Insect Biology

Topic 2042 Aaron Gearhart

Biology of Insects
This lecture will go over the following topics Insect Body
Head Thorax abdomen

Insect Life Cycles

No metamorphosis Gradual metamorphosis Incomplete metamorphosis Complete metamorphosis

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Body of an Insect
Divided into three parts
Head Thorax Abdomen

Segmentation allows for efficiency since each segment is specialized for a different function

The Head
Contains the following parts
Eyes Simple or Compound Anennae used for smelling or feeling Mouthparts for sucking or chewing

www.earthlife.net/insects/six.html

Mouthparts
Almost infinite variations Mouthparts are often used to determine type of control that will be most effective for a specific insect Examples:
Fly: has a sponge type mouth Assasin bug: Has a spear or needle type mouth Grasshopper: Has a chewing mouth Some butterflys: Have a long hose for sucking nectar

Thorax
The locomotive segment of an insect Contains wings and legs Of course insects have three pairs of legs for a total of.6 Insects may have
0 wings: ants, lice, mites 1 pair of wings: flys, true bugs 2 pairs of wings: wasps, bees http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/images.html

Abdomen
Contains the following
Digestive organs Reproductive organs Respiratory organs Excretory organs

Abdomen can change shape depending on how much it ate or if it has eggs.
http://www.denniskunkel.com/PublicHtml/WANTED/BODIES/IndexBodies.html

Lifecycles of the Insect

No metamorphosis Gradual metamorphosis Incomplete metamorphosis Complete metamorphosis

No Metamorphosis
These insects emerge from the eggs looking exactly like the adult but smaller Primitive insects like the silverfish are examples of this Also known as ametabolous
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/Entomology/insectgifs/thysanura.gif

Gradual Metamorphosis
Similar to no metamorphosis but the youngster coming out of the egg is slightly different from the adult Examples are grasshoppers and crickets
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Incomplete metamorphosis
These insects change from egg -> nymph -> adult After their last molt these insects rapidly change to adult Some examples would be dragonflies Also termed hemimetabolous
http://stephenville.tamu.edu/~fmitchel/dragonfly/photo/cw_aes1.htm

Complete metamorphosis
Goes through four distinct stages
Egg Larvae Pupa Adult

http://www.geocities.com/pchew_brisbane/wanderer.htm

Questions or Comments?

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