Gladiator Bugs - japanese bug fights and Wildlife confrontation

Lobster

info@gladiatorbugs.com (Administrator) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:43:27 GMT

Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most often associated with the name. They are also revered for their flavor and texture. Clawed lobsters are not closely related to spiny lobsters or slipper lobsters, which have no claws (chelae), or squat lobsters. The closest relatives of clawed lobsters are the reef lobsters and the three families of freshwater crayfish.

Lobsters are found in all oceans. They live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks.

Lobsters are omnivores, and typically eat live prey such as fish, mollusks, other crustaceans, worms, and some plant life. They scavenge if necessary, and may resort to cannibalism in captivity; however, this has not been observed in the wild. Although lobster skin has been found in lobster stomachs, this is because lobsters eat their shed skin after molting

Whip scorpion

info@gladiatorbugs.com (Administrator) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:19:01 GMT

Thelyphonida is an arachnid order comprising invertebrates commonly known as vinegaroons (or vinegarroons). They are often called uropygids in the scientific community after the former order Uropygi (which originally also included the order Schizomida). They are also known as whip scorpions because of their resemblance to true scorpions and because of their whiplike tails.

Vinegarroons are carnivorous, nocturnal hunters feeding mostly on insects and millipedes, but sometimes on worms and slugs. Mastigoproctus sometimes preys on small vertebrates.[2] The prey is crushed between special teeth on the inside of the trochanters (the second segment of the leg) of the front legs. They are valuable in controlling the population of roaches and crickets.

Vinegarroons are found in tropical and subtropical and Hot Dry areas worldwide. They are missing in Europe, Australia, and, except for an introduced species, in Africa. They usually dig underground burrows with their pedipalps, to which they transport their prey. They may also burrow under logs, rotting wood, rocks, and other natural debris. They prefer humid, dark places and avoid light.

Orthopteran

info@gladiatorbugs.com (Administrator) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:32:04 GMT

Orthoptera is an order of insects with paurometabolous or incomplete metamorphosis, including the grasshoppers, crickets and locusts. Many insects in this order produce sound (known as a "stridulation") by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps. The tympanum or ear is located in the front tibia in crickets, mole crickets, and katydids, and on the first abdominal segment in the grasshoppers and locusts.[1] These organisms use vibrations to locate other individuals.

Crickets are omnivorous scavengers who feed on organic materials, as well as decaying plant material, fungi, and some seedling plants. Crickets eat their own dead when there are no other sources of food available, and exhibit predatorial behavior upon weakened, crippled crickets.

Crickets have relatively powerful jaws, and several species have been known to bite humans.

Orthopterans have a generally cylindrical body, with hind legs elongated for jumping. They have mandibulate mouthparts and large compound eyes, and may or may not have ocelli, depending on the species. The antennae have multiple joints, and are of variable length.

The first and third segments of the thorax are enlarged, while the second segment is much shorter. They have two pairs of wings, which are held overlapping the abdomen at rest. The forewings, or tegmina, are narrower than the hindwings and hardened at the base, while the hind wing is membranous, with straight veins and numerous cross-veins. At rest, the hindwings are held folded fan-like under the forewings. The final two to three segments of the abdomen are reduced, and have single-segmented cerci

Praying Mantis

info@gladiatorbugs.com (Administrator) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:11:16 GMT

Mantodea or mantises is an order of insects that contains approximately 2,200 species in 15 families worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. Most of the species are in the family Mantidae. Historically, the term "mantid" was used to refer to any member of the order because for most of the past century, only one family was recognized within the order; technically, however, the term only refers to this one family, meaning the species in the other 14 recently established families are not mantids, by definition (i.e., they are empusids, or hymenopodids, etc.), and the term "mantises" should be used when referring to the entire order.

A colloquial name for the order is "praying mantises", because of the typical "prayer-like" stance, although the term is often misspelled as "preying mantis" since mantises are predatory. In Europe, the name "praying mantis" refers to Mantis religiosa. The closest relatives of mantises are the orders Isoptera (termites) and Blattodea (cockroaches), and these three groups together are sometimes ranked as an order rather than a superorder. They are sometimes confused with phasmids (stick/leaf insects) and other elongated insects such as grasshoppers and crickets.

The scientific name Mantodea comes from the Greek words μάντις meaning a prophet, and εἶδος for form or shape. The name was coined in 1838 by the German entomologist Hermann Burmeister. The common term mantis is also from the Greek word μάντις for prophet

Centipede

info@gladiatorbugs.com (Administrator) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:05:22 GMT

Centipedes are terrestrial arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda and the Subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. A key trait uniting this group is a pair of poison claws or forcipules formed from a modified first appendage. This also means that centipedes are an exclusively predatory taxa, which is uncommon.
Centipedes normally have a drab coloration combining shades of brown and red. Cavernicolous and subterranean species may lack pigmentation and many tropical Scolopendromorphs have bright aposematic colors. Size can range from a few millimeters in the smaller Lithobiomorphs and Geophilomorphs to about a foot in the largest Scolopendromorphs.
Worldwide there are estimated to be 8,000 species. Currently there are about 3,000 described species. Geographically, centipedes have a wide range, which reaches beyond the Arctic Circle. Centipedes are found in an array of terrestrial habitats from tropical rainforests to deserts. Within these habitats centipedes require a moist micro-habitat due to their rapid rates of water loss. Accordingly, they are found in soil and leaf litter, under stones and deadwood, and inside logs. In addition, centipedes are among the largest terrestrial invertebrate predators and often they contribute a significant proportion to invertebrate predatory biomass in terrestrial ecosystems.
Scolopendra gigantea, also known as the Amazonian giant centipede, is the largest existing species of centipede in the world, reaching over 30 cm (12 inches) in length. It is known to eat bats, catching them in midflight, as well as rodents and spiders.