Notes on nature. Sketches and thoughts. New directions for studying insects (as well as other living creatures).

"Wood lakes" [Section-new research directions] (c)

Those of you who have spent a lot of time walking in the forest may have noticed quite common "tree ponds "-strictly speaking, miniature lakes located most often between tree trunks (between two or three" fraternal " trunks growing from one place). Moreover, among these woody reservoirs, there are some that remain "active" for most of the year, even in relatively dry times (i.e., they have a certain amount of water), and in winter they simply freeze like real large reservoirs. On the one hand, a sufficient amount of rain may contribute to this, and on the other hand, a sufficient shading regime in forest conditions.
Every time I passed by such a reservoir, I thought that it would be good for one of my colleagues, in different regions and regions, to take and study the biota of these miniature tree lakes, either in a complex or in separate systematic groups: who lives in or near these lakes, what they eat, how they experience adverse weather conditions. conditions, whether there are species of forest macro - and microbiota adapted to inhabit these miniature reservoirs and how they are related to the rest of the forest fauna, etc.
And also-to see the chemical composition of water in these lakes, its effect on the "pool-forming" tree trunks, to see which types of woody plants are more often confined to home-grown forest micro-water bodies, etc., etc.
If desired, and with a proper multi-year approach, you can get interesting, serious research that flows into a number of scientific articles, PhD and doctoral theses.
Think about it,
maybe some of you will be interested in doing this.
I have not seen any systematic and extensive research in this area.

This post was edited by Opatrum - 04/15/2019 17: 55

"The lack of methods of labeling insects that meet the current level of technology development. Lack of research aimed at studying the diurnal migration of individual land and flying insects" [Section-Criticism of entomology] (c)

At this stage, entomology, as in past centuries, remains a more descriptive science. There is an extreme shortage of interesting, extraordinary research.
Similarly, there is an extreme shortage in the use of methods that correspond to the current level of development of chemistry, radio electronics and a number of other technological industries.
In particular,
if we try to search for domestic literature that covers methods of labeling insects, it turns out that they are represented by single works from quite a long time ago, the essence of which often boils down to "drop paint on an insect, cut its ribs".
In other words,
the published methods of marking insects in the field for further field observations are rather clumsy, outdated, and often lead to changes in the natural behavior of insects.
Meanwhile, practically nonexistent studies covering real-time data on the daily movements of individual individuals of terrestrial or flying insects, with trajectory mapping with an accuracy of up to 1 cm, are of great interest from the standpoint of ethology and ecology.
At one time, we were able to make similar studies on certain species of terrestrial coleoptera - unfortunately, only with the help of direct visual observation of imagos, a manual method of marking their trajectory and further mapping it with reference to the terrain; but even then, interesting, new data were obtained that highlight some aspects of the diurnal migration of coleoptera.

In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to the following promising areas of research and development that you can implement in your teams (for different systematic groups), with access to serious scientific articles, PhD and doctoral theses, patents, grants:

- development and selection of substances (including different colors that phosphorize in the dark, etc. ) for individual or mass labeling of insects in the field, as well as devices and techniques for their rapid application to individual individuals; the main requirement is harmlessness to humans and insects, no influence (or as little influence as possible) on the behavior of insects (movement, burying, feeding, finding a partner, etc.);

- development of techniques and tools for ordinal labeling of insects in the field (if possible); i.e., allowing you to mark 10,000 insects with "numbers" from 1 to 10,000; moreover, "numbers" can look neither like numbers, but like their analogues (for example, a system of "dots, dashes", etc.);

- development of equipment and techniques for chipping insects in order to observe and map their movement in real time, including at a considerable distance; as well as for the purpose of numbering them (see paragraph above);

- study of the daily migration of individual individuals with high-resolution mapping (up to 1 cm), drawing up a general trajectory of movement during the observation period, determining the size of an individual site (if available), etc.;

- comparison of data on the daily migration of several individuals of the same species, followed by extrapolation of the data obtained to the population as a whole (in a given area);

- comparison of data on the daily migration of several individuals of one species with those for other species (for example, those occupying a similar ecological niche);

- differentiation of the insect's trajectory by activity and time of day;
etc.,
as far as your inquisitive mind will allow.

The described areas of work are practically absent in domestic and foreign entomology (as well as for, for example, small vertebrates - amphibians, reptiles).

This post was edited by Opatrum - 04/15/2019 17: 56

"The need to develop and implement alternative methods of storing insects in stationary entomological collections "[Section-criticism of entomology]. (c)

Many of you have worked with the collections of insects in the museum's "storerooms", which are overwhelmingly represented by two varieties:
- either these are insects laid out on "cotton mattresses";
- or they are insects in standard (or author's) entomological boxes, traditionally impaled on pins and provided with certain labels.

Both methods, from the point of view of today, are, firstly, rather barbaric and unreliable, and, secondly, quite labor-intensive, since:

a) the safety of insects largely depends on the storage conditions, measures against damaging agents (leatherworms, etc.);
b) require special equipment and storage conditions (boxes, temperature conditions, chemical treatment, etc.);
c) in the historical perspective,they are quite meaningless, because even in ordinary emergency situations (fire, flooding, etc.). massive mechanical impacts) - such collections will simply crumble to dust;
d) over time, even the most ideal storage conditions for these collections still do not stop the" spontaneous "destruction of specimens, including" typical "ones;
e) all internal organs and their systems completely degrade in insects" dried " on needles or mattresses - if necessary, you can not study them, take biomaterial, etc.

In addition,it is no secret
that the entomological collections of many of our provincial museums present a truly pathetic sight - with half-turned to dust specimens, damaged boxes, mixed labels...
When I see this, as well as insects of the "elite collections" "on pins and needles" - I think, my God, what a barbarism..

My thoughts suggest several possible new approaches to long-term insect storage.
Although, of course, among entomologists such reflections can be perceived with hostility, an attempt on "traditions", etc. However, every time with everything "new" there is such a story.

Possible suggestions include the following:
a) the development (search in nature) of a special liquid / gel that allows the insect to be stored for at least decades without affecting its color, the preservation of internal organs and systems, the hereditary material, the structure of the integument, the stiffness of the joints, etc. And this chemical substance should allow the insect to be pulled out "on the ground". air", for any research, and then return to the "test tube" again. The same substance should replace the traditional ether (alcohol), which is used to soak insects in the field.

b) development of a cheap and publicly available non-flammable plastic mass (or similar substance) that allows even at home to fill the insect, forming "briquettes" of arbitrary size , and with a certain impact on the "briquette" - to extract the insect for certain studies;

c) the plastic mass mentioned in the paragraph above may also have elastic properties so that the resulting "briquettes" or even "balls" with insects inside can be safely dropped, even thrown and thrown against the wall.

d) in the image and likeness of nature - filling insects in "artificial amber" (forever), which has absolute transparency.

e) development of advanced ways to automatically create ("print") full 3d models of insects in full size, fully reproducing the appearance and features of the covers (just they can be displayed "on pins and needles" for public viewing).

f) development of advanced methods for instant 3D scanning of insects in order to create "electronic collections" - just as we now digitize books in libraries.

The above is somewhat chaotic and partly, when viewed from the outside, fantastic, but the main message is that the ways in which we store insect collections today are inefficient and illogical.

Large research teams should think about developing new ways to store insects, ways to digitize entomological collections that meet the development of modern technologies and the main task - the centuries-old preservation of the collected biomaterial.
It's time to unlearn flint and wooden sticks, when there is gasoline and a laser around.

This post was edited by Opatrum - 04/15/2019 17: 57

"Natural injuries of insects (analysis of diversity and causes, influence on life processes) [Section-new research directions]" (c)

In our time, when we spent a lot of time in the field and studied terrestrial species of a separate family, which are quite large for a quick and high-quality visual inspection (if you want, you can write a letter, I will give you a link to the study), we noticed that many insects of this species (terrestrial, flightless) are often injured: there are no different number of leg segments, tendrils, or completely paws, or even limbs, etc., etc., etc. The variety of injuries was huge, up to broken ribs.
We found this very interesting in terms of systematizing the damage, statistically processing it on a large number of specimens, assigning a specific designation to each one, observing and thinking about the impact of damage on the life activity of the insect (movement, search and arrangement of shelters, nutrition, mating, life expectancy, avoiding enemies, competition with healthy individuals, etc., etc.), observing and think about the causes of injuries, classify the damaging factors. analyze the total number of injured individuals in the population

In general, it turned out to be an interesting, rather voluminous study in terms of labor costs and results, which has no analogues in the domestic and foreign literature.

In general, I think, addressing young entomologists and their teams, that it would be interesting to see the results of such studies for representatives of various insect families, especially their terrestrial non-flying forms (it is easier to take them into account at the first stages), and also to try to perform such studies on flying species (various lamellidae, etc.).

This type of research is not represented in domestic and foreign entomology, and could become a successful new direction, since it is not only of purely theoretical interest, but also reveals the real impact of injuries on various aspects of biology and ecology of certain species.

If there is a sufficient amount of data, this area can serve as the material for candidate's or doctoral theses, or their individual parts.

I give this idea to non-standard thinking entomologists looking for new areas of activity and hope that it will be further developed.

This post was edited by Opatrum - 04/15/2019 17: 52

"Observation and selection of individuals with natural mutations in natural insect populations" [Section-new research directions; Section-criticism of entomology]

I wanted to start with the traditional phrase "in due time, being in the field for a long time..." - but no, first a few words about the study of insect genetics.

Modern entomology, as I said above, remains largely a descriptive science, just as it was several centuries ago. Taking almost any family, and not only insects, but also other invertebrates, we can say with confidence that now the vast majority of species or at least genera have not studied ANYTHING with regard to genetic data. At best, in hotel species, only the number of chromosomes is known, and this is due to research conducted decades ago. Ask almost any major expert on a particular group of insects, what is the number of chromosomes in a particular, even widespread, or, on the contrary, Red Book species - we will not get a clear answer in almost 100% of cases; despite doctoral and candidate degrees and professorships.
If you expand the range of questions asked on this topic, for example, ask what mutations are described in the species of the family you are studying, what is the variability of karyotypes, the number of chromosomes within the genus, not to mention the size of the genome, genome sequencing... we won't get any response 200% of the time.
Moreover, we will get an answer like "I am an entomologist, not a geneticist" or the like, which, it seems, allows this "entomologist" to preserve the face and prestige of the titles won.

This deeply erroneous position makes entomology lag behind the general level of development of modern science, drives entomology into the eternal position of descriptive science, divorced from modern scientific achievements, and discredits any entomologist in the eyes of specialists in other branches of biology.
It is time for entomologists and entomologists to stop hiding behind the "I am a narrow specialist" screen and start increasing both their own and the general interdisciplinary knowledge base.

The chapter on the study (by predecessors) of the genetics of the studied family/genus/species with a deep processing of domestic and foreign sources, as well as on their own research on heredity (if any) - must necessarily be included in all candidate and doctoral dissertations on entomology devoted to specific groups of insects. Tables should be provided about the known number of chromosomes of certain species, genome size, etc. (if available).
The presence of such a chapter not only emphasizes the maturity of the specialist as an entomologist, but also his deep and versatile interest in the studied group of insects, which corresponds to the trends in the development of biological science.
Without such a chapter, the dissertation research should be considered incomplete.

Now to practice.
When we spent a lot of time in the field, we noticed that mass insect species that are available for observation and external inspection (especially for species with relatively large individuals) - quite easily in a particular geographical point, in a particular population-with a large number of examined specimens (hundreds, thousands) - detect individuals whose abnormalities in the external structure are obvious mutations (but you can't immediately tell whether these are somatic or generative mutations). Relatively common are, for example, doubling of the segments of the legs or antennae, deviations in the shape of the eyes (or even the absence of one of them), abnormal shape of the ribs or wings, etc.

The number of studies devoted to the selection, systematization, and description of such individuals, not to mention attempts to analyze their heredity, is negligible. This is a rich field for work, for serious articles, for PhD and doctoral dissertations, for maintaining catalogs of mutational variability within a species, genus, or family. With the exception of drosophila, we know NOTHING about the diversity of mutations in natural populations of certain species, not to mention the analysis of the nature of these mutations (somatic? generative?), their impact on life activity, their binding to specific genes in the genome, and genetic mapping of mutations.

I hope that entomologists, especially young specialists, will be interested in this area of research, get a lot of original data on their group of insects, and thereby automatically make a huge contribution to the study of six-legged heredity.

"PLANET search engine (animals, plants)" (c) [Section-new research directions].
I bring to your attention a project that would be most logical to implement in a single format on the territory of the whole of Russia (as a whole), having carried out the corresponding work under a single protocol in each of the regions.
In this connection, it may be of interest to the federal environmental monitoring bodies and the Academy of Sciences. It requires a systematic approach and annual data correction within each region. The significance for biologists of various specialties is enormous.

Need for implementation:
over the years, when we have been searching for information about certain groups of animals and plants in a particular region, we have found that it is often almost impossible to find systematized correct information about the geographical locations of finds of a particular species, genus, or family, linked to an interactive map of the area. for butterflies or ground beetles (the most studied groups), such information is still easy to find, but for example, for some millipedes, snakes, etc. - it is impossible; not to mention if we need to" combine " information on the places of finds, for example, grass snakes and ground beetles.
In other words, at the moment, information about the sites of finds of a particular group of living beings is extremely fragmented, not systematized, not collected in a single array for all groups, often known only to "initiates" (inaccessible to a wide circle), or not known at all. Access to such data takes a long time, and there is no guarantee of the accuracy of the results obtained. Attempts to create something similar on individual sites (zin, lepidoptera, etc.) are rather clumsy, confused, narrow, and generally do not have global success.

Project description (short).
The project is based on the only reliable form of data to date - annotated lists (with the date, places of finds, and surname of collectors). It is assumed that in each region, one organization will constantly work on maintaining this project, which will receive annotated lists of all plant and animal species found in the region every 5 years for further processing and entering into an electronic database (see below); in turn, the task of leading specialists in the region on the following topics: or other groups - provide such lists for their own group once every 5 years.
It is assumed that all regions will be controlled by the highest controlling authority, which deals with the final concentration of data, maintenance and maintenance of the program, and so on
. The appearance is very simple: we are looking at an ordinary interactive map like Yandex, with the ability to zoom in and out multiple times, the ability to select the satellite-hybrid mode, the ability to measure distance, etc. etc. - you remember.
A user who logs in to PLANET sees this map first of all. On the left, he can open the "specification window" with a mouse click - where a list of all species, genera, families, orders, etc. is displayed. - next to each such systematic unit there is an empty cell, in which you can click the mouse to put a tick or remove it, and the second empty cell, by putting a tick in which we will force the system to form a word- a file with a list of finds for this taxonomic unit.
In the second window of the specification, you can select one or more regions, or designate the entire Russian Federation as the search area.
Let's say that we need to find out simultaneously the collection points of the prytkoi lizard, the common grass snake, and species of the genus Microdera (the black-bodied family) in the Volgograd region. The user logs in to PLANET, selects a region in the geography specification window - the map automatically moves to the Volgograd region and outlines it. In the animal world specification window, the user puts a check mark in empty cells in front of each species - colored dots automatically appear on the map corresponding to the places of finds of these three species. date of discovery, name of the importer.

Features and value of the PLANET search engine:
- availability of information on all types of plants and animals;
- reliability of information;
- systematic correction of data every 5 years for all groups of organisms;
- free access.
- ability to search for information simultaneously for several or many taxa, or high-level taxa (genera, families).
- the ability to easily output data to a word file;
- serves as a single and unique database across the country;
etc.

Thus, the need for such a system, which is easy to use, but has a huge amount of periodically corrected data, is long overdue. It's time to make it a reality. It's time to give up small-town, disparate information for different groups.
This system will be of great importance for biologists of various specialties, for environmental protection activities, and will be of interest to specialists of ministries and departments of the relevant profile. The details of how the system works must be clearly worked out when creating the program. The main requirement is ease of use, without any hard-to-understand frills and bells and whistles.

If possible, please pass on information about the feasibility of creating such a system to your colleagues.
Thank you.

This post was edited by Opatrum - 02.05.2019 20: 00

"THE LOCUST" (short story) (c)

(link to the word file with text and photo:
https://yadi.sk/d/qmuB8Ot8E0Tx6A)

It was in the dry, steamed and sun-baked Stavropol steppe near the village of Beshpagir, namely, before reaching the village for about a kilometer, on the left (if you look to the east) side of the highway. There is a power transmission line on powerful iron pillars, and parallel to them are much smaller power lines made of concrete pillars.
Under these and near these power lines, the yellow steppe stretches out, interspersed here and there with trees, dried-up puddle spots, and dry gullies. To the north, the steppe rises up, gradually climbing a certain longitudinal hill, crowned as a result by a forest, on both sides of which there are sandy or, how should I put it, hills. or mounds... well, sand outcrops formed more by the will of the sun and endless winds.
You walk through this steppe, and even stones are rare: sometimes small limestones, sometimes red ones of various shapes, but small, glinting in the sun with myriads of sparks-probably flecked with quartz. What are these stones? I wish I knew. But for a geologist, it would probably be interesting…
You walk through this steppe and hundreds of straight - winged grasshoppers or locusts fly out from under your feet. Hundreds, hundreds, hundreds... the whole steppe is dotted with these six-legged bats, on every square meter - almost a hundred individuals, large and small… That's where the space is for the scientist who studies these creatures. There's probably more than one species, or two, or three, but a lot more than that. And even the most prickly plants are also littered with them. Tons of grasshoppers...
I also thought - but this is a very nutritious object: not for humans, but for other animals. And no one eats it.. Why? Again no response… And yet, it would seem, clouds of birds of some kind could swarm over such a grasshopper steppe ... But no, there is no one… Maybe something scares the taste, some chemicals that make them unsuitable for food? Who knows...we need to study. Well, jokes are jokes, but they say that grasshoppers are quite edible for humans - just know how to cook them. So, in all seriousness, we do not pay attention to this creature as an object of nutrition…
So this time I did not wander much on the steppe in the forty - degree heat, but wandered to a lonely sea-buckthorn tree standing in the distance-large enough to hide in the shade of its crown. When I got there, I found that I wasn't the only one who came here - the place was probably inhabited by shepherds resting in the heat, and cattle probably wandered here too. There was a bald spot on the ground near the tree - bare earth - probably a fire pit at first, then the coals were blown up, but the bald spot remained. In half a square meter somewhere.
Well what. I sat down under a tree, near a bald spot - you can immediately feel the chill, compared to the open steppe sea. Around on every blade of grass almost-blacksmiths-many, very many. Some even jump on you for some reason, and certainly gradually populate the surface of your backpack, standing next to it. Sometimes it gets windy, sometimes it subsides...but mostly it's always quite strong wind and very hot. I thought - here's another thing that we as humans are still poorly tamed as a source of energy-the sun and wind.
I looked at hundreds of blacksmiths around, and I decided to make a hooligan, that is, to conduct an experiment. I took out a few kiwi fruits from my bag, peeled the peel netonko, and spread it out in the center of the bald spot - I sit waiting for what will happen. A bunch of peels turned out rather big. I look - at first, small grasshoppers began to crawl up, that is, young ones-and they began to crawl up from the side in which the wind was blowing - that is, from the west. One, two, three, five-and so gradually began to gather. Then the larger blacksmiths began to creep up, mostly from the same direction. In general, the assembled company was happy to eat the pulp left on the skins.
I thought-I wonder-here are the blacksmiths pulling themselves up to the pelts in a chain. Is it only because of the smell coming from the skins that they gather? Isn't it possible that feeding individuals make some sounds (and not only with their mouthparts), which also attract other individuals from the steppe to eat?
20 minutes passed, and very big blacksmiths began to crawl right in. And with one of them, it turned out to be quite an interesting observation, even caught on video: here he is slowly crawling out of the grass, on foot slowly crawling up to the crusts...I thought he would now eat them peacefully; step, step, another step, here he is already on the crusts...and suddenly sharply and quickly grabs the mandibles."then the little blacksmith starts eating him alive, the bastard. When the camera approaches, it abruptly jumps away with its prey far into the steppe… I didn't know they had a lot of cannibalism going on… Although a few other big blacksmiths appeared immediately, not attacking anyone, but peacefully chewing the kiwi pulp, and, judging by the pace, with great pleasure.
In order not to be bored watching - I think I'll give you a pile of bran bread next to me. Filled it up. And after a while, blacksmiths also appeared on it, but in much smaller numbers. Then a few pieces of meatballs were used - and they formed a small company of large and small individuals. Then a small plastic jar filled to the top with water, 5 centimeters high, was used - and one small blacksmith managed to climb on it, and even drank water - but it was not possible to photograph it - the frightened waterhound flew off into the steppe. Some small blacksmiths managed not to crawl, but to jump out of the steppe from a distance of several meters-falling exactly on a pile of bread or kiwi skins.
This is what I mean - what is still so surprising: what an omnivorous creature-consumes a variety of grass, and unprecedented products, and even its small relatives… But no one eats it, it's strange… No, of course they feed - some lizards, spiders, and maybe predatory hymenoptera, but all this in such minuscule quantities, which is disdainful for such a huge unattended biomass… That is, they seem to be even at the top of the food chain - at least in this steppe area…
And I also thought - and if you look at similar communities not only throughout Russia, but also beyond its borders-maybe there are still creatures that are a thunderstorm for these myriad hordes of straight-winged ones, since they also consume them in myriad quantities?...
And I also thought - even if no one feeds on them, then these grasshoppers in such numbers are of great importance for the steppe, because then they all die off, and all the material eaten and accumulated returns to the soil in the same autumn.… They don't hibernate, do they?"
In general, as with many other creatures - on closer inspection, it always turns out that we know so little about them, despite hundreds and hundreds of pages filled with writing, that there are always so many questions that are still unanswered. Therefore, for a thoughtful researcher, there is always an interesting direction for observations and experiments.…
When the sun began to set, I left to the myriads of blacksmiths their cool night steppe, their nocturnal, distant stars and planets with probably similar grasshoppers in the probably similar steppe there, and who knows, maybe their nocturnal affairs and even some grasshopper thoughts about us…

Opatrum. 16.06.19.

This post was edited by Opatrum - 17.06.2019 20: 06

Well, this is already cool!
In fact, they actually eat even more than reptiles, insects and spiders and birds and rodents, these poor straight-wings do not emit anything so terrible, they are just sooo many of them. Then, in balanced biotopes, the number of erect-winged birds decreases even before the end of their natural cycle, because almost all of them are eaten by the craz.
And people eat erect wings, "acrid and wild honey" is about them

In the photos, not all grasshoppers, grasshoppers there are decticuses and jumps, there are also locusts like prus, decticuses can easily eat other grasshoppers and locusts, although they eat plants, and the rack is generally only predatory.
In our vast steppes even here such here are found

LOCUST "TAME" (short story) (c)

(link to the word file with text and photo:
https://yadi.sk/d/qmuB8Ot8E0Tx6A)

Probably, you can write a lot about grasshoppers, especially about their behavior, if you don't run headlong across the steppe with a net behind them, but just walk slowly through the grass, or just sit down in the grass for an hour or two and just watch.
The observations that I want to briefly describe also relate to the steppe near Beshpagir village - but not to the section of it that we described last time, but just to the section of the steppe opposite, on the other side of the highway (see Fig.).
The observation is quite short, but interesting in terms of the behavior of straight-winged birds. Last summer, wandering through the steppe near Beshpagir among the myriads of mismatched flyers taking off from under the feet, I noticed that most of them actually "shies" away from a person for many meters to the side, and even if one of them accidentally hits the other person with force in the heat of escape if they hit a traveler (especially in the face, they can be very sensitive), then they immediately push off from the traveler and jump several meters to the side.
But there are also quite unusual individuals. Jumping on any part of your body (back, arms, even a panama hat) - they can sit on you calmly, despite all the body movements and walking, and so, using you as a free transport, they move with you even for several kilometers, and then, they do something for themselves having decided on the mind when it is necessary, jump off.
This time we noticed something different. Grasshopper steppes in this area are, so to speak, less frightened - due to the fact that cattle are grazed much less frequently on this side of the road, which is confirmed by a fairly high grass almost everywhere. If you walk here on the steppe slowly, then the blacksmiths are not afraid enough: they fly away only if you almost step on them.
As I passed one of the plants where a large blacksmith was sitting, I decided to stretch out my index finger to one of them on the sly to see what would happen. I'm bringing it closer. More. More. I almost touch the mandibles... to my surprise, the blacksmith, having slightly passed his antennae over the finger, poked the mandibles into the finger once, twice (like a dog with its nose) and ... calmly crawled over the finger to the hand, began to climb on the hand, moving the " mandibles "and"sniffing" something. In fact, it was most likely attracted to particles or remnants of sweat/salt accumulated on the surface of the body. But not only that.
He crawled on the palm of his hand (the outer side), and then the reptile began to bite the skin, and each time the bites became stronger. Well, I guess I'll see what happens next. And he, continuing to crawl, calculated the areas of the thinnest skin, or one that is convenient to grasp (folds near the phalanges of the fingers), and began to bite them hard. Crawling up to his little finger, where the skin is really thin, he began to bite it with double zeal. Despite the rather strong pain, I decided to see how his bickering would end.
In the end, he still chewed through the skin on his little finger, even droplets of blood began to protrude, and he wanted to continue biting into the meat. Here I had to stop his predatory habits by shaking him off: I didn't really want to wait for him to peel my meat to the bone with his mandibles .
I thought - and after all, they are clearly experiencing a shortage of animal organics, if they rush so fiercely to fresh meat. Grass, apparently, tired .
And after all, he understands, infection, where it is necessary to gnaw through the skin.
In short, I thought that it was some unusual blacksmith. I approach another one - the same thing: he climbs on his finger on his hand, and let's look for something to profit from: he starts biting the folds of skin, the nail plate, even licking saliva. And another such instance, and another… However, I chose large specimens to approach
.That is, this is not an isolated case in this population in this area of the steppe. But maybe the first documented case of locust attacks on humans Was thought - I wonder if they also behave on cattle? True, those with thicker skin are difficult to chew through, but there may be wounds and abrasions…
What else is interesting, if you calmly sit down under a tree and rest, rather large specimens of grasshoppers begin to crawl up to you from the thicket of grass, are placed on your shoes, backpack...
In general, after wandering around the steppe for a while, I "found" another interesting fact from the life of erect wings.
And how many facts are still missing? and not just for straight-winged birds?
Oh, nature-book: read-do not count…

P.S. Two small comments yet.
1. Curiosity is aroused to find out what microorganisms and / or chemicals get into the wound after the grasshopper "chewed" your skin until it bled. It is unlikely that anyone has studied this issue. Similarly, this question has not been studied at all in relation to the vast majority of the relevant insects. I give an idea to young researchers.
2. In natural populations of wild animals, whether insects, birds, etc., we have often seen a similar gradation in human behavior - most are extremely timid, but some stand out from their fellows, approach humans much faster and closer, take food, etc. Ethologists note.

Opatrum.
20.06.19

This post was edited by Opatrum - 22.06.2019 19: 05

Added P.S. (see above)