#insect reproduction

[thoughtlessarse]

An ambush bug with a darker-coloured body is better at snagging a sexual partner than its brighter counterpart when it is chilly. Darker males can warm up more easily in the early mornings, and therefore get busy while everybody else is still warming up. This is one of the many examples of how temperature affects colouring in insects, and in turn can affect their ability to mate, according to a new review article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution. But scientists are still trying to work out what will happen to insects’ sex lives now that human-induced climate breakdown is raising temperatures to unprecedented levels. “On the one hand, we could be rejoicing, saying: how are the insects? They are responding to climate change. We don’t have to worry about them,” said Mariella Herberstein, a behavioural ecologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who is one of the authors of the study. “And then we could wake up the next day going: Oh, damn – they can’t find each other any more because they have lost really important identification colours that help them find a mate.”

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First the pesticides, now this; insect have taken an enormous hit thanks to human activity.

[jensownzoo]

Soooooo...apparently mating cicadas get tied together like dogs.

The one on the left was slowly, but determinedly, dragging their partner around by the ass. They had other things to do, dammit!

[addicted2wasps]

Copidosoma floridanum is an Encyrtid wasp whose brood is a fascinating example of polyembryony, in which multiple embryos form from a single egg. It is primarily a parasitoid of Noctuid moths in the subfamily Plusiinae. The Encyrtid egg will produce thousands of clone embryos. The mother C. floridanum will sometimes lay one male egg per host, or one female egg, or sometimes both. What's even more fascinating is that the wasp larvae have a caste system: the reproductives and the (precocious) soldiers. The reproductive larvae emerge during the caterpillar's last instar, consume it, and pupate into adult wasps. The soldiers emerge earlier, but never molt and die when the host dies. Their sole purpose is to protect their reproductive siblings from other parasitoid rivals and to kill their own opposite-sex precocious siblings. Since male soldiers compete for resources (caterpillar), by killing some of them off, the sterile soldiers are helping their genes survive by securing more resources for their clone reproductive siblings. In mixed-sex broods, the male larvae will try to hide and encyst themselves in the caterpillar's fat body to escape their murderous sterile sisters. Copidosoma competes with Microgastrine species such as Microplitis demolitor and Glyptapanteles pallipes. C. floridanum demonstrates haplodiploidy where unfertilized eggs become haploid males and fertilized eggs become diploid females. There are both male and female soldiers, but male soldiers tend to be less aggressive towards competitors. However, C. floridanum isn't invincible. There is one competitor, Trichogramma, that is also an egg parasitoid, and only uses the eggs of the moths. The adult wasps emerge long before the caterpillars hatch. When Trichogramma and Copidosoma end up in the same egg, the former usually ends up victorious.

I spent many hours doing research on this topic, but if there are any mistakes, I welcome any corrections!

[dualitieds]

Twirls his stupidly big ears/

[futurebird]

I just realized that Messor barbarus can't sting. And now I need to rethink something I thought was obvious about seed collecting ants.

Pogonomyrmex and Veromessor (the genuses of harvester ants we have in the Americas) can sting. It seems that much like "Army Ants" the group "harvester ants" isn't as cohesive as I thought.

That said... they are somewhat related, both practice social hybridogenesis.

I'm stunned. Ants shock me every single day! They can't keep getting away with this!

Please don't ask me to explain this yet I'm still trying to understand what the heck these ants are even doing.

[banesberry-anomoly]

would arache adopt me if I asked very nicely

sitting batting eyelashes image

[SURE, BUG. I ALREADY GOT THOUSANDS OF SPIDERS RUNNING AROUND, WHAT'S ANOTHER INSECT?]

[skydarcyedwards]

Well This Is Orchid

Sun Orchid, possibly Shy Sun Orchid, Thelymitra graminea.

Two weevils, soon to be more I suppose. I won't try to classify them, they need privacy right now.

Castle Rock, Porongorup.

2022

Canon 60D

Canon EF-s 35mm f/2.8 IS STM macro

[spricket-central]

sooooo Dirt and Loofah's introduction went well, id say... lmao

congrats on the sex 🎉

[critter-catcher]

Let's talk bugs for the next day of pride month!

Wasps reproduce both sexually and asexually. The ones that reproduce sexually females are born from a fertilized egg while males come from unfertilized eggs. There are some populations of wasp that produce only females from unfertilized eggs, essentially laying eggs fertilized by their own personal DNA.

Scientists have found that whether or not a wasp reproduces sexually or asexually is determined by a single gene. Using experiments with aphid wasps, researchers were able to demonstrate that the trait is inherited recessively, and that 12.5% of females in a specific generation reproduced asexually.

Next up is ants!

Ants also have the ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually! In the case of black carpenter ants, fertilized eggs will become female workers, while unfertilized eggs become males. Mycocepurus smithii, a fungus harvesting species, is believed to be fully asexual in a majority of its populations!

Before a 2011 study, these ants were thought to be fully asexual. The study sampled 1,930 million smithii ants from 234 colonies collected in Latin America, finding that every ant was a female clone of the queen in 35 of the 39 populations examined. In the remaining four, all found along the Amazon River, ants had a mixture of genes that suggested sexual reproduction.

(X)

[rubensmuse]

im not an entomologist but i think im right about killiks at least

[thisgentlechild]

A parasitoid wasp that insinuates itself so completely into the life cycle of its insect host that the host never gets to form its own imago:

As they feed on their pupating host, male parasitoids absorb the host's gonads

Males with male gonads mate with males that have female gonads, forming fertile host eggs

Males with female gonads can then mate with females, using a host egg as a spermatophore

The female fertilizes her own eggs, then re-lays the host egg implanted with her own

The host larva is born with wasp larvae already inside

They act as symbionts, remaining unobtrusive, increasing vigor and hunger of the host larva so it grows extra large

When the nice fat larva pupates, the wasp larvae devour it except for the gonads, and the cycle begins anew

[nessiesspeakeasy]

*putting the Mind Control fic into the queue*

I would absolutely love to hear more about your insect fae people <3

Hi! Sorry it took so long for me to answer this! Life and all~

The following talks about their mating/reproductive/romantic culture, as well as a little societal culture, but there's a lot of talk about the mating culture. I also go into what happens to the main characters after the fic ends.

Anyway! It was my friend's idea to make them insects:

So, credit to her! And then as I wrote, I jotted down ideas about their culture that I have now expanded on, as well as what happens to the main characters:

They mate like bugs in the sense of there's no marriage or attachment, just fuck and lay eggs and be done. It's rare for more than five out of a clutch to survive to birth. Related fae recognize each other throughout their lives, but it's common to just ignore them or nod in acknowledgement. Connecting with them is just as common.

So, if fae want long term partners, they find it in other races, which are considered exotic. The most exotic and covetted are the ones who give their whole names and lives to the fae completely since letting the fae control them and read their mind is extremely rare.

Any of them can create a cloaca or bug womby thingy so they can get pregnant if they want from their male long-term partners. The non-fae female partners tend to have eggs planted in their wombs and grow them until it's time to hatch, then they break free in their mother's wombs and are birthed like humans. The shells are soft and get dissolved into the mother to give back nutrients she desperately needs. Because the eggs are growing inside, a lot of them dissolve as others grow. Again, the most birthed this way is five at a time. In either case, impregnated fae or non-fae, there have been instances where a sixth egg has hatched, but months later. This is because it can get stuck or pressed against the side and only be able to properly grow when it's by itself. These are considered lucky.

These fae made from these bonds are considered fae and not half-breeds or whatever fucking prejudice. This creates a huge variety in what fae look like and the fae are proud of it, hating anything that is too similar to each other because then it's not unique~. This can create an issue if there are identical twins, but only until they are a few years old and cannot have anything unique to define them. It is common for twin fae to end up getting their physicality changed to look more different.

Taking care of their non-fae partner is a societal rule, but the basis of what care is varies a lot. If the non-fae is abused beyond care, then the fae loses their non-fae partner and is effectively cancelled and considered scum. They tend to lose any status they had, losing their homes and financial stability. That is the least of the consequences. In very rare cases, some fae have been executed for extreme abuse, especially the ones ending in the non-fae's death or mind break.

Royals/ nobility tend not to have a lot of children since it can become competitive and there have been too many coops and murders for right to rule. It was decreed royals are only allowed up to two children. This is controlled by only allowing a total of five eggs to form and be fertalized. More often, one is hatched out of such a small clutch, so another clutch of five will be fertilized right after the hatching of the first clutch.

Being in the fae realm and eating and drinking their food/liquids slows down aging, making the human life expectancy several hundred years, still small compared to fae.

The future of these two:

Aile relinquishes their right to the title of royalty/ nobility to have the large family they want with Jesse. They were able to do it in such a way that they kept their job, home and finances. This only happened because they had planned and manipulated things so only Aile was the one that could do the work they did.

Aile will control almost everything Jesse does in the first couple of years, slowly training him into being more present and more active. They figure it will take several years, but it's okay, fae live almost forever.

Jesse's depression will never go away completely, however, it will lessen and he will be able to go years at a time before it comes back and when it does, Aile is always there to help him through it. It's safe to say Jesse does better not being in the human realm and not being forced to be in survival mode.

There is a point in the first year where Jesse thinks how nice it would be to just let Aile disconnect his brain. This pisses Aile off and it's the first time Jesse sees the true wrath Aile is capable of. Aile does not hurt Jesse, of course, but Jesse can feel the power and heaviness of their anger. Aile probably fucked Jesse senseless and then made them take a trip to a small house Aile's family owns and made Jesse go and lay in grass and hike to see the stars untouched by city lights. They had picnics and swam naked in rivers and cooked meals together. Slowly, over the days, Jesse's mind began to unfog and for the first time, Aile and Jesse had meaningful conversations and were even able to laugh together. This trip is where Jesse began to realize he might enjoy Aile's company… Maybe even have romantic feelings towards the fae.

Jesse never thinks about disconnecting his brain again after this trip. He even starts to become more invested in what Aile does and Aile openly shares it, listening to Jesse's perspective on everything, even if they don't use it all the time.

Jesse gets to discover what he really likes to do at the insistance of Aile.

During one of their bi-annual trips to the cabin, Jesse gets hit with the realization that he loves Aile. Aile, not suspecting the thought, gets shocked and drops whatever they were holding. They clean the mess up together while Jesse flirts with Aile about how he should think more things like that more often if it'll get that reaction from the fae. Aile fully blushes, which is another first.

Twelve years pass before Aile gets pregnant from Jesse. Jesse is unsure how he feels about it until the baby is born. He cries as he holds their child. Aile and Jesse are good parents, traveling a lot to show their child the world. It only takes Aile five more years before they want another child from Jesse and finally confess to wanting ten children at a time. How they want all the noise and chaos that so many children will cause. Jesse is very overwhelmed at the idea, but at this point, he'll do anything to make Aile happy.

[quiveringdeer]

Jean: Hey, Mikasa. What kind of flowers do you like?

Mikasa: I like sunflowers.

Jean, pulling out a bouquet of Venus Flytraps: Well, shit-

[shuvva]

Sims 4 octopus challenge. Short lifespan. Parents die or immediately jump to Elder life stage after reproducing. Sims are rigged towards twins/triplets through traits and lot challenges. Goal is to achieve as much as possible in light of these challenges. I’d probably have them living in colony/extended family units but do what you want.

[skydarcyedwards]

🫣

Dragonflies

Sky Edwards

2023

Canon R7

Canon EF 100-400 L IS USM

[spricket-central]

id set aside some of Baguette and Donut's eggs after Donut died back in January, and while i was pretty sure most (if not all) were unviable, theres been ONE egg in particular that ive had my eye on:

its gradually been turning this darker, tan color over time. i have no idea if thats a good sign or a bad sign, but im wondering if maybe thats the color of a little nymph forming and showing through the eggshell?

only time will tell though! Poppyseed is still the only spricket ive ever successfully hatched, and it took her 2 months after being "planted," but she was a summertime baby, so her egg was naturally kept warmer.

we'll just have to wait and see if this little spricket seed ends up sprouting!