Hey Squeaks, what you looking at?
Ooh, a ladybug, how cool!
Ladybugs are insects that have a very important job in the fort's greenhouse.
They eat a lot of garden pests, and they help to keep our flowers and vegetables healthy.
Oh, Squeaks says ladybugs are his favorite kind of bug.
But did you know that ladybugs aren't actually bugs?
It's true!
Do you remember what we learned about insects' body squeaks?
Right!
Insects have three main body segments, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.
And sticking out of that thorax, they have six legs.
There are some other living things that you or I might call bugs, like spiders or roly-polies, that aren't insects because they don't have the right body parts.
But here's the thing.
They aren't bugs, either.
I know, right?
But scientists use the term bug to refer to a very specific group of insects called the true bugs.
In other words, all bugs are insects, but not all insects are true bugs.
You would think a ladybug would be a bug, wouldn't you?
But this is where it can get tricky.
Some insects have the word bug as part of their name, but they aren't true bugs.
Ladybugs are actually a kind of beetle, and beetles are not true bugs.
How do we know?
Well, just like all insects share a few important body parts.
There are some things that true bugs have in common.
For one thing, they have very special mouthparts.
Here's a picture of the mouthparts of a true bug.
What do you notice about their shape or structure?
Their mouthparts look really sharp.
True bugs use them to jab into plants or other animals to suck out the juices inside.
Yeah, I know, it sounds a little yucky, but even bugs have to eat.
True bugs also grow and develop differently than many other insects.
Insects like ladybugs and butterflies.
Begin life in an egg that hatches into a larva.
That larva then changes into a pupa, and when the pupa breaks open, an adult insect enters the world.
But true bugs don't go through all of those steps.
Instead, a bug hatches from its egg into something called a nymph.
And unlike larvae, which look a lot more like blobs or worms, nymphs look a lot more like an adult bug.
And over time nymphs get bigger and grow some additional body parts, like wings, until they reach adulthood.
Right!
Ladybugs don't have mouthparts that are shaped in a way that lets them jab and suck.
And they go through both a larva and a pupa stage of life, so they are not true bugs.
But the aphids they eat are bugs!
They have sharp mouthparts to suck out the yummy sugary liquid inside of plants.
Right, that's not very good for the plant.
Plus, aphids can carry diseases.
That's why ladybugs are so good to have around the garden.
They eat aphids and help keep the plants safe.
But aphids are still pretty cool!
Because depending on where they live, they have babies in different ways.
In places with a cold winter, they'll lay eggs that wait until spring to hatch.
But in places where it's warm all year, female aphids don't lay eggs at all.
They give birth to live babies.
Yeah, it's pretty unusual for a bug.
All living things reproduce, or make babies, but they certainly don't all reproduce in the same way.
The same is true for the way things develop and grow.
For example, another group of true bugs are called assassin bugs.
Yeah, this time bug is in the name, and the insect really is a bug.
And like all true bugs, assassin bugs lay eggs that hatch into nymphs.
But their nymphs act very differently than the adults.
Some of them stick pieces of dead insects to their backs.
What?
You don't think that's cool?
It's a trick the nymph uses to hide from predators so it doesn't get eaten.
Nature can seem pretty strange sometimes, but even behavior that's strange to a human or a robot rat can help a living thing survive.
And it's not the only disguise an assassin bug can wear.
For example, a different species or type of assassin bug has a body part that is shaped kind of like a wheel sticking out of their back.
This part develops as the insect grows and gives the insect their nickname, a wheelbug.
Oh yes, the assassin bugs get their name because they use their sharp mouthparts to eat other insects.
After piercing their prey, they can squirt digestive juices into the other insect's body and then slurp the insides out.
However, there is one group of assassin bugs that just sucks blood, including human blood.
Well, kind of like mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes do have mouthparts that can pierce our skin, but they're not the same kind that bugs have.
Mosquitoes are actually a type of fly, and just like beetles, flies aren't true bugs.
These blood-drinking assassin bugs are sometimes nicknamed kissing bugs because they bite around an animal's mouth, but it's not a very nice kiss.
And they can also spread disease.
Some kissing bugs carry teeny, tiny critters called parasites that can travel to the animal they're feeding on and then make that animal sick.
And that includes humans, so it's best to admire any cool-looking assassin bugs from a distance.
Ooh, Squeaks wants to know if bugs do anything helpful.
Yeah, so far we've learned about bugs that can hurt our plants and make us sick, but that doesn't mean bugs are bad.
They have a role to play in nature just like every other living thing.
There's also one kind of true bug, called a cochineal bug, that humans grow on special farms for a very important purpose.
These small bugs suck the juices out of cacti and are especially fond of prickly pears.
They also make a special chemical in their bodies that makes them taste really bad, so ants won't eat them.
Yes, instead of piling a bunch of dead insect bodies on their back, yes.
But a long time ago humans figured out that if you can collect this chemical and mix it with some other ingredients, we can make a really pretty red dye called carmine.
In fact, people have been making this bug-based dye and using it to color things like clothing for thousands of years.
So we have insects in our greenhouse to help plants grow, but other people have greenhouses full of cacti because they want to help their bugs grow.
Yeah, and you know what else is pretty neat?
Cochineal bug nymphs make a sort of wax coating to help protect themselves from the sun, sort of like a self-made sunscreen.
And if the cactus plants they're living on gets a bit too crowded, they could also make a waxy string that will carry them away to a plant that's got a bit more elbow room.
I don't know if we should get them for our greenhouse.
Maybe we should ask Juniper what she thinks before we add any prickly pears and cochineal bugs to the greenhouse.
Should we go find her now?
Thanks for joining us on SciShow Kids!
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