Hexapods

Chapter 21
Subphylum Hexapoda
l Members of the
subphylum Hexapoda are
named for the presence of
six legs.
l All legs are uniramous.
l Hexapods have 3 tagmata:
l Head
l Thorax
l Abdomen
l Appendages attach to head
and thorax.
Subphylum Hexapoda
l Two classes
within
Hexapoda:
l Entognatha
l Insecta
Subphylum Hexapoda

l Entognathans are a small group

characterized by having the bases of
mouthparts enclosed within the head capsule.
l 3 orders: Protura, Diplura, and Collembola.
l Protura and Diplura - tiny, eyeless, and inhabit soils or
dark, damp places.
l Collembola are commonly called springtails because of
ability to leap.
l Animal 4 mm long may leap 20 times its body length.
l Members live in soil, decaying plant matter, on freshwater
pond surfaces, and along seashore.
l Can be very abundant, reaching millions per hectare.
Class Insecta

l Insecta is an enormous class whose

members have ectognathous
mouthparts – bases of mouthparts lie
outside the head capsule.
Class Insecta

l Insects are the

most diverse and
abundant of all
arthropods.
l 26 orders
l Most are terrestrial
or inhabit
freshwater.
l Few are marine.
Class Insecta - Distribution

l Found in nearly all habitats except the

sea.
l Common in freshwater, brackish water,
and salt marshes.
l Abundant in soils, forest canopies, and
can be found in deserts and wastelands.
l Most animals and plants have insects as
parasites externally and internally.
Class Insecta - Adaptive Traits

l Flight and small size makes insects

widely distributed.
l Well-protected eggs withstand rigorous
conditions and are readily dispersed.
l Wide variety of structural and behavioral
adaptations gains them access to every
possible niche.
Class Insecta

l Insects have:
l 3 Tagmata: head, thorax, abdomen.
l 3 pairs of legs and usually 2 pairs of wings
on their thorax.
Class Insecta
l Insects show a diverse array of
morphological variation.
l They consistently have 3
tagmata.
l Head – compound eyes, one
pair antennae, 3 ocelli,
mouthparts (including
mandibles & maxillae)
l Thorax – 3 segments each with
a pair of legs, the last 2
segments usually have wings
as well.
l Abdomen – 9-11 segments
Class Insecta

l Antennae can act

as tactile organs,
olfactory organs,
and sometimes
auditory organs.
Class Insecta

l Legs have also

become highly
specialized for
walking, grasping,
skating over water,
and specialized jobs
like gathering pollen.
Class Insecta

l Insects also have

highly variable body
forms.
l Land beetles are
thick and shielded.
l Aquatic beetles are
streamlined.
l Cockroaches are
flat and live in
crevices.
Class Insecta

l Flight is one key to the great success of

insects.
l An animal that can fly can escape
predators, find food, and disperse to new
habitats much faster than organisms that
can only crawl.
Class Insecta
l Insects are the only
invertebrates that can
fly.
l Insect wings not
homologous with bird
and flying mammal
wings.
l Insect wings are
outgrowths of cuticle
from the mesothoracic
and metathoracic
segments.
Class Insecta - Power of Flight

l Most have two pairs of

wings.
l Some are ancestrally
wingless – silverfish.
l Some are secondarily
wingless – fleas.
l Recent fossil evidence
suggests insects may
have evolved fully
functional wings over 400
million years ago.
Class Insecta - Modifications of
Wings
l Wings for flight are thin
and membranous.
l The thick and horny
front wings of beetles
are protective.
l Butterflies have wings
covered with scales.
l Caddisflies have wings
covered with hairs.
Class Insecta - Wing Thrust
l Direct flight muscles
alter the angle of wings
to twist leading edge to
provide thrust.
l Figure-8 movement
moves insect forward.
l Fast flight requires long,
narrow wings and a
strong tilt, as in
dragonflies and horse
flies.
Class Insecta

l The internal anatomy of an insect includes

several complex organ systems.
Insects - Nutrition

l Most insects are

herbivorous, feeding
on plant juices
and/or tissues.
l Some are
specialized, others
will eat almost any
plant.
Insects - Nutrition

l Some insects are

predaceous,
catching & eating
other animals.
Insects - Nutrition

l Other insects are

scavengers or
parasites.
Insects - Nutrition

l Some insect parasites are parasitized by other

insects – hyperparasitism.
l Parasitoids are a lethal type of parasite.
l A tiny wasp lays eggs on the tomato hornworm.
The wasp larvae will consume the hornworm.
Insects - Nutrition
l Insects have
mouthparts
specialized for the
many different
foods they eat.
l Sucking
mouthparts
(mosquitoes) –
form a tube, can
pierce animal or
plant tissues.
Insects - Nutrition

l Sponging
mouthparts (house
flies) – liquid food is
lapped up, food may
be liquefied first.
Insects - Nutrition

l Chewing
mouthparts
(grasshoppers)
– strong plates
can tear food.
Insects – Circulation & Gas
Exchange
l Insects have an open
circulatory system.
l Gas exchange is
accomplished with a
tracheal system – an
extensive network of thin-
walled tubes that branch
into every part of the body.
l Tracheal trunks open to
the outside by spiracles.
Insects – Circulation & Gas
Exchange
l Insects & spiders have
independently evolved an
excretory system of
Malpighian tubules – blind
tubules opening into the
hindgut.
l Potassium is secreted into the
tubules and water diffuses in
after it. Other solutes and
wastes are secreted or diffuse
into the tubules as well.
Insects – Circulation & Gas
Exchange
l Insects that feed on dry grains must conserve
water and excrete salts.
l Leaf-feeders ingest & excrete lots of fluid.
l Aphids pass fluid as honeydew that is
consumed by other insects.
Insects – Nervous System

l The nervous system resembles that of

larger crustaceans, with fusion of ganglia.
l A stomadeal system corresponds to the
autonomic system of vertebrates.
l Neurosecretory cells in brain function
to control molting and metamorphosis.
Insects – Sensory Organs

l Mechanoreception – Mechanical stimuli

are received by sensilla (simple or
complex) distributed over the antennae,
legs, and body.
Insects – Sensory Organs

l Auditory Reception –
Very sensitive setae or
tympanal organs detect
vibrations that come
through the substrate or
the air.
l Some moths detect
ultrasonic pulses emitted
by bats. They drop toward
the ground in response to
avoid the bats.
Insects – Sensory Organs

l Chemoreception – Chemoreceptors for

taste and smell are located in sensory
pits on the mouthparts, antennae or
sometimes the legs.
Insects – Sensory Organs

l Visual Reception – Simple eyes (ocelli) are

used to monitor light intensity, they do not form
images.
l Compound eyes in insects, similar to those of
crustaceans, consist of thousands of
ommatidia, each having its own pigment cells
and lens.
Insects – Sensory Organs

l Different insects have different capability

to see color.
l Bees can distinguish most colors (they don’t
see red) beginning in the ultraviolet range.
l To us a flower may look uniformly colored, but to
the bee there are lines that appear in the UV
range that act as nectar guides.
l Other insects, like butterflies, can see red.
Insects - Reproduction

l Sexes are separate,

some are
parthenogenetic.
l Fertilization is
internal.
l In some, like
butterflies, nutrients
are passed to the
female as well as
sperm.
Insects - Reproduction

l Insects have a variety of methods for

attracting mates.
l Pheromones play an important role in
many species.
l Fireflies communicate using light flashes.

l Crickets communicate using sound.

Insects - Reproduction

l Female insects deposit eggs on a specific

habitat that will provide food for larvae.
l Monarch butterflies lay eggs on milkweed plants.
l Parasitoid wasp species lay eggs on tomato
hornworms.
l Mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water where the
larvae will live as filter feeders.
Insects - Metamorphosis

l Many insects undergo metamorphosis

during their development.
l Each stage between molts is called an
instar.
Insects - Metamorphosis

l Insects with complete

metamorphosis have
larval stages specialized
for eating and growing
that are known by such
names as maggot, grub,
or caterpillar.
l The larval stage looks
entirely different from
the adult stage.
Insects - Metamorphosis

l Female butterflies lay eggs on the plant

that the caterpillars will feed on.
l After the eggs hatch, the larvae
(caterpillars) eat and grow, molting
many times.
l When it reaches a certain size, the larva
will molt one more time, becoming a
pupa (chrysalis in butterflies).
Insects - Metamorphosis

l Metamorphosis from the larval stage to the

adult stage occurs during a pupal stage.
Insects - Metamorphosis

l In incomplete metamorphosis, the young,

called nymphs resemble adults but are
smaller and go through a series of molts until
they reach full size.
Insects - Metamorphosis

l Direct Development
l Silverfish and springtails have young similar
to adults except in size and sexual
maturation.
l Stages are egg-juveniles-adult.

l Wingless insects.
Diapause

l Insects are able to undergo dormancy

during harsh conditions.
l Hibernation – winter dormancy
l Estivation – summer dormancy

l Diapause – arrested growth that occurs

regardless of conditions.
Defense

l Aposematic
coloration –
many insects
utilize bright
colors as a
warning that they
are toxic.
Defense

l Batesian mimicry – when a palatable species

mimics the bright colors of an unpalatable
species.
l Müllerian mimicry – when two unpalatable
species have come to resemble each other.
Defense

l Cryptic coloration – often insects are

colored and patterned very much like the
plants they are found on, making them
very difficult to see.
Defense

l Other defensive features include the

exoskeleton, offensive odor (as with the
stink bug), bites and stings.
Insect Behavior

l Insects exhibit a wide range of behaviors

involving innate behaviors, pheromones,
and learning.
Insect Behavior

l Fireflies use
bioluminescence to
signal each other. The
female firefly attracts
males by using a
particular flash pattern.
l Another firefly species
mimics the call of the
female and then eats
the males that arrive.
Social Insects

l Honey bees, ants and

termites have complex
social groups.
l In honeybees:
l The queen is the
reproductive female.
l Workers are non-
reproductive females.
l Drones are haploid
males.
Social Insects

l Ants have fascinating societies where they

“farm” fungi, herd “ant cows” (aphids which
they keep for the honeydew that they secrete),
sew their nests with silk, and even use tools.
Insects and Humans

l Insects can be beneficial, preying on

harmful insects, fertilizing crops etc.
l Insects are critical components of most
food chains and an important food
source for many fish and birds
Insects and Humans

l Or, they can be harmful, spreading disease,

eating crops etc.
l Care must be taken when controlling pests
that beneficial insects are not harmed.
Insects and Humans

l Control of Insects:
l Broad-spectrum insecticides damage
beneficial insect populations along with
targeted pest.
l Some chemical pesticides persist in the
environment and accumulate as they move
up the food chain.
l Some strains of insects have evolved a
resistance to common insecticides.
Insects and Humans
l Biological control – use of natural agents, including
diseases, to suppress an insect population.
l Bacillus thuringiensis - bacterium that controls
lepidopteran pests.
l Gene coding for the “B.t.” toxin has been introduced to other
bacteria and transferred to crop plants.
l Some viruses and fungi may be economical pesticides.
l Natural predators or parasites of insect pests can be
raised and released to control pest.
l Release of sterile males can eradicate the few insect
species that only mate once.
Insects and Humans

l Integrated pest management -

combined use of all possible, practical
techniques listed above, to reduce
reliance on chemical insecticides.
Phylogeny

l Our understanding of the relationships among

arthropods has changed over the past decade.
l Using molecular data, members of former
subphylum Uniramia are now divided between
subphylum Myriapoda and Hexapoda.
l The nature of the relationship, however,
between hexapods and crustaceans is not well
understood.
Phylogeny

l Some phylogenies support a sister-taxon

relationship between them, but others indicate
that hexapods arose within Crustacea.
l Future studies may show that subphylum
Crustacea is paraphyletic.
l Phylogenies that support hexapods arising from
within Crustacea, find that hexapods are most
similar to branchiopod, cephaplocarid, and
remipedian crustaceans.
Adaptive Diversification
l The first terrestrial arthropods
were scorpions and millipedes that
appeared in the Silurian period.
l The ancestral insect had a head
and trunk of similar somites.
l Insects have specialized the first
three post-cephalic somites as
thorax and lost the remaining
appendages.
l Some modern apterygote orders
have abdominal styli that are
considered vestigial legs.
Adaptive Diversification

l Recent fossil evidence

suggests winged insects
were in existence about 400
million years ago.
l Ancestral flying insects may
have derived from aquatic
insects or insects with
aquatic juveniles; wings
may be derived from
external gills on the thorax.