Galapagos

Insects

There is surprisingly few insects on The Galapagos, only about 1,000. They aren’t very colorful, and they are nocturnal because they are mainly in the desert like Arid Zone (see Geographics/Island Life).  There are more insects in the wet season (see Climate). Around 200 of them are mainly small beetles.  The others are Cicindela sp. Gerstaeckeri sp. Trox Suberosus Calosoma spp. and Stenodontes Molarius. There are around twenty ants, a couple of wasps and one bee. They bore in wood to make their nests and are yellow brownish in color. There is also the Little Fire Ant. They bite and are vicious, and farmers sometimes need to leave their coffee or fruit unpicked. The Carpenter Bees also nest in wood. Unlike other bee species they are independant. The female is black and collects food. The male is yellow and smaller, and they make territories, and try to attract mates by flying in figure eights. There are a few species of moths, but a lot of butterflies. The butterflies can be distinguished several ways. They fold their wings vertically and have clubbed antennae, while the moths fold their wings horizontally, and lay them on top of each other. The moths are mainly nocturnal so they won’t get eaten by birds, so the flowers of Galapagos are mainly white so they can be seen easier in the dark. The butterflies are the Painted Lady, the Galapagos Blue Butterfly (only found in the Galapagos), The Large Tailed Skipper, The Galapagos Silver Fritillary, and the Galapagos Sulfur Butterfly. The moths are the Hawk Moth, The Green Hawkmoth, Footman Moths, and the Noctuid Moth, which is bright colored and small. The caterpillars on Galapagos sometimes are picky about their plants. They may only live on one. All in all, the caterpillars are a primary food source for birds. The Galapagia Solitaria is the only praying mantis on the Galapagos, and it eats other species of insects. There are also 21 species of Orthoptera, like katydids, grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets. The Short Horned Grasshopper is very colorful, and the Painted Locust is prey to Lava Iguanas. It is red, black, green, and yellow, and it lives in the lowlands. There are two more smaller species of grasshopper, which are very camouflaged. They are very diverse throughout the islands based on the environment they live in.There are the vegetarian Katydids, the Long Horned Grasshopper that sings in the wet season, and crickets. There are also spiders and scorpions, but I have arachnophobia, so look it up somewhere else please. Besides, they aren’t even insects! And that concludes Insects (NOT ARACHNIDS).