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This aquatic insect is an adept swimmer, known for its unique backstroke swimming technique using oar-like hind legs. This stroke is a defining characteristic, along with their piercing-sucking mouthparts, common backswimmer seizes prey with a raptor-like ambush. Preferring still freshwater habitats, they play a crucial role in aquatic ecosystems, controlling populations of other small invertebrates and serving as prey for fish and amphibians.
Elegantly adorned with a speckled mosaic of hues, a backswimmer is known for its proficient swimming, its body keel-shaped and oriented inversely in freshwater habitats. This remarkable species has adapted to use its hind legs as oars, propelling itself with rapid, synchronized strokes. As a predator, its diet consists primarily of other small aquatic organisms, which it hunts using piercing mouthparts to inject lethal saliva and then extract bodily fluids.
Residing in freshwater habitats, backswimmers is an adept swimmer, navigating the environment belly-up with oar-like hind legs that propel it efficiently. Its predaceous life cycle sees a transition from carnivorous nymphs, which target small aquatic invertebrates, to adults with a more diverse diet including tadpoles and even small fish. Backswimmers's back mimics the color of open water, providing camouflage from predators hovering above while it preys beneath the surface.
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.
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.
The japanese rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus) is a massive beetle about the size of the palm of a hand. It's distinguished by its long Y-shaped horn, which it uses to fight other males with. It's a nocturnal bug that feeds on sap and sweet fruits. This species is sometimes kept as a pet due to its unique appearance and simple care requirements.
The silken threads produced by silkworm during its larval stage have been highly coveted for millennia, manifesting as a luxurious fabric in human society. Remarkably, this creature has a singular diet, feeding exclusively on the leaves of its primary host plant from which it extracts the necessary nutrients to facilitate its transition into a non-feeding, winged adult.
Menelaus blue morpho (Morpho menelaus) is a gorgeous butterfly with large, royal blue wings. Linnaeus named the genus Morpho the Aphrodite-Ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty for its extreme beauty. It is native to tropical rainforests. Though many butterfly gardens now cultivate them in captivity, there are still many people who never get a chance to see them.
While the atlas moth (Attacus atlas) can't tell you where to find your country on the map, it does earn its name through other means. It is one of the largest moths in the world, with a wingspan that is far larger than its body, creating an abnormal comparison. In India, their silk is gathered in a non-commercial capacity and is considered to be more durable than the domestic silkworm.
Both sexes reach about 5 mm in body length. Females and immatures of both sexes are brown but have color patterns by which they can be distinguished from related species. Also, the males dance to attract females.
Often confused for the ladybug, multicolored asian ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis) is a separate species that, unlike the ladybug, is a household pest. It is considered particularly annoying for its habit of returning to places from which it is removed. One of the most variable species in the world, there are many different colors and patterns multicolored asian ladybeetle may display, making identification potentially difficult.
