What insects live in families?

Some insects merely drop their eggs and fly away.Others the social insects build elaborate homes where colonies of relatives nurse eggs and young and defend them from enemies.Between these extremes lies a wide range of insects family behaviour.

        Many species lay eggs where hatchlings have the best chance to survive.on food plants or in buried balls of food.A few insects live for a time in small family units-usually only a female and her offspring-in which the female keeps her clean and safe.but in several kinds of beetles,the males also share in the rearing of offspring.as in the bess beetle,dung beetle,and bark beetles.

Home in the log:
                Bess beetle tunnel into fallen trees,where they live in colonies.The male and female,shiny black and anout 3 cm long.mix rotten wood with saliva to feed their grubs.

Buried with food:
                     Many dung beetles bury balls of mammal dung.The female lays an egg inside,giving the larva a safe place to grow and plenty of food.In some species the parents stay with the larva until it becomes an adult.

Bark tunnellers:
              Bark beetle bore into the soft tissue under the bark of living or dead trees.There they mate and lay eggs.The female feeds the young on fungus grown in the tunnels,while the male guards the main entrance.

Leafy den:
             Australian cockroach 7 and a half cm long pull leaves into their burrow to feed their young.Adults repel predators such as centipedes.


A wide range of family behaviour:

*The migratory grasshopper lays clumps of eggs in small holes in the soil.After laying the eggs,the female abandons them.

*The swallowtail buttetfly also lays eggs and then leaves.but she lays eggs only on plants .the young can use for food.

*The 1 and a one forth cm long female stink bug lays large groups of barrel-shaped eggs,then stays to defend them against predators.

Feeding and protecting young:

*Dung beetle prepare a nursery for their young.The female lays eggs in a ball of dung and oversees the feeding of the growing grubs.

*Burying beetles shape decaying flesh into balls to roll into their burrows.The young will hatch there,tended by the female.

*Honeybees,true social insects live in large families.The queen lays the eggs and workers bees care for her and the young.

What kind of colonies do ants form?

All ants live in social groups.but ant colonies vary greatly.In adapting to almost every environment on earth ,ants estimated with many different ways of life.Some species from colonies containing only a queen,a dozen or so workers,and a few males.In such colonies all the ants look much alike and may share jobs.At the other extreme,a colony of african drivers ants may have  upto 100 queens laying eggs continously and as many as 22 million workers.They cooperate so well that the colony seems almost like a superorganism' a single huge living thing.Many complex colonies contain several specialized kind of workers ,each doing a different job.

*Storage:
             Desert-dwelling honey ants gather nectar and carry it back to the nest in their crops.Some workers become living honeypots,storing liquid food in their greatly distended abdomens.They hang from the roof of their nest and let ordinary workers feed from them during periods of drought.

*Slavemaker:
                  Several ant species, such as those of  Polyergus  genus,capture the young of other ants to raise and keep as servants.Some species of so called slavemakers can not survive without their captives to feed them and care for their young.

*Stitchers:
                  Most ants nest underground but some build high in the trees.First living bridges of ants pull leaves together.Then workers sew the leaves.using larvae to lay down threads of the same silk they spin for cocoons.



*Farmers:
               Leaf-cutting ants grow their food in huge underground nest.workers cut bits of leaves and carry them to the nest,where they compost leaves and dropping.A special fungus grows on the compost.All life stages eat only this fungus.

*Warriors:
                Australian bulldog ants,more than 2 and a half centimetres long with huge jaws,bits and hold on while they jab with a stinger over half a centimetre long.They can jump neary 30 cemtimetres while protecting a nest or chasing prey.Their colonies contain no more than 2000 ants and the queens receive no special attention.