Insects are most visible in Colorado during the summer months. By simply looking out your front door you can find grasshoppers, beetles, ladybugs, butterflies, moths, bees, and mosquitoes!
Insects can be a benefit to humans in many ways. Bees make honey; they pollinate plants including fruits, vegetables, and many nuts that we eat! The silkworm makes silk, and many insects are used in making dyes that are used in cosmetics and for coloring cakes, medicines and beverages.
Grasshoppers are found almost everywhere in the world, except for the colder regions near the North and South poles. They live anywhere they can find generous amounts of leaves to eat.
The State insect for Colorado is the Hairstreak Butterfly. Hairstreaks usually have delicate hair-like extensions on their hind wings.
Male mosquitoes do not bite humans. They live on plant juices and other natural liquids from plants.
There are about 91,000 different kinds of insects in the United States. In the world, some 1.5 million different kinds have been named.
Wasps feeding on fermenting juice have been known to get "drunk" and pass out.
Dragonflies are thought to be the fastest flying insect. They can fly up to 35 miles an hour. Hawk Moths are the second fastest. They have been clocked at 33.7 miles an hour.
This page is a monthly feature of Rocky Mountain Parent written by Melissa Webb.
Previous Month
| butterfly | K | W | I | L | N | K | B | C | B | M | C | J | L | X | L |
| hairstreak | A | G | A | B | K | L | Q | I | Z | I | R | F | V | A | Y |
| honeybee | E | M | Q | S | I | S | G | N | Y | T | S | U | D | L | Z |
| insects | R | M | W | X | P | V | L | S | E | E | R | Y | F | C | X |
| ladybug | T | H | O | N | E | Y | B | E | E | D | B | R | Q | V | A |
| larvae | S | S | F | S | Q | V | K | C | Y | U | E | V | F | K | U |
| locust | R | Z | U | S | Q | I | A | T | G | T | O | S | Q | Q | J |
| mosquito | I | M | Y | C | A | U | L | S | T | S | I | L | K | T | Q |
| moth | A | K | C | N | O | L | I | U | X | F | X | M | R | U | O |
| silk | H | K | K | Z | C | L | B | T | X | B | W | X | E | H | Q |
| summer | A | D | S | H | Z | B | Z | O | O | A | H | K | M | B | M |
| I | E | J | T | F | P | B | C | D | T | E | H | M | L | H | |
| E | A | V | R | A | L | Q | X | O | R | T | Q | U | K | I | |
| H | V | Y | U | H | J | H | M | L | O | I | L | S | Z | A |
Did You Know?
. . . Entophobia is the fear of insects?
. . . Grasshoppers can jump 20 times the length of its own body; that would be like a human jumping 40 yards!
Links
http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmnh/buginfo/start.htm
http://www.ris.net/~lawnman/hopfact.html
http://www.butterflies.org/journaltxt.cfm