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You must have seen the air and soil around you abuzz with insects during the monsoon. Now, as the winter arrives, there will be fewer. Where do they all go?

As insects cannot control their body temperature like us, they use different strategies to survive the winter’s freezing temperatures. Many go underground, slow down their activities, or even migrate. Which is why “they disappear”. Look at some amazing strategies that some particularly resilient insects use!

Migration

Monarch Butterfly

Birds like ducks are not the only animals that migrate long distances to escape tough winters! The colourful orange-black patterned Monarch Butterfly embarks on a dangerous mammoth journey in winter. October-November marks the movement of thousands of these pretty insects. Starting from their home grounds in the U.S. just before the snowfall begins, they fly all the way to Mexico, which has milder, warmer winters. Here, they rest in large clusters on the forest trees, saving their energy.

But here is the most amazing part of the Monarch story! Monarch Butterflies are “generational” migrants. The butterflies that leave Mexico on their return journey mate, lay eggs on the way and die. Their children continue and complete the journey back to the U.S.

Cocooned underground

Antlions

Butterflies are not the only insects to build cocoons. When they are young larvae, antlions build cone-like pits in the soil. This patient predator traps unaware ants in these pits, grabbing them with powerful jaws. Once the cold winter arrives, the antlions enter a new life stage. As prey also becomes scarce, they stop eating, “pause” their growth and bury themselves deep underground. If extreme weather continues, they can stay as larvae for up to two years. They also encase themselves in silk cocoons, their own creation. Like a woollen sweater, this silk provides ample protection from the weather. Once conditions improve, hormones inside the antlion accelerate its development. Finally it breaks out of its cocoon and transforms into the dainty, winged adult antlion.

Huddling

Asian Honey Bee

Honey bees are social insects living in big groups of more than a hundred. They use their unity to good effect when winter comes. They are unable to generate heat individually but they huddle together forming a warm, black-and-yellow ball, which generates heat. One Indian bee species that does this, especially in the Himalayas, is the Asian Honey Bee.
Bees also have other ingenious ways to tackle the winter. For the coldest weeks, they seal their hives shut to maintain the heat, just like we close our doors and windows so that the cold air doesn’t come in. The honey they have painstakingly produced in the previous summer offers vital nourishment in the winter.

Images: Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay and GettyImages/iStockPhoto