The beetle is among the most complicated insects that one can find on planet Earth. The insect order of Coleoptera hosts over 400,000 known species. Some of the species feed on wood; some have the capability of flying in the night and illuminating the dark sky, while others have big horns from the head and engage in fights within their species. However, the most common feature that can be observed with most beetles is that the front pair of wings is sheathed by a hard shell. Such structures are referred to as wing cases or wing covers, and this specific wing case is the elytron. The front wings are present inside the beetle’s shell and when the beetle wants to fly, it has to open the wing case so that the front wings can be visible.
The Egg Stage
The beetle’s reproductive season depends on the climate, and it is most often during the spring and all through the autumn months. While some use chemical signals called pheromones, others use sounds or even light to find partners. Where there is a scarcity of mates, then the males have to struggle for the females, and the fights that go on amongst the young men are quite intense. This article summarizes how males have developed a number of tactics that will make them have the best possible probability of propagating their genes. But all this sexual competition is not for everyone; some of the species have a unique capacity to reproduce asexually without the existence of a male.
After they perform the mating process, siblings will prefer the place of their origin to produce their offspring. They will lay their eggs exactly on the food, be it a piece of wood, leaves of plants, feces, or an area with enough prey. She will produce a few dozen up to a few thousand eggs in her lifetime as an adult female. These eggs can be of different colors, but they are most often hard, smooth, white, or yellow. They are very tiny in size, and this makes identification relatively a fairly difficult task even to the naked eye. The eggs are normally hatched in the next few days.
larval stage
The last stage is the larval stage, which is also referred to as the grub, and this is mostly the longest period in the life cycle of the beetle and the most crucial one as well. Identification is fairly easy. It has a large worm-like shape with a long, thin, elongated body that can be white in color and has an abdomen, short or no legs, and no wings. Most if not all their feeding is done at the larval stage to achieve fast growth within the shortest time possible, this is because their mandibles are relatively big. It is used as the same substrate on which the eggs are laid by these animals. Some are adapted to feed on cellulose in the wood, whereas others feed on plant material only, while many of them are at least partially carnivorous in their habits.
The larvae will develop some feeding habits to feed as they grow bigger; these will molt or change the outer skin-like cover of their bodies. All the developmental phases lying in between two successive molting processes are termed instars. Three is usually the highest number of times a larva molts, though some species may take up to 10 times before the larva is fully grown. Depending on the type of skin and the species of animals, the process can range from a few weeks to several years according to the life cycle. At this stage, the man larva could have taken a meal of its fill or engaged in a feeding frenzy; hence, it has even grown to be larger than the size of the adult form it is going to transform into.
The Pupa Stage
Should the larvae get to their stage of shedding off the larva skin to become adults, they will look for a safe corner in their environment (most likely digging under the ground or hanging on a branch) to form a puparium, which is also known as a chrysalis or a cocoon. It has transformational cells, which over a period of time change parts of the body to look like other forms of an adult.
The countdown If the subspecies of beetles are active, the pupa can develop in a week or ten days, “while on the other hand, if pupation occurs during winter, it can take months. Pupas are defenseless, and vulnerable to attacks by other insects, birds, as well as other small animals. Beetle pupa must not be left together with the larva since the larva is capable of consuming the pupa if you are cultivating Beetle.
The Adult Stage
When the pupal phase is attained fully, an adult beetle emerges from the stage in the middle part of the life cycle. The various adult forms are also referred to as the imago and are usually the most diverse life cycle stage of the beetle. The adults can also be of various shapes, colors, and sizes. Some species have kind of a scorpion like tail.
But as you can already see, there is a wide variety of beetles, still, it is quite possible to identify a beetle. The single distinctive trait that is characteristic of most beetles, as has been mentioned before in the introduction, is the presence of the long, narrow, flap-like structures located along the back, which, when raised, allow beetles to fly in the air. Therefore, the main and focal activity of the adult stage is to reproduce with a mate. After the adults have provided this function, they die shortly after that in most cases. Among them, most species indeed eat something (its diet may shift even to completely different food during the larval and adult stages), although, there are certain species that refuse to eat altogether. Instead, they depend on the energy accumulated at the larval stage to them until the time of reproducing.
