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Bess Beetles: Insect Helpers By Ruth Wilcox The next time you lift up a rotten log and leap back with fear at a large, shiny, alarmingly, creepy, crawly creature, THINK again. The Bess Beetle is here to help our world. It is time we appreciated them for their important work as scavengers and decomposers. Without insects like Bess Beetles, plants would not have the nutrients they need to grow. HABITAT Bess Beetles are found throughout the tropics and in North America. To find a Bess Beetle, look under the surface. Bess Beetles spend their entire lives in darkness in fields and forests under the rotten stumps and dead woods of oak, hickory or Sweet Gum trees. If you lift http://mobugs.blogspot.com/2009/08/bess-­‐beetles.html a log and expose a Bess Beetle to light, it will move slowly. And even though its size and odd looks might seem scary, don’t worry. Bess Beetles are harmless and won’t bite. Bess Beetles have no problem surviving the warm weather of the tropics. But in the cold weather of North America, they have a unique adaptation that helps them survive. In cold weather, their bodies replace water with a chemical called glycerin. Glycerin acts as antifreeze—a chemical that prevents them from freezing. This antifreeze makes them sluggish. They stop eating and decomposing wood as they wait for warmer weather to arrive. CLASSIFICATION and BODY STRUCTURE One fourth of animals in the world are beetles. Like all beetles, Bess Beetles have remarkable adaptations that help them survive in their habitat. Since Bess Beetles are invertebrate, animals without backbones, protection is necessary to support and protect their soft bodies. Bess Beetles belong to an invertebrate group called arthropods. Arthropods include animals like insects, crabs, lobsters and spiders. All arthropods have exoskeletons. These hard outer shells protect Bess Beetles like armor. In fact, few predators hunt the Bess Beetle due to their large size (about 1 ½ inches) and their hard armor. All arthropods have bodies made of small parts called segments. In addition, all arthropods have joints that bend just like humans. A joint is a place where two body parts come together. To move, arthropods move by bending their body parts at their joints. Bess Beetles are in a group of arthropods called insects. Insects have three body segments: head, thorax and abdomen. Insects also have three pairs of legs. On their head, Bess Beetles have other common insect body structures such as antenna, mandibles, and compound eyes. They use their antennae to sense odors and the movement of other animals. The strong mandibles or mouthparts of the Bess Beetle help it break apart and chew decaying wood. Although, Bess Beetles have compound eyes like other insects, they live in the dark most of their lives and do not like light. Compound eyes have many different parts or facets that help the insect see like a kaleidoscope. Although their sight is not focused like ours, these compound eyes allow them to see problems in their habitat quicker. The Bess Beetle’s thorax has two sections, which helps them move easily. On their thorax, Bess Beetles have three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings. The hard outer wings close over the soft inner wings to protect them. Bess Beetles can fly but rarely do. The jointed legs of the Bess Beetles have brown bristles. Scientists think these bristles help the Bess Beetles stay clean. All images on this page from http://bugguide.net
FOOD & SHELTER Bess Beetles are a type of decomposer called a scavenger. To survive, they chew dead wood but that dead wood is not their food. The wood that they chew leaves their body as droppings. On these droppings, a type of living thing called fungus grows. This fungus is what Bess Beetles eat to survive. The dead wood they chew is then decomposed more to become nutrients, http://bugguide.net by other decomposers like bacteria or fungus. These nutrients help plants grow. Dead wood provides Bess Beetles more than food. It also provides them shelter. Bess bugs are social animals that live in groups called colonies. Their colonies live within or under dead logs. In their colonies, Bess Beetles communicate by making faint squeaking sounds like when you chew on a rubber band or balloon. These sounds are made when they rub the rough underside of their wings against their abdomen. Scientists have identified 14 different calls. These calls could be used for a variety of reasons including finding a mate and warning other Bess Beetles of danger. LONG TERM SURVIVAL Bess Beetles have long life spans compared to other insects. Like many insects, Bess Beetles hatch from eggs. As they grow from babies to adults, they undergo many changes. This process is called “complete metamorphosis”. The stages of complete metamorphosis are: egg, larva, pupa and adult. It takes a Bess Beetle a year to grow from an egg to an adult. As an adult, a Bess Beetle can live as 16 months. More than two years is an unusually long time for any insect to live. This makes the Bess Beetle the grandfather of all insects. bccranberrygrowers.com
Unlike many other insects, Bess Beetles take care of their young as they grow from babies to adults. Only termites and one other beetle feed, protect, and raise their young like Bess Beetles. Once they hatch from eggs, Bess Beetles parents feed https://www.allposters.com the larva. To prepare their larva’s dinner, the parent chews dead wood mixing it with their saliva and microorganisms like bacteria. The food is then ready to feed their larva. When larva become pupa, the parents carefully move the pupa to another part of the colony for protection.  So the next time, you see a large scary Bess Beetle, don’t be afraid. The gentle Bess Beetle lives quietly in the dark world of decomposers. Along with other decomposers, they help break down wood so plants can find the nutrients they need to grow. Thank you Bess Beetle! http://lhsfoss.org/newsletters/archive/images/FOSS21bess_thumb-­‐beetle.jpg