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Armyworms, cabbage maggots, cankerworms, cutworms, fireflies, grasshoppers, gypsy moth caterpillars, mites, slugs, snails, and wood borers number among the plant pests that beetles eat. The term beetle refers to a certain type of insect (with a hardened, outermost set of wings) in general and serves as a nickname for the plucky ladybug beetle. The latter specifically preys upon such plant pests as aphids, mealybugs, and scale.
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Aphids, box elder bugs, cankerworms, cottony maple scale, maple bladder gall mites, maple leaf stem borers, oystershell scale, terrapin scale, white-marked tussock moths, and woolly maple leaf scale number among the predators that feed upon box elder trees. The woody plant in question, Acer negundo, tend to heave their ubiquitous roots and to showcase lush foliage and plenteous seeds. The result will be a food source which attracts invertebrates and vertebrates, of which the most famous is the box elder bug (Boisea trivittata).
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Inchworms are the larval or caterpillar stage of geometer moths [Geometridae family within the Lepidoptera order of butterflies and moths]. So they're members of a large family that includes over 26,000 species. About 1,200 of those species are native to North America.
Other names for this larval stage include looper and spanworm. All three names refer to the way in which the inchworm gets around. It lacks the middle pair of legs that most Lepidopteran caterpillars have. It therefore has just two sets of two or three legs at either end. So for example, it gets around by clasping the ground, leaf or stem with its front legs and moving its hind legs right behind them. Then the hind legs clasp the leaf and the front legs move forward, and so on.
It looks as though the larva is measuring the ground's, leaf's or stem's surface. Instead, it's actually moving along or towards its food source. Leaves are the most common food source. But there are some inchworm species that favor pollen, lichens or flowers. There are even some that are carnivorous. There are even others that are most destructive in their feeding, and are called 'cankerworms'.
But whatever the type, they represent a particularly vulnerable stage within the geometer moth life cycle. Specifically, larval stages tend to be attractive to such predators as birds and foraging mammals.
When it's disturbed or stressed, the inchworm clasps the surface with its hind legs and stands straight up and still.
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