Whether you’re in a long term relationship, swept up in the enthralling first days of a new romance, or still looking for that special someone, Valentine’s Day is upon us and we could all use some romantic tips and pointers. Are you stuck in a destructive dating pattern? Has your once sizzling relationship turned stale and tedious? Looking to make an impression that your significant other will never forget?

To answer all these questions and more, MYOO has turned to Myooze and entomologist Dino Martins to show us the world of insects. That’s right – the bugs and critters that buzz in your ear and squirm at your feet. Read on to discover how to attract a mate with a wave of your abdomen, the best way to secrete an aerial river of seductive pheromones, and perhaps most importantly, how not to be paralyzed and eaten alive this Valentine’s Day.  —M. Irvine

The Extrovert

Ants, Honeybees, Termites

By far the extroverts of the insect world are the social insects: ants, social bees like honeybees and termites. These insects live in colonies that function like a single organism and have been called ‘superorganisms’. Ants, termites and honeybees spend much of their life in constant contact with their fellows, especially the workers, continuously exchanging information about food, friends and life in general.

The Seductress

Madame Emperor Moth

Fat-bodied and fabulous the female Emperor Moth barely moves from where she hatches out from her pupa. She streams out a veritable aerial river of seductive pheromones that draw males from near and far to her to mate.

 

The Serial Killer

Mud-dauber Wasps

The female Mud-Dauber Wasps build beautiful nests that are delicately crafted from clay that they gather and transport to a sheltered site. Once the nest is complete, they stock the cells with freshly captured spiders or caterpillars. The victims are not killed but paralyzed by a sting and will be eventually eaten alive by the developing wasp larva. Talk about a chilling fate!

 

The Introvert

The Scale Insect

Scale insects are fascinating creatures that don’t really move around much. Many species have a thick waxy coating and the actual living insect’s body is located under this hidden away from the world. Scale insects are often tended by ants, but don’t make much contact with the outside world.

 

The Athlete

The Globe Skimmer

This amazing creature is a long-distance migrant. The Globe Skimmer makes a transoceanic voyage of some 20,000 kilometers from India via the Maldives and Seychelles to East Africa. They arrive with the assistance of the south-east monsoons that bring the rains and fill the seasonal pools that they love to breed in across Eastern Africa. Amazing journey for a small insect!

 

The Life-long Bachelorettes

Single Stick Insects

Many different kinds of Stick Insects are able to survive and reproduce without males. They are all females and essentially produce new offspring by cloning themselves. This phenomenon is variable and some populations of Stick Insects have both sexual and asexual forms. A stark warning to males that they are essentially dispensable.

 

The Intellectual

The Flower Mantids

Several species of praying mantid are creatures of incredible stealth and cunning that wait patiently at flowers for unsuspecting insects. They are even more diabolical in that their disguises closely match the flowers themselves and hapless insects are drawn to these and to their ends.

 

The Playboy

The Dancing Jewel

Arguably one of the most gorgeous of African insects, and perhaps a contender for the ‘most beautiful insect’. This is a robust species of damselfly. The male is the colourful one and is named for the incandescent dance that he performs when courting the drab female. He rises, waving his abdomen about, while flashing his red-and-white legs hovering around her.

 

The Predatory Female

Firefly Femme Fatale

Fireflies are actually beetles that produce light in a specialized part of their abdomen. Flashing is usually a signal between males and females of a single species. However, some female fireflies mimic the signals of others and lure males to them that they kill and eat!

 

The Monogamists

Mr and Mrs Dung Beetle Esq.

Some species of dung beetle are both monogamous and doting parents. Unlike most insects where promiscuity is the rule and eggs are abandoned to their fate on laying, the dung beetle parents live and work together constantly in a secretive burrow where they lovingly tend the ‘brood balls’ that their larvae develop in.

—Dino Martins is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and Entomologist. Find out more about his work here and don’t miss his interview with us here.

Photos and Illustrations courtesy of Dino Martins.