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Insects of the Rainforest

Fishing Spider Habitat: Near tropical streams in rainforests. Central America, South America, and many other parts of the world with moist environments. Diet: Insects, other small animals, fish and tadpoles. Enemies: Birds, reptiles, mice and other small mammals, and certain insects. Facts: Spiders belong to the class Arachnida (same as scorpions). There are two species of Fishing spiders. Fishing spiders are normally found near creeks and moist areas. They are able to run on the water with the many hairs on their legs acting as a buoy. The Fishing spider can stay underwater up to 45 minutes, breathing air that is trapped in the hairs on its body. When in trouble, one type of Fishing spider will dive underwater and "play dead". Female Fishing spiders do not build webs, they spin a "sac" of silk and place their eggs in it. She carries around her egg sac wherever she goes. The largest version of Fishing spider can grow up to 7.5 cm in length. Females are much larger than males. They have excellent eyesight, which they need since they don't capture prey in a web. Fishing spiders are not poisonous. Spider silk is the strongest natural fiber known to man. Although it may be only one millionth of an inch thick, it can stretch more than a rubber band. Spiders have eight legs and most have eight eyes.

What is a Beetle?

The scientific name for the beetle group, Coleoptera, means 'sheath winged'. This refers to their most important characteristic - forewings which have become hardened coverings known as elytra. These protect the folded hindwings when they are not in use. The elytra are not completely v useless when the beetle flies, but are often turned to point forwards and upwards, probably acting like aeroplane wings to give the beetle some lift.
Compared with many soft and vulnerable insects, the beetle is a well-armoured tank. Its hard but flexible shell (cuticle), the structure of which has been likened to fibre-glass, protects it well from predators and from infection by microorganisms, as well as against physical accident. An additional wax layer helps prevent water loss. With this tough construction, it is perhaps not surprising that these insects have become the most successful of all animal groups.
The majority of beetle larvae, on the other hand, are fat, soft and caterpillarlike, with or without legs
When the larva ready to pupate it stops feeding and may leave the food source. Some simply tunnel under stones, but leaf and stem feeders often drop on to the soil and burrow beneath the surface. Some ground beetles burrow down for a matter of metres - but wood borers may head for the surface so that, as adults, they are able to escape easily. Water beetle larvae usually leave the water and burrow into nearby soil. The larvae hollow out a chamber in which to pupate, perhaps lining it with a type of faecal cement. Some produce a cocoon but this is rare in beetles.

The Role of Beetles in Recycling Rainforest Nutrient. The importance of the living dead

Although a dead tree, in a living forest, is viewed as a loss of life, nothing could be further from the truth. The decaying wood is seething with life as insects, together with fungi, work on breaking it down.
These insects - termed saproxylic contribute to the health of forests and their inhabitants in many ways: 

* They recycle the nutrients once gathered by the trees, eventually making them accessible to the next generation of forest growth. 
* By converting wood into protein (themselves) in both adult and larval forms they provide food for numerous birds and other animals. 
* They provide homes. Around the world, woodpeckers play an important role in creating holes in trees but in Australia, a continent with more holenesting birds and mammals than anywhere else, there are none of these wood-drilling birds. Our possums and parrots would have great difficulty excavating their nest and den holes if it were not for wood-boring insects.

To maintain numbers of these useful creatures, their habitat - 'overmature' trees and dead logs - needs to be protected. Studies in temperate forests have shown that logged forests have significantly fewer saproxylic insects than less disturbed forests, because trees have been removed before they are old enough to produce dead wood. Without noticing, Europeans were losing these insects to the point where a disproportionately high number of them now feature on the this endangered lists.