta is a butterfly from the Nymphalidae family. The scientific name of the species was first validly published in 1819 by Jacob Hübner.
7. Tropical house cricket
The tropical house cricket is likely to be found in urban areas and sometimes indoors. As the name suggests, it prefers a warm, tropical environment. They come out from their hiding places at night to forage, sing, and mate, but only the male crickets are able to sing to attract a mate. They are generally harmless.
8. Queen
The queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is a North and South American butterfly in the family Nymphalidae with a wingspan of 70–88 mm (2.8–3.5 in). It is orange or brown with black wing borders and small white forewing spots on its dorsal wing surface, and reddish ventral wing surface fairly similar to the dorsal surface. The ventral hindwings have black veins and small white spots in a black border. The male has a black androconial scent patch on its dorsal hindwings. It is found throughout the tropics and into the temperate regions of the Americas, Asia and Africa. It can be found in meadows, fields, marshes, deserts, and at the edges of forests. This species is possibly a close relative to the similarly colored soldier butterfly (or tropic queen; Danaus eresimus); in any case, it is not close to the plain tiger (Danaus chrysippus) as was long believed. There are seven subspecies. Females lay one egg at a time on larval host plants. Larvae use these plants as a food source, whereas adult butterflies feed mainly on nectar from flowers. Unpalatability to avian predators is a feature of the butterfly; however, its level is highly variable. Unpalatability is correlated with the level of cardenolides obtained via the larval diet, but other compounds like alkaloids also play a part in promoting distastefulness. Males patrol to search for females, who may mate up to 15 times a day. Male organs called hair-pencils play an important role in courtship, with males with lower hair-pencil levels being selected against. These hair-pencils may be involved in releasing pheromones during courtship that could attract female mates.
9. Filigree skimmer
Pseudoleon superbus is the only representative of the monotypic dragonfly genus Pseudoleon from the subfamily Sympetrinae. It occurs between Arizona and Colombia.
10. Bordered patch
The upperside of the wings is mainly black with the forewing having rows of white and/or yellow-orange spots of varying sizes. There is usually one whitish spot in the forewing cell. The hindwing has many color variations. Those variations can be: almost completely black to having some red postmedian spots to having a few rows of white postmedian spots to having an all red-orange discal area to having a yellow-orange postmedian band of varying width. The underside of the wings is just as variable as the upperside. It varies from having a few rows of white and red spots to having a yellow-white hindwing median band of varying width to the underside being mostly golden yellow with large yellow-orange spots and a thick golden-yellow median band. All of these variations have a red spot near the hindwing tornus. Its wingspan ranges from 3 - 4.5 cm.
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