• Diversity

• Most diverse and abundant of all arthropods

• Published estimates range from 890000 to well over 1
million
• 7000 new sps per year
• 400 000 beetles alone
• 80% of World crop plants need pollinators →
virtually all insects
• Fundamentally terrestrial, but some groups have
invaded aquatic environments secondarily (mainly
freshwater)
21-2
• Widely distributed and diverse
• Structural modifications in wings, legs, antennae,
mouthparts and alimentary canals
• Able to use available food and shelter resources
• Specificity lessens competition with other species
• Exoskeleton limits evaporation
• Head: acron and 5 segments (eyes, antennae,
clypeolabrum & 3 pairs of mouth appendages (mandibles,
maxillae and labium)
• Thorax: 3 segments – prothorax, mesothorax and
metathorax, each thoracic somites bears a pair of legs with
proximal protopod and a distal telopod.
• Abdomen: 11 segments
• Gas exchange while preventing water loss
• Tracheal system
• Network of thin-walled tubes that branch throughout
the insect body
• Spiracles open to the tracheal trunks
• 2 spiracles on thorax and 7–8 on abdomen
• Valve on the spiracle
• Reduces on water loss and may serve as a dust filter
• Small or aquatic insects
• Diffusion through body wall

21-8
 Prevent collapse Spiracle Opening

Tracheal System:
System provides gas transport without use of oxygen-carrying pigments
21-9
nExcretion and Water Balance
nInsects utilize Malpighian tubules

21-10
• Unusually keen sensory perception.
• Their sense organs are mostly microscopic and are
located chiefly in the body wall.
• Each type usually responds to a specific stimulus
including:
• Mechanical
• Auditory
• Chemical
• Visual
• Other
 Feeding
• Herbivory, carnivory, scavenging, commensalism and
parasitism
• Insects can be classified as (excluding commensal and
parasitic relationships)
– 1) biters-chewers
– 2) Suckers
– 3) sponges
 Feeding & Mouth Parts
► Mouth (bite-chewers)
→ bordered anteriorly by
clypeo-labrum,
→ posteriorly by labium
(with 2 palps),
→ on sides by
mandibles (no palps) &
maxillae (with 1-7 articles
palp);
→ median tongue-like
hypopharynx (salivary
glands opening)
 Feeding & Mouth Parts
• Biters-chewers:
• Maxillae and labium have well developed leg-like
palps that help them hold food in place
• Powerful mandibles cut off and chew bite sized pieces.
• The mandibles lack
palps and typically bear small
sharp teeth.
• Biting-chewing insects
may be carnivores,
herbivores or scavengers
 Feeding & Mouth Parts
• Sucking insects:
• Mouthparts modified for the
consumption of liquid food,
generally plant saps or nectars or
animal blood or cell fluids.
• Mouthparts are elongated into a
needle like beak.
• Non-piercing sucking insects
(Lepidopterans) - paired first
maxillae are elongated and coiled
and fused to form a tube through
which flower nectar is sucked, the
mandibles are vestigial or absent
 Feeding & Mouth Parts
• Sponging insects (most flies):
• the labium is typically expanded distally into a labellum
• Fluid nutrients are transported by capillary action along
minute surface channels from the labellae to the mouth
• Saliva is exuded onto the food to partly liquefy it
• Insects walk using first
and last leg on one side
Water strider:
and middle leg on the Supported by the
opposite side in Water’s surface tension
alteration with the
reverse
• Provides stability
• A water strider has non-
wetting footpads that
do not break the surface
water tension

21-17
• Insect wings are outgrowths of cuticle from the
thoracic segments
• Most flying insects have 2 pairs of wings
• Diptera (true flies) have one pair

Order Diptera: House Fly

Only one set of wings, Contaminated with
over 100 pathogens

21-18
 Development

• Hemimetabolous development → series of gradual

changes or incomplete metamorphosis (Orthoptera,
Hemiptera, Odonata +)
• Holometabolous development → series of radical
changes or complete metamorphosis (Lepidoptera,
Coleoptera, Diptera +)
 Hemimetabolous development

• Immature forms (nymphs)

possess compound eyes,
antennae, feeding and walking
appendages, but lack functional
wings and reproductive
structures of adults
• Principal growth changes are in
size and proportion and
development of wings and
reproductive structures
Nymphs
• Nymphs and adults often live
in same habitat
 Holometabolous development
• Hatch as vermiform larvae with no resemblance to adults
• Lack compound eyes, mouthparts are different and wingpads are
never present
• Termination of larval stage is accompanied by pupation.
• Pupae do not feed or move much, and reside in protective niches
• Energy reserves accumulated during larval stage are used for the
body transformation
• a period of dormancy in their annual life cycle
• Winter – hibernation
• Sumer – estivation
• Most insects enter a dormant state when some factor of the
environment, such as temperature, becomes unfavorable,
and dormancy continues until conditions again become
favorable.
• Insects as a group display many colors.
• Even within a species the color pattern may vary in a seasonal
way, and colors may differ between males and females.
• Some color patterns and body forms in insects are highly
adaptive in evasion of predation, such as those for mimicry,
aposematic coloration (warning coloration to advertise
noxious qualities), and crypsis (camouflage in shape or
coloration to escape notice).
 Monarch Lookalikes and How to Tell the Difference
4/17/2018
74 COMMENTS

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."- Oscar Wilde

...Or was it mimicry?
At a glance, the Viceroy and Monarch are shockingly similar with their orange and black wing coloration. This is not merely a
coincidence but a means of survival for these butterflies. There is a name for this phenomenon called Müllerian mimicry- “a
form of mimicry in which two or more noxious animals develop similar appearances as a shared protective device”.

It was long believed that the Viceroy used Batesian mimicry- “mimicry in which an edible animal is protected by its
resemblance to a noxious one that is avoided by predators.” However, it was found that the viceroy feeds on Willow species
(cottonwood, willow, poplar trees) which contain salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin and make them taste bitter to
avian predators.

Viceroy or Monarch?
The main visual difference between the viceroy and monarch butterfly is the black line drawn across the viceroy's hind
wings, which monarch butterflies do not have. The viceroy is also a bit smaller than the monarch. The caterpillars of
monarchs and viceroys are significantly different in appearance as well.

An adult monarch butterfly An adult viceroy butterfly, Limenitis

archippus

Note the black line across it's hind wing,

differentiating it from the monarch. The
viceroy is also a bit smaller than the
monarch. The caterpillars of monarchs and
viceroys are significantly different in
appearance as well.
• Estigena pardalis (order
Lepidoptera) resembles a dead leaf.

• Bizarre processes from the thorax

of a treehopper from Mexico,
Sphongophorus sp. (order
Hemiptera), masquerade as parts of
the twig on which it feeds

• Broken outlines and color of a

katydid (Dysonia sp., order
Orthoptera) in Costa Rica give it the
appearance of the leaves on which
it has been feeding.
• Cuticular exoskeleton
• Repulsive odors and tastes
• Aggressive – fight
• Offense - Swift in running when danger threatens
• Chemical warfare
• The keen sensory perceptions of insects make them
extremely responsive to many stimuli.
• Stimuli may be internal (physiological) or external
(environmental), and responses are governed by both the
physiological state of the animal and the pattern of nerve
pathways traveled by the impulses.
• Many responses are simple, such as orientation toward or
away from a stimulus
• Much behavior of insects, however, is not a simple matter of
orientation but involves a complex series of responses.
• Dung beetles Canthon pilularis (order Coleoptera), chew off
a bit of dung, form it into a ball, and then roll it to where
they will bury it in soil. One beetle pushes while the other
pulls. Eggs are laid in the ball, and larvae feed on the dung.
• pheromones - substances secreted by one individual that
affect behavior or physiological processes of another
individual
• Sound production and reception - warning devices,
advertisement of territorial claims, or courtship songs
• Tactile communication - tapping, stroking, grasping, and
antennae touching, which evoke responses varying from
recognition to recruitment and alarm.
• Visual - Certain kinds of fl ies, springtails, and beetles
manufacture their own visual signals in the form of
bioluminescence
• Insects rank very high in the animal kingdom in their
organization of social groups, and cooperation within more
complex groups depends heavily on chemical and tactile
communication. Social communities are not all complex,
however. Some community groups are temporary and
uncoordinated, as are hibernating associations of carpenter
bees or feeding gatherings of aphids. Some are coordinated
for only brief periods, and some cooperate more fully, such
as tent caterpillars, Malacosoma, which join in building a
home web and feeding net. However, all of these are open
communities with limited social behavior.
• Hymenoptera and Isoptera
• Complex social life necessary for the
perpetuation of the species

• They involve all stages of the life cycle, communities are

usually ongoing, all activities are collective, and there is
reciprocal communication and division of labour. The society
usually demonstrates polymorphism, or caste
differentiation.
• Honey Bees
• one of the most complex organizations in the insect world
• three castes:
• a single sexually mature female (queen),
• a few hundred drones (sexually mature males)
• Workers (sexually inactive genetic females)
• Honey Bees

• Workers - take care of young, secrete wax with which they

build the six-sided cells of honeycomb, gather nectar from
flowers, manufacture honey, collect pollen, and ventilate
and guard the hive.
• Several drones fertilize a queen during her nuptial (mating)
flight. Drones die after mating, and those remaining in the
hive at summer’s end are driven out by workers and starve.
• Queen, fed royal jelly
• Honey bees have evolved an efficient system of
communication
• Termites
• Fertile male and females
• Immature individuals
• Some fertile individuals
may have wings and may
leave the colony, mate, lose
their wings, and as king and
queen start a new colony.
• Wingless fertile individuals
may under certain
conditions substitute for
the king or queen
• Termites
• Immature members are wingless
and become workers and
soldiers.
• Soldiers have large heads and
mandibles and serve to defend
the colony.
• Reproductive individuals and
soldiers secrete inhibiting
pheromones that pass
throughout the colony to
nymphs through a mutual
feeding process, called
trophallaxis, so that they become
sterile workers.
• In ant colonies males die soon
after mating and the queen
either starts her own new
colony or joins some
established colony and does
the egg laying.
• Sterile females are wingless
workers and soldiers that do
work of the colony: gather
food, care for young, and
protect the colony.
• In many larger colonies there
may be two or three types of
individuals within each caste.
• Beneficial insects
• Harmful insects
• Eat and destroy plants
• Lice, flies etc. attack humans and/or domestic animals
• Malaria carried by Anopheles mosquitoes
• Fleas – plague
• House flies – typhoid
• Lice – typhus fever
• Tsetse flies – African sleeping sickness
• Destruction of food, clothes, property – weevils,
cockroaches, moths, termites, bedbugs
• Uniramous appendages
• One pair of antennae
• A pair of mandibles and two pairs of maxillae on the head
• Tagmata are head, thorax and abdomen
• Three pairs of jointed thoracic legs
• Two classes: Entognatha and Insecta
• Entognatha: contains three orders of
• tiny animals commonly inhabiting soils.
• Insecta:
• largest class of the world’s largest phylum
• mouthparts whose bases extend out of the head capsule.
• evolutionary success - wings (present in most), waterproofingng their
cuticle and other mechanisms to minimize water loss, and the ability to
become dormant during adverse conditions.
• Most insects bear two pairs of wings on their thorax, althoughsome
have one pair and some are primitively or secondarily wingless.
• Feeding habits vary greatly among insects, and there is an
enormousvariety of specialization of mouthparts refl ecting the
particular feeding habits of a given insect.
• They breathe by means of a tracheal system, which is a system of tubes
that opens by spiracles on the thorax and abdomen.
• Excretory organs are Malpighian tubules floating freely in the hemocoel.
• Sexes are separate in insects, and fertilization is usually
internal.
• Almost all insects undergo metamorphosis during
development.
• In hemimetabolous (incomplete) metamorphosis, larval
instars are called immatures or nymphs, and adults emerge
at the last nymphal molt.
• In holometabolous (complete) metamorphosis, the last
larval molt gives rise to a nonfeeding stage (pupa). A
winged adult emerges at the final, pupal, molt.
 CLASSIFICATION
► Class: Entognatha = base of mouthparts hidden within
head capsule; small size (< 1 cm) → 3 orders: Collembola,
Protura, Diplura
► Order: Collembola = springtails (6000 sps, < 6 mm);
appendages in 4th-5th abdominal segment forming furcula
(springlike structure driven by hemocoelomic fluid pressure)
► Order: Protura (205 sps, tiny < 2 mm); found in leaf
litter, moist soils & rotting vegetation
► Order: Diplura = bristetail (650 sps, < 4 mm);
with caudal cerci (segmented filaments)
► Class: Insecta → ectognathous = mouthparts exposed
& projected from head capsule → 3 sub-classes, 30 orders
► Sub-class: Archaeognatha
► 1) Order: Archaeognatha → jumping bristetails (255 sps, <
15 mm); with 3 caudal filaments resembling silverfish but
more cylindrical
► Sub-class: Zygentoma
► 2) Order: Thysanura → silverfish (450 sps, < 30 mm);
with 3 caudal filaments, body covered with scales
► Sub-class: Pterygota (paired wings on thoracic segments 2
& 3)
3) Order: Ephemeroptera 4) Order: Odonata
Mayflies → fresh water Dragon & Damselflies
(2100 sps) (5000 sps)
5) Order: Plecoptera 6) Order: Blattodea
Stoneflies → fresh water Cockroaches
(1600 sps) (4000 sps)

Ootheca
7) Order: Isoptera 8) Order: Mantodea
Termites Praying mantis
form large colonies
(2000 sps) (1800 sps)
9) Order: Grylloblattodea 10) Order: Dermaptera
Rock crawlers→ 15-30 mm Earwigs
in glaciers & ice caves with sclerotized forceps
(25 sps) (1200 sps)
11) Order: Orthoptera 12) Order: Phasmida
Grasshoppers Stick & leaf insects
stridulation (forewing - femur) up to 35 cm long
(13000 sps) (2600 sps)
13) Order: Mantophasmatodea 14) Order: Embioptera
Gladiators → described in 2002 Web-spinners (10 mm)
Namibia, South Africa in spun silken galleries
& Tanzania (20 sps) (150 sps)
15) Order: Zoraptera 16) Order: Psocoptera
Termite-like (< 3mm long) Psocids - book & bark lice
form colonies in dead wood tiny, 1-10 mm long
(25 sps) (2600 sps)
17) Order: Phthiraptera 18) Order: Thysanoptera
Sucking & biting lice(< 5mm) Thrips
ectoparasites of birds tiny, 0.5-1.5 mm long
& mammals (5000 sps) (4100 sps)

(B) Human head & body louse

(C) Human pubic louse

19) Order: Hemiptera
True bugs, cicadas, aphids
& scale insects
(85000 sps)
20) Order: Strepsiptera
Males free-living & winged
Females wingless &
parasitic on other insects
(300 sps)
21) Order: Megaloptera 22) Order: Raphidioptera
Dobsonflies, alderflies etc Snakeflies
(200 sps) (50 sps)
23) Order: Neuroptera 24) Order: Coleoptera
Ant lions & lacewings etc Beetles
(4550 sps) (400000 sps)
25) Order: Mecoptera 26) Order: Siphonaptera
Snowflies, scorpionflies etc Fleas
(550 sps) (2400 sps)
27) Order: Diptera 28) Order: Trichoptera
True flies, mosquitos etc Caddisflies
(150000 sps) (7100 sps)
29) Order: Lepidoptera 30) Order: Hymenoptera
Butterflies & moths Bees, wasps, ants etc.
(120000 sps) (125000 sps)