Some Common Insect

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Some Common Insect Orders
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Silverfish and their allies.

• 47 North American (NA) species, 580 species
  worldwide (WW).
• Primitive, wingless.
• Body regions are not easily distinguished.
• Antennae repro appendages almost as long as
  head-body.
• Do not undergo complete metamorphosis.
• Cuticle is not well developed, so silverfish must
  inhabit high humidity environment.

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Silverfish and Allies

• Largely nocturnal
• Related firebats are of tropical origins.
• This is the only widely known Order of truly
  primitive insects.
• Primitive ( interesting) fertilization requiring
  high-humidity.

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Mayflies allies.

• 51NA, 580WW
• These are the most primitive widely known winged
  insects.
• Larvae (left)
• are long-lived aquatic detritavores
• breathe through cuticle gills
• have shape habits for particular habitat
• remain larvae for 7-36 months.
• Adults (next slide) live just long enough to
  reproduce.

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Mayflies, etc.

• Mass emergences occur in warm weather, usually in
  early evening.
• After larval stage
• Flying sub-adults (subimagoes)
• Flying adults (imagoes)
• Full adults typically move toward maximum light
  and mate in swarms.
• Eggs (or, in a few species, newborn larvae) are
  always placed into water.

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Dragonflies damselflies

• 450NA, 4950WW.
• Primitive flying insects.
• Adults long-lived fliers larvae long-lived
  aquatic predators
• Feeding strategies
• Adults are aerial insectivores (may have gt 28,000
  eyelets may fly at 40-50kph).
• Juveniles are stalking or sit--wait predators
  that often dominate ephemeral aquatic habitats.

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Dragonflies Damselflies

• A wonderful web site (lists 148 South Carolina
  species w/pictures of 38) at www.npwrc.usgs.gov/re
  source/distr/insects/dfly/dflyusa/htm
• Mating is awkward (at least to describe) from
  9th abdominal male loads sperm into second
  abdominal.

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Grasshoppers, crickets, etc.

• 1018NA, 12500WW
• 3rd leg pair often modified for jumping
• Orthopterans show many variations on that
  theme...
• Communication
• Crickets rub outer wings
• Grasshoppers rub jumping legs against outer wings
• Females locate by tuning to the null
• Many agricultural pests!

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Migratory locusts awesome grasshopper pests

• Populations often live in sedentary state, but
  under density stress they may change color,
  metabolism, and behavior and move out!
• Swarms can be enormous
• Morocco, 1955 20kmX250km
• Algeria, 1890 more than two trillion killed
• Eat every green plant-part!

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Walkingsticks

• 27NA, 2000 WW.
• Variable body form.
• Arboreal folivores.
• Most rely on camouflage stillness to avoid
  predators (though some have chemical defenses).
• Regenerate lost limbs.
• Repro gender ratios.
• Sexual dimorphism.

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Cockroaches

• 3000-4000 WW
• Roaches are very ancient (400mybp)
• Scavengers
• Perhaps earliest cellulose processors
• Lay (or carry) egg cases of 2 to 30-40 eggs.
• Control of the beasts.

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Mantids

• Mantids, top predators, have long, cylindrical
  bodies (1-17cm), triangular heads, and preying
  arms.
• Tropical species are more varied.
• Here are some neo-Darwinian meditations on mantid
  mating...

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Termites.

• 41NA, 1900 WW
• Cellulose processors symbiants.
• Thin cuticles high humidity.
• Nest constructions
• Protection, water, humidity, thermoregulation
• Shelter for other animals.
• Africas Macrotermes can have gt 2,000,000
  individuals/mound.
• The primary herbivores of arthropod world
  consider w/ants.

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Termites founding living in colonies

• Swarming.
• Production of nymphs
• Colonial eusocial
• A colony includes reproductives (often, plus
  secondary reproductives), workers, and soldiers.
• Both genders of larvae are totipotent at
  hatching.
• Growing nymphs are locked into body-forms
  immaturity by nutrition and hormones (contrast w/
  ants, etc.).
• In most species, workers soldiers have multiple
  forms.

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True bugs

• 4500NA, 23000WW.
• Great variety, but all have
• sucking mouth parts,
• hard anterior wings partly covering back wings.
• The Order includes herbivores and predators.
• The Order is agriculturally medically
  significant.
• Some plant-eaters have generational differences
  correlated with plant developmental stages.

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More on true bugs

• The Order includes bedbugs, stink bugs, water
  bugs, water striders, and much more....
• A few nasty notes on bedbugs
• Greatly flattened.
• Multiple piercings in search of surface
  capillary delayed itching.
• Slow to starve.
• Reproduce by traumatic insemination.

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Cicadas (plus aphids, scale insects, leafhoppers,
etc.)

• 6500NA, 32000WW
• Bug-like (piercing) mouth parts.
• Eat exclusively plant juices (excess sugars,
  protein and nitrogen deficiencies, symbiants).
• The cicada life cycle
• 2, 14, 17-year cycles in USA
• Emerge (great swarms in some species) short
  adult lives.

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Beetles!!!!!

• 28600NA, 290000WW.
• Range in size from 0.025mm to 150mm.
• Hard forewings cover lacy hind- (flight-) wings
• The most successful animal Order!
• Larvae are eating-machine grubs adults are
  highly varied, including predators, coprovores,
  sangrivores, herbivores, omnivores,

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Examples of beetle lifeways

• Ladybird beetles hunters of scale insects
  small caterpillars (eat about 3000).
• Lightening bugs Only male goes through complete
  metamorphosis females are glowworms.
• Some beetles are ant-colony invaders.
• Dung beetles (left) exploit large mammal feces.
• Micromalthus debilis over-winters as larvae some
  pupate others reproduce as larvae (small larvae
  or one big egg).

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Butterflies, moths, etc.

• 13700NA, 180000WW
• Large scaly wings.
• Extreme 2-stage life
• Caterpillars eat have simple body plan. Most
  are very food-specific. Many are agriculturally
  significant.
• Adults move and reproduce. Many have short
  lives, but consider the migratory monarch (left).

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Butterflies, moths, etc.

• Long proboscis allows access to nectar.
• Most important adult taste organs on legs this
  helps identify target flowers.
• Erratic flight patterns help avoid predators.
• Some large moths (upper left) navigate by
  moonlight are endangered because of yard-light
  proliferation.

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Wasps, bees, ants(hymenopterans)

• 17500MA, 103000WW
• Some commonalities include
• stinging, nest-building, colonial lifeways
• diploid females, haploid males
• Ancestral hymenopterans were like sawflies, gall
  wasps, etc. (top).
• Early descendents were parasitoid wasps (center).
• Solitary hunters (bottom) arose from parasitoids.
• Colonial wasps are more derived.

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Hymenopterans (cont.)

• Bees.
• Lifestyles almost as varied as wasps (solitary,
  colonial).
• Honeybees c. 40k 1 queen per hive. Males from
  unfertilized eggs. Eggs rapidly into grubs grow
  6 days, pupate 12 days nurse ? houseworker ?
  guard ? forager (_at_ 2-3 weeks). Queen designated
  by care.
• Ants are mostly predators.
• Leafcutters, pastoral ants (honeypots).
• Slaver ants.
• Driver ants (20 million workers, 65kg)
• Founding a new colony. Nuptial flight males
  die small, timid 1st workers.

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Flies, mosquitoes, etc.

• 16130NA, 85000WW
• Only 1 pair of wings. (Some flies are wingless
  parasitic.)
• Larvae generally legless (aquatic in mosquitoes).
• This group has extreme medical importance!

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Fleas

• 238NA, 1370WW
• Small, hard-bodied, wingless perhaps descended
  from dung-flies (may have arisen during
  pre-dinosaur mammalian radiation).
• Vectors of several important diseases (e.g.,
  plague).