insects that are interesting to see?

Y

yousuf89

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Ok I heard that some zoo kept many type of insects
but which among are the most interesting to see
I pretty sure that sunburst diving beetle, honeybees and ants (e.g leafcutter ants) are among them because of their active behavior
but what about the ones that don't move a lot (like tarantulas, stick insects..etc), isn't it a little boring to see them
 
tarantulas, scorpions, etc are kind of like zoo lions or pythons. They may not do much but people want to see them because they are "dangerous" or "scary".
 
Dragonflies and damselflies are nice in the wild, however I never saw them in captivity though it would be pleasing. Though many zoos exhibit ants (leaf cutter and army) I never saw termites on display.
 
Tarantula and scorpion are not insect.
Personally, I love seeing stick insect, fireflies,and mantis species.
 
I never seen fireflies on exhibit, although some Japanese zoos show them. Usually zoos have a limited set of standard 'ABC invertebrates': tarantulas, scorpions, stick and leaf insects, flower beetles, locusts, giant cockroaches and leaf-cutting ants. I would love to see more variety. There are many big, colorful and less obvious tropical insects.

Zoo Bern has termites in an unusual exhibit. The mound is in a wire aviary. But some workers go out and collect pieces of straw in front of you.
 
Jurek7 said:
Usually zoos have a limited set of standard 'ABC invertebrates': tarantulas, scorpions, stick and leaf insects, flower beetles, locusts, giant cockroaches and leaf-cutting ants. I would love to see more variety.
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Add giant African land snails to that list as well!
 
I know they are not insects,but I love millipedes.

There a a lot of interesting invertebrates around, Bristol has a great collection and there is always something new to see.
 
There are also a good many grasshopper species that are good display animals. Aside from locusts, Bristol currently has lubber grasshoppers, horsehead grasshoppers and leaf mimic katydids, and in the past has shown the giant Tropidacris grasshoppers as well.

Aside from bees (currently off-show while the restaurant on the floor below is redeveloped) they are displaying the iridescent green jewel wasps (a solitary wasp that parasitises cockroaches). They also have exhibits featuring the Domino Cockroach, Dung beetles, and Assassin bugs.
 
Praying mantises would propably be cool.
Edit: And I know they're not insects, but landcrabs. Many are nocturnal, though.
 
Jurek7 said:
Zoo Bern has termites in an unusual exhibit. The mound is in a wire aviary. But some workers go out and collect pieces of straw in front of you.
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I like that! Is there a photo in the gallery do you know?
 
I have seen fireflies in exhibit. Tama zoo have them. I can't get any photo of them because they are in a black room. I have also seen fireflies in a temporary exhibition.Also, I have seen them in the wild.
 
I suspect the problem with fireflies as exhibit animals is that the larvae are predatory and the adults are fairly short lived and seasonal, so keeping a colony going might be difficult unless the zoo is already in a range country.
 
Despite the fact a myriad insects must be threatened, zoo insect houses are by and large unimagiitive or (like Bristol and Koeln) the terraria are oddly oversized.

Best invertebrate "house" I saw were the arachnids at Warsaw museum (not the dull invertebrate house in Warsaw Zoo). The vivaria felt an appropriate size and dimensions and the room itself to be airy. Well what works for arachnids ought to work with many insects.

It's just odd so many insect groups - dragonflies, aquatic bugs - are missing else underrepresented. Insect and arachnid zoo displays always feel very half-hearted.
 
SealPup said:
It's just odd so many insect groups - dragonflies, aquatic bugs - are missing else underrepresented. Insect and arachnid zoo displays always feel very half-hearted.
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Species that undergo considerable metamorphoses during their life cycles are generally harder to keep and exhibit than species with simpler life cycles. Many species of stick insects, cockroaches and grasshoppers (including locusts) can be displayed satisfactorily because the nymphs require similar conditions to the adults. Long-lived butterflies and day-flying moths can be kept in large numbers in butterfly houses with separate facilities for caterpillars and pupae, some beetles make good exhibits too. Dragonfly and damselfly nymphs can be displayed in aquatic exhibits, but they are so predatory that they have to be kept singly. It would be hard to display the adults: the average butterfly walk-through would suit one large male dragonfly and perhaps two females, any other flying insects would be attacked and probably consumed - and of course the lifespan of these adults would only be a few weeks.
The only dragonfly 'exhibit' in a British zoo that I can think of is the Dragonfly Pool near the Kingfisher Hide at Slimbridge. This is a pool which has been designed as a habitat for a variety of native dragons and damsels, where they can be observed at the appropriate times of the year.
 
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