how are ladybugs and praying mantis alike?
459535
I don't know.  Maybe the kill the males after procreation.  You women would get a hell of a kick out of that!
577811
The "love bug" (also known as the honeymoon fly, telephone bug, double-headed bug, united bug, and March fly) is a  nuisance any Florida motorist is unhappily more than passingly familiar with. Though these bugs neither bite nor sting, at certain times of the year their sheer numbers transform these innocuous insects into airborne hordes seemingly determined to devil anyone fool enough to take to the road. The adults splatter on windshields, lights, grills, and radiators of motor vehicles, and their dried remains are hard to remove. Suicidal pairs of love bugs have been known to cause overheating of motors when large numbers of them are drawn into the cooling systems of liquid-cooled engines. Unlike other bugs, something particular to them adversely affects the paint jobs on cars, pitting and etching the paint if their mortal remains are left on a vehicle for more than 48 hours. \n\nEvery May and September these sex-crazed critters become an annoyance bordering on intolerable as the air teems with mating pairs. But the "love bugs" haven't always been part of the Floridian landscape, thus we've seen an abundance of "mad scientist" stories about how the state came to be infested with them. (Love bugs are not solely a Floridian plague; they range throughout the Gulf states and into Mexico and Central America, as well as up into Georgia and South Carolina. But they seem particularly enamored of Florida.) \n\nTruth is, Mother Nature is far more to be feared than any mad scientist and is far more capricious. In this case, she inspired some of her children to migrate to a new area, and in doing so prompted the creation of a number of rumors which attempt to explain why these critters came to take up residence in places where they weren't found before. \n\nLove bugs are not the result of a genetic cloning experiment gone wrong, nor were they unwittingly loosed from a research facility charged with studying exotic insects. They also weren't bio-engineered as a natural solution to the mosquito problem. (Love bugs do not eat mosquitos: the adults do not eat at all, and larvae feed on decaying plant material.) These overly amorous critters are native to Central America; the best guess as to how they came to these United States places them as undiscovered stowaways who arrived by ship in Galveston or New Orleans around 1920. They migrated into Florida in 1947 from Louisiana, looked around, liked what they saw, and decided to stay. Their natural capacity for reproduction took care of the rest.
667650
I have no idea what an earth baby is.  How large is this critter?  Where have you seen it?  Where do you live?  \n\nI can't think of anything off the top of my head that sounds even vaguely like the critter you're describing.\n\nThe only common household 'pest' I can think of with pincers like a crab or scorpion is a pseudoscorpion.  \n\nPseudoscorpions are quite harmless, and actually very useful in your garden.  I used to get them all the time in my bathroom, but where I live now I don't them that often.  They are only a few millimeters across, and cannot harm humans, and don't get into our food.\n\nhttp://whatsthatbug.com/pseudoscorpion.html - This site has some very good pictures of pseudoscorpions, and if that's not what they are, you may be able to find your critter in their excellent galleries.
581732
yikes.. okay..\ngrasshoppers, praying mantis, butterflies,mosquitos, dragonflies, gnats, ticks, mites, blackflies, deerflies, spiders,russian wheat aphid, english grain aphid, brown wheat aphid, brown cherry oat( this is an insect)Hessian fly,sorghum greenbugs, winter grain mite,cereal leaf beetle\nbees,wasps, weevils, wheat stem maggots, wheat curl mite,banks grass mite, two spot spider mite,wire worm, cinch bug, false wire worm, false cinch bug,corn leaf aphid,\nDifferential grasshopper, migratory grasshopper, two striped grasshopper, red legged grasshopper, cutworm, black cutworm, dingy cutworm, glassy cutworm,armyworm,western bean cutworm, bronzed cutworm,varigated cutworm, army cutworm,fall armyworm,pale western cutworm*** all of the cutworm species, transform into their own moth..so as well as the cutworm you would now for example have the dingy cutworm moth..* saltmarsh moth, corn earworm, european corn borer, green cloverworm, grain weevils.\n\nThe list goes on and on.. but if you need to find more, do a search for grassland insects..
833983
yeah..though i think they just hibernate...don't they. I'm being swarmed by ladybugs,it's crazy! Don't worry though global warming isn't happening!
324977
I'm sure that there are more technical differences that entomologists use to discern between the two groups, but when a dragonfly is resting, its four wings are flat and held out to the side (i.e. parallel to the ground). Damselflies, on the other hand, fold theirs back and together over their bodies when they're resting.\n\nSize is NOT the difference.
1045834
No never they are the oldest insects on planet earth, tomorrow even if the entire world gets destroyed they will still be here, the flying cockroaches are a bit irritating, but then so are human beings.\n\nThey best part about them is they are shock proof..its gods gift to them.
857222
Hmmm...wow...a VERY general question.  This is out of my field, but your other questions were so engaging I decided to see what else you have asked...\n\nFor the first one (how do they thrive/what modifications do they have). I am going to list things insects all have in common and that kill them when things go wrong with these systems:\nQ1:\n1) A chitinous exoskeleton, usually with a waxy covering that conserves water and provides mechanical protection.\n2) A system of spicules that enables oxygen/CO2 exchange without having to resort to an overly flexible out membrane keeping that mechanical protection sound. \n3) Segmented bodies and legs to allow greater flexibility of movement than is achievable solely with a segmented exoskeleton\n4) Wings for flight or additional mechanical protection\n5) Rudimentary circulatory system (this one might not qualify since I bet their ancestors had something like this too.)\n\nQ2:\nThere are a LOT of kinds of neoptera and I don't know much evolutionary biology so I will not attempt that one. Probably one trend has to do with the falling partial pressure of oxygen over the past few hundred million years and the guys getting smaller to cope. They all have flexible wings.  I dunno what else.  Sorry.\n\nQ3:  Compare flies to butterflies/moths/skippers.\nCommonalities: all 4 wings have flight function; larval stage that pupates; adults have tubular mouth parts\nDifferences:  antenna, scaled wings. \nThat is a start anyway. \n\nQ4:  Similarities: Chitinous exoskeletons, segmented bodies (but different numbers of segments), jointed legs, \nDifferences: wings vs. more legs, compound vs. simple eyes, pupation/metamorphosis vs. nymphal stages\n\nQ5:  Ecto means outside, and everyone know what parasitic means, so this would include lice, fleas, maybe mosquitos (they only suck blood for egg laying, you know), certain kinds of flies and true bugs.  They mostly live on blood, but I think some eat dead skin.  Geez, what else CAN you eat living on the outside of a critter?\n\nWhew.  Tough.
461337
Really-think about a roach-they are tolerant to drought, water, heat, and radiation. They are annoying and will live after a nuclear disaster. The louse-is a more fragile creature and there are different types. The worst pests survive forever no matter how many or their relatives are killed.
177516
Those hovering over girls( disturbing them) are he-fly and rest are she-fly, those with feminine interests spend time on dressing tables and cosmetic stuff, (kidding) but I tried to observe some of them earlier, even the ones in spider web or dead but couldn't find any apparent difference.
636184
I don't know how long you can have them before you notice them, but certainly not long aftre they hatch because they itch like hell. Also, it is possible to get them from infected places, but not likely.  I would not believe that he didn't cheat. Especially if he acts like nothing happened.\n\nThe crab louse can live in almost any form of human hair, but is found most commonly in pubic hair, leading to its other common name of pubic louse. Its legs are adapted to climbing along relatively widely spaced hairs, and so can be found in eyelashes, pubic hair, beards, moustaches, and even armpit hairs. The individual louse can survive for ~24 hours apart from its necessary human host, so that crab lice can be passed on in sleeping bags and bedding. The female may lay up to 40 eggs at a time, resulting in a fluctuating but growing population. The louse feeds on blood and can leave irritating spots on the skin, sometimes mistaken for pimples, a condition called Pediculosis pubis.\n\nPubic lice have legs that are spaced further apart than head lice, this is an adaptation that enables them to move around more easily in their habitat.\n\nThe female louse glues her eggs, called "nits", which look like tiny white beads, to hair shafts. Lice bite through the skin to suck blood, and the bite causes itching. Bites can become secondarily infected; scratching may break the skin and help cause secondary infection. The most common symptom of crab lice is itching of genital area.\n\nPubic lice are most commonly spread by sexual contact and are considered a sexually transmitted disease, but can also be spread by sharing clothes or bedding. Contrary to popular belief, pubic lice can also be spread by sitting on a toilet seat.
582128
Just so you know... spiders and scorpions are not insects (not belong to the Class Insecta), the belong to their own class: Arachnida.\nInsects have 3 pairs of 'legs', spiders have 4 pairs. That is just one of the *many* differences.
599686
Female anacondas do not devour the males!\n\n- Praying mantis\n- Many spiders\n- Ceratopogonid midges\n\nhttp://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/ugly_animal_kingdom/index.html\n\n---------\nUpdate: An interesting article that discusses adaptive and nonadaptive hypotheses for sexual cannibalism in spiders.  The evidence suggests that, at least in spiders, there's a connection between foraging decisions and cannibalistic behaviour towards males. \nhttp://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1420-9101.2002.00363.x/full/\n(let me know if you cannot download the article)
820767
There is no real way of telling them apart, they are what you call sexually monomorphic and monochromatic, meaning they have no physical difference or difference in color. The females are slightly larger than the males, but you would only really be able to tell them apart if you had both in your hands. Under a microscope with some entomological knowlegde, you would be able to see the genetalia, but with the naked eye, it is quite difficult.\nThe best way to tell would be to find a pair in copulation, the one on the bottom is the female and the one on the top is the male. Seeing this will also give you an idea of the size of a female compared to the male....but thats about all....\n\nHope this helps!
253027
Like this?\nhttp://inverts.cmnh.org/Web_images/giant%20water%20bug%20(Lake%20Erie%20Marsh).JPG\n\nGiant Water Bug (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae)\n\n(Lethocerus sp., about 5 cm)
629026
Sounds like The Ladykillers.
689293
actually, insects have 6 legs, arachnids (spiders) have 8.\n\n6 legs is actually a very efficient and simple mode of moving.  When an insect walks the front and rear legs on one side along with the middle leg on the other move in lock step while the other 3 form a stable platform for the insect.