Spring pleases with the first gentle rays of the sun, green grass and flowering trees. And at this time, after a long sleep, various insects wake up, filling the air around with buzzing, chirping and bright colors.
Early insects
As soon as it starts to warm in March, you can see the earliest insects near the water - stoneflies. Snow still lies around, and these creatures with transparent wings and thin antennae on their heads are already running and flying next to water bodies. Adults hibernate on the shore, and the larvae of stoneflies live in the water.
A little later, with the melting of the snow, one of the main workers of the forest, ants, wake up. As soon as the snow disappears from the anthill, these insects climb to its surface to bask in the sun. And sod ants wake up only after the soil warms up a little.
Immediately after the snow melts, provided there is no frost, the first butterflies wake up. The bright and variegated urticaria is the first to fly into the air. It can be recognized by its brick-red wings, which have yellow and black spots along the front and blue triangles on the sides. It got its name from the fact that only its caterpillars can feed on stinging nettles.
It is believed that urticaria can predict the weather - if on a warm day it hides in a secluded place, it means that it will get colder or it will rain.
And a week after the urticaria, lemongrass wake up. Their females are pale yellow-green in color, and the males are bright yellow. The rest of the butterflies appear much later, because they hibernate eggs, caterpillars and pupae, which need time to turn into a butterfly. And in lemongrass and urticaria, adults already winter.
As the snow melts, parasitic insects such as ticks become active. That is why you need to be wary of them not only in the presence of green grass. After visiting a forest or even a city park, you should carefully examine your clothes and body for the presence of these parasites, even in March.
In early spring, you can hear a characteristic buzzing in the air - these are large bumblebees in search of the first flowers. Due to the rapid contraction of the pectoral muscles, causing a loud buzzing, these insects maintain an optimal body temperature of + 40 ° C, even if it is not more than 10 ° C outside.
The ability to maintain a high body temperature allowed bumblebees to settle in the North, where other insects simply could not survive.
Late insects
Among those who wake up for a long time in spring are ladybugs. These small bright insects appear by mid-April and immediately get to work - protecting the plants from aphids. They are easily recognizable by their curved back and yellow or red wings with black dots.
In May, the air is filled with harmful midges and mosquitoes, which cause a lot of trouble for both people and animals. The bites of many midges are quite painful. At the same time, you can see the first sleepy flies.
And at the end of spring, May beetles wake up - large insects of black-brown color with a characteristic whisker bristle. True, they fly only 20-40 days, and then lay eggs underground, developing for several years.
