Insects And Their Homes

[Music] look at what these girls have found a cocoon do you know what a cocoon is it feels soft and silky it's the home of an insect you can find out what kind of an insect by waiting until the Winter's over in the spring something pushes its way out it's the head of an insect it's a mo moth a copia moth its wings must dry before it can fly the adult moth doesn't live for very long just long enough for the female to lay eggs all insects begin life as eggs the insect that hatches from one of the eggs doesn't look like an adult moth it's a caterpillar or larvae to use the scientific name the larvae spends its time eating and eating and growing and growing when a copia larva grows large enough it spins a cocoon which is a sort of winter home when the Cocoon is finished it will help protect the insect inside which is called a pupa now the pupa will change into an adult moth many moths and other insects spend part of their lives in homes such as this another kind of home is built by Fall webworms which are the larv of another kind of moth webworms live and work together spinning thousands of silken threads into a dense web that helps protect them from the weather and from Attack by animal enemies the webworms feed on the leaves getting their food as they build their home on other plants we can find the homes of other insects see the white substance on the [Music] stem it's a mass of frothy bubbles called spittle it's a kind of home made by a tiny insect the spittle bug this insect feeds on juices which it sucks from the plant the insect stays soft and moist Even In the Heat of the summer sun it's protected by the watery bubbles of its home have you ever looked at a leaf and seen a swelling on it like this if you'd come back in a few days you'd see that it has grown Weeks Later the growth is still larger cutting it open we see the cause of the growth the larvae of a wasp a gall wasp it gets its name from the home it lives in which is called a ga here's a gall formed by a gall fly there are many kinds of GS they give protection to various kinds of insects but cause great damage to living plants dead plants also provide homes for insects looking carefully at a fallen tree we can find tunnels dug out by one kind of beetle this is the larva of a horned beetle the larvae cannot care for itself it depends on chewed up bits of wood fed to it by the adult beetles as horned beetles chew out tunnels in the log they use the wood for food and the tunnels for places to hide from enemies so plants even dead ones provide useful homes for many kinds of insects there are also many insects that live in the ground you've probably seen ants going in and out of holes in the ground each hole is the entrance to a long tunnel which leads to many other tunnels and Chambers in which the ants live ants work together in taking care of their home these ants are looking after cocoons which contain young ants developing into adults ants also share the work of clearing the tunnels and bringing food into the home for all the ants to eat other insects that live in the ground are these cicas young cicas feed on juices sucked from the roots of plants after several years a cicada digs a tunnel to the top of the soil here it builds a shelter out of mud the mud home protects the young insect until it is ready to become an adult then it climbs up a tree or other plant emerging as a full grown cicada this pit in the sand is the home of another insect an ant lion larvae notice that the ant lion has a flat shovel-like head it uses its head to scoop up about a home in the loose sand when the pit is completed the ant lion backs its way under the loose soil at the bottom until it is completely hidden now watch what happens when an ant stumbles over the edge of the pit the ant is trapped it keeps sliding down the loose sides of the pit until finally it is seized in the jaws of the waiting ant lion so these pits in the ground help ant lions catch their food insects also make their homes in water if you've ever looked in a Still Pond and watched the bits of weeds and twigs along the bottom you may have seen some of them move slightly these are the homes of ctis fly larby one kind of ctis fly larvae lives in a hollow stem of a reed just its head sticks out the rest of its body is protected inside another kind of ctis fly larvae builds its home of grains of sand and silk cemented together still another builds its home in the exact shape of a snail shell here's another one that looks even more like a snail but it's a larvae inside we can find many different kinds of insect homes in the water can you think of other places insects make their homes sometimes in a barn or other building we can find a wasp's nest this one is made of mud a single wasp called a mud Dober builds the nest of many separate rooms or cells when the cells are finished the female mud Dober lays eggs inside with part of the nest cut away we can see eggs in a Cell along with paralyzed spiders which will be eaten by the young wasps when they hatch the WASP seals each cell protecting the eggs from enemies another kind of wasp a paper wasp makes a home out of a paper-like material the material is formed from wood which the WASP chewed later the nest provides shelter for wasps at different stages of their lives in the home of the paper wasp we can find eggs larv pupy which are wasps sealed in cells while they change into adults and the adult paper wasp other insects that live in the same home throughout their lives are the honey bees these bees live in a home specially made for them by man honey produced by the bees is easy to remove from this man-made Hive insects we see can be found in many kinds of homes in many different places let's remember that all of these homes help protect the insects at various times of their lives as they carry on the activities needed to live and grow