A rider is an insect that provides unquestionable help to a person

A rider is an insect that differs from other members of its class in the place of laying eggs. When the time comes for reproduction, the female searches for the victim. Having noticed a suitable larva, she thrusts the ovipositor into the body of the victim and instantly lays the egg. One attempt is not enough - and she has to attack several times, sustaining an open dangerous battle, which the unwieldy victim, as a rule, loses to the smart opponent.

The insect-rider can amaze and openly living larvae, and leading a hidden lifestyle, for example, in wood or stems. In such cases, the female ovipositor, like a drill, picks up an obstacle. Some riders lay eggs not on the body of the victim, but on its surface. The larva, which appeared on the light, firmly holding on, gnaws out the outer shell of the victim and feeds on its juices.

A rider is an insect with a thin body, with an elongated abdomen, with a long needle-shaped ovipositor at the end. The thickness of the ovipositor is comparable to horsehair. Inside it there are three filiform villi, with the movement of which moves the egg. A distinctive feature is the long antennae with which the surface probes and the slightest vibration is detected by the rider (insect). The photo shows it well.

Interestingly behaves Dinocampus coccinellae (rider-insect with a size of about 4 mm, belonging to the family of braconids), parasitic on a seven-dot ladybug. The deferred egg begins to develop in the body of the victim. Larva from the egg Comes out in a few days. It begins to feed on fatty and connective tissues, without affecting the internal organs of the cow, which does not seem to notice the changes that have occurred. This lasts about 25 days.

When the time comes to leave the body of the carrier, the larva of the rider gnaws the nerves that go to the limbs of the cow that she can not escape. Having got out of the body, the larva is located between the legs of its "canned", i.e. Under her body, weave a cocoon, in which it develops further. It's amazing, but the ladybird has been alive all this time. Pupa grows about a week, and then leaves the cocoon. Scientists at the University of Montreal have proved that in every fourth case the carrier remains alive, moreover, after this incident, he returns to the ordinary way of life.

At present, about 40 thousand kinds of riders are known. Despite the multiplicity, people rarely encounter them. This is due to the fact that Habitats insects choose poor, calm. They vary in size (from a few millimeters to 5 cm), by habitat, color and behavior. Their victims are also different. They can be asparagus tweezers, bedbugs, cotton weevils, apple fruit flies and many others. But no matter how he behaved and wherever the rider lived, the insect always provides his offspring with food. Considering that the overwhelming majority of their victims are insect pests of agricultural crops, destroying them, riders provide undoubted assistance to a person, preventing their spread. It is on this unusual method of reproduction that a biological method of combating many pests is based.