CROP PROT 211: ENTOMOLOGY REVIEWER

LESSON 1 – IMPORTANCE, DIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION OF INSECTS

Entomology – branch of zoology that studies insect. “entom” = insect, Greek.

Insects – are the unifying feature in the study of organism.

Importance of Insects

▪ Waste management
▪ Nutrient cycling
▪ Crop protection
▪ Food webs
▪ Cultural value
▪ Plant propagation
▪ Entomophagy
▪ Disease transmission
▪ Destroy commodities

Insect Order

o Coleoptera – Beetles
- Coleo “sheath”
- Forewings – hardened; hind wings – membranous
- Chewing mouthparts
o Diptera – Flies and Mosquitoes
- Di = “two”
- One pair of wings
- Piercing-sucking, rasping mouthparts
o Hymenoptera – Bees, Ants and Wasps
- Name = membranous wing (transparent)
- Large forewings, smaller hind wings
- Chewing, sucking mouthparts
o Lepidoptera – Butterflies and Moths
- Lepido = “scales”
- Butterflies hold wings upright/out (active = day); Moth hold wings over body (active = night)
- Siphoning mouthparts
o Hemiptera – The True Bugs
- Ptera = “wing”; hemi = “half”
- Wings folded over body overlapping
- Piercing-sucking mouth type
o Orthoptera – Grasshoppers, Mantids and Crickets
- Ortho = “straight”
- Front wings sturdy (protection); back wings lightweight and large (flight)
- Chewing mouthparts
o Odonata – Dragonflies and Damselflies
- Name = “toothed”
- 2 pairs of wings
- Dragonflies are larger, wings to side; Damselflies are dainty, wings held above body
- Chewing mouthparts
o Neuroptera – Lacewings
- Ptera = “wing”; neuro = “nerve”
- 2 pairs of wings
- Abundance of veining; chewing mouthparts
o Blattodea – Cockroaches

Insects as Human Food

Entomophagy – the practice of eating insect.

LESSON 2 – EXTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS
Tagmosis. The grouping of segments into a functional region.

Segmentation. It is the division of some animal into series of repetitive segments.

Insect Integument

Body wall/exoskeleton/integument. provides rigidity for the body and serve for the attachment
of the muscles.

3 parts of Insect Body Wall

▪ Epidermal cell is a cellular layer of the body wall that secretes molting fluid involved
in the growth process.
▪ Cuticle is non-cellular layer of the body wall that covers the entire body surface.
1. Epicuticle is the outermost thin layer which contains cuticulin, wax, and cement.
2. Exocuticle is middle part which gives the cuticle its characteristics strength and
resilience.
3. Endocuticle is the innermost thick layer of the insect cuticle.
▪ Basement membrane separates body wall from internal organs.

Major Body Axis

o Longitudinal, or anterior to posterior, also

termed cephalic (head) to caudal (tail);
o Dorsoventral, or dorsal (upper) to ventral (lower);
o Transverse, or lateral (outer) through the
longitudinal axis to the opposite latera
o proximal or basal refers to near the body,
whereas
o distal or apical means distant from the body.
o mesal or medial, if they are nearer to the midline
(median line), or
o lateral if closer to the body margin, relative to
other structures.

Sclerite: a plate on the body wall surrounded by membrane or sutures.

Insect Color Production

➢ Color of Physical structure of insect - is the result from light
▪ Scattering: light scattered by irregularities of a surface
▪ Interference: reflection of light from a series of superimposed surfaces separated by
distances comparable with the wavelengths of light, and
▪ Diffraction: light strikes a surface with groove or ridge, different wavelengths are bent
to varying degrees, leading to spectral colors.
➢ Insect Pigmentary colours - are due to the absorption of visible light by a range of chemicals.
➢ Whites are produced by structures larger than the wavelength of light.

HEAD
➢ composed of 6 segments (1st segment carrier – compound eyes, 2nd – antenna, 3rd – labrum
(upper lip), 4th – mandible, 5th maxilla, 6th - labium (lower lip).
➢ Insect head comprises the globular to capsule like anterior body segment of an insect which bears
the eyes, antennae and mouthparts.
Types of Head
o Hypognathous head
- The condition wherein the mouthparts are at the right angle to the body axis.
- Hypo = below, gnathous = jaw
- Examples: grasshoppers, roaches, mantids, larvae of moths and butterflies.
o Opisthognathous head
 - is a condition wherein the mouthparts are projecting backward between the legs.
- Opistho = behind, gnathous = jaw
- Examples: cicada, bugs, leafhoppers
o Prognathous head
- wherein the mouthparts is in line to the body axis that commonly seen in carnivorous and/or
forms that burrow in wood or soil.
- Pro = infront, gnathous = jaw
- Examples: termites and ground beetle

Cephalic Sensory Structures

• Compound eyes – vision
• Ocelli – light/dark sensor
• Antennae – olfactory, tactile, movement

EYES
➢ Compound eyes are located on each side of the head of most adult insects, which consist of many
hexagonal elements known as facets or ommatidia – it consists of light gathering apparatus
(28,000 in dragonflies).
➢ Simple eyes or ocelli (detects light and darkness) are located between compound eyes on the
front of the head.

INSECT ANTENNAE
➢ Antennae is an elongated, segmented structures of varying designs and sizes, used for sensory
purposes and sometimes for defense and composed of three (3) main parts:
1. scape – basal segment, basal stalk
2. pedicel – second segment, contains the sensory organ Johnston’s organ which responds to
movement of the distal part of the antenna relative to the pedicel
3. flagellum – filamentous, whip-like part beyond the pedicel

Functions of Antennae
✓ Sensory receptors for touch, smell, taste, vibration, humidity
✓ Perceiving the environment
✓ Finding food/detecting the quality (flies, mosquito) •
✓ Finding mates (pheromone)
✓ Finding host for oviposition sites
✓ Finding host (pests)
✓ Perceiving danger
✓ Secondary sexual character (some moths)
✓ Communication (social insects)

Types of Antennae
1. Setaceous – bristle-like, segments taper distally.
2. Filiform – threadlike, segments nearly uniformly cylindrical in size.
3. Moniliform – beadlike, segments similar in size and nearly spherical in shape.
4. Serrate – saw-like, the distal half or 2/3 of the antennal segments more or less triangular.
5. Pectinate – comb-like, most segments with long slender lateral process.
6. Clavate – clubbed, segments gradually increase in diameter distally.
7. Capitate – having a head, terminal segments suddenly enlarged.
8. Lamellate – leaflike, terminal segments expanded laterally to form rounded lobes.
9. Geniculate – elbowed, the first segment is long and the following segments are small and going
off at an angle to the first.
10. Plumose – feathery, most segments with whorls of long hair
11. Aristate – the last segment enlarged and bears a conspicuous dorsal bristle called arista
12. Stylate – the last segment with an elongated terminal style like or finger like process, the style.

ABDOMEN
➢ the third body region of an insect and usually the largest part especially among females
➢ primarily for reproduction, excretion and digestion
 ➢ abdomen is composed of 11 segments however the last segment is usually reduced and is
represented only by appendages.
✓ Spiracles - These are external openings of the respiratory system found along the side of
the thorax and the abdomen.
✓ Tympanum (ear) - The main auditory organ of an insect.
✓ Cerci - slender, pointed structures found on the eleventh segment of the abdomen.

MOUTH
▪ Mandibles - are tooth-like structure used for chewing, grinding, tearing or pinching-off solid food.
▪ Maxillae - helps in putting the food into the mouth, paired segmented structures used for
mastication and lie directly behind the mandibles.
▪ Labrum - is the “upper lip” which is movable and flap-like structure
▪ Labium - is the “lower lip” found posterior to the maxillae.
▪ Hypopharnyx - is the central tongue-like which drops from the membranous floor of the head,
and bears the opening of the salivary ducts.

Types of Mouthparts
o Mandibulate or chewing type is a type of mouthparts that mandibles cut off and grind solid food.
o Cutting-Sponging type, the mandibles are produced into sharp blabes, and the maxillae into long
probing style.
o Sponging type, the mandibles and maxillae are non-functional and the remaining parts form a
proboscis with a sponge-like apex called labella.
o Chewing-Lapping type is where the mandibles and labrum are of chewing type and are used for
grasping prey, molding wax or nest materials.
o Piercing-Sucking type is the mouthparts of this group are modified to pierce tissues and suck
juices from them.
o Siphoning type is the type of mouthpart where the food either nectar of liquid food already is
sucked up.
o Rasping- Sucking type has a cone-shaped beak formed from clypeus.

THORAX
➢ Thorax is the middle region of the insect body which is connected from the head by a flexible
membranous neck (cervix).
➢ It contains 3 distinct segments: prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax

Locomotor Appendages
✓ Legs – are articulated appendages comprising five segments.
a. Coxa – the proximal segment that is usually short and stout.
b. Trochanter – connects the coax with the femur.
c. Femur – the stoutest and sometime the largest segment of the leg in some instances, it is
armed with strong spines.
d. Tibia – is often a long, slender structure with downward-pointing spines that aid in climbing.
e. Tarsus – usually made up of several subsegments called tarsomeres, terminate in a pretarsus.

Types of Insect Legs

✓ Raptorial legs – grasping forelegs of preying mantis
✓ Cursorial legs – running legs of roaches
✓ Fossorial legs – digging forelegs of mole crickets
✓ Saltatorial legs – jumping hindlegs of grasshoppers and fleas
✓ Natatorial legs – swimming legs of aquatic insects
✓ pollen basket for gathering pollen – hindlegs of honeybees
✓ clinging legs of lice
✓ clasping legs of aquatic beetles

WINGS
Types of Wings
1. Elytra – forewing of beetles (Coleoptera) - are thick and hard with uniform texture which is used
to protect the soft abdomen
2. Hemelytra – forewing of true bugs (Hemiptera) are a combination of thick and soft, flexible and
almost transparent apex or posterior part.
3. Fringed type – wings of thrips (Thysanoptera), are hair-like along the margins of the central using
structure.
 4. Membranous type – wings of caddisflies (Trichoptera), are soft, flexible, translucent or
transparent with prominent wing veins.
5. Halteres – hindwings of flies and mosquitoes (Diptera), are small knob-like structures which are
used for balancing instead of flight.
6. Tegmina – forewing of grasshoppers, roaches (Orthoptera) - are leathery front wings which serves
to protect the membranous hindwings and soft abdomen.

TERMINALIA
➢ anal-genital part of the abdomen, known as the terminalia, consists generally of segments 8 or 9
to the abdominal apex.
➢ These terminal abdominal segments have excretory and sensory functions in all insects, but in
adults there is an additional reproductive function.

EXTERNAL TERMINALIA
➢ The organs concerned specifically with mating and the deposition of eggs are known collectively,
although they may be largely internal.

LESSON 3 – THE INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS

Muscular System
- composed of striated muscle cells
- attached to the body wall and move the different parts of the insect
Functions of Muscular System
1. Support of the body
2. Helps maintain posture.
3. Movement of the limbs, including ovipositor
4. Movement of the wings - insects are the only invertebrates that can fly
5. Movement of viscera
6. Locomotion
7. Closure of spiracles
8. Operation of various pumps such as cibarial pump and the pumping of the poison glands.
9. Generation of heat by “shivering”

Digestive System
- One of the main parts of the digestive system is the alimentary canal, a tube that runs from
the mouth to the anus; it is the long, central tube in the larvae
- There are three main regions of the digestive system:
▪ the stomodaeum (foregut),
▪ mesenteron (midgut), and
▪ the proctodaeum (hindgut)

Circulatory System
➢ Compared to a vertebrae, the circulatory system is rather open
➢ The only blood vessel is a tube under the alimentary canal. The anterior piece is slender, and is
called the dorsal aorta. This serves to separate the heart from the rest of the body cavity.
➢ Blood of insects is typically clear, sometimes green or yellowish.
Excretory System
- consists of a group of tubes, known as the Malphigian tubules, which occur at the anterior
end of the hindgut.
Reproductive System
- Insects primarily reproduce through sexual means, and usually posses’ distinct sexes.
The Fat Body
- It is an aggregation of cells in the body cavity used for intermediate metabolism and food
storage.
Nervous System
- The brain connects to a sub-esophageal ganglion via two commisures.
Mechanical Senses
- These are that of touch, pressure, or vibration.
Auditory Organs
- Hair sensilla and tympanal organs are utilized to detect airborne sounds, however which hairs
serve this function is not always clear.
Vision Organs
- These structures are sensitive to light, these are the ocelli and compound eyes.
LESSON 4 – SENSORY SYSTEMS OF INSECT AND BEHAVIOR

The sensory organs are primarily responsible for the reception of stimuli and pass them on the
neuro-muscular system, resulting in the varied behavior pattern of insects.

Types of Sense Organs

▪ Mechanoreceptors - detect movements, vibrations, or other mechanical disturbances.
▪ Chemoreceptors – smell and taste
▪ Photoreceptors - detect the presence and quality of incident light (electromagnetic radiation).

Mechanoreceptors
➢ respond to the sense of touch due to contact with external solid objects.
➢ may act as tactile receptors, detecting the movement of objects in the environment.

Principal Mechanoreceptors
1. Tactile organs or trichoid sensilla. Formed by two cells: hair by trichogen cell and socket by
tormogen cell.
2. Trichoform sensilla. are probably the simplest mechanoreceptors. These are tactile hairs (setae)
that are innervated by a sensory neuron.
3. Campaniform organs. are flattened oval discs that usually serve as flex receptors in the
exoskeleton.
4. Chordotonal organs. Consist of single unit or group of similar units, called Scolopidia.
a. Subgenual organs. these receptors contain relatively few scolopidia yet they appear to be
very sensitive to substrate vibrations.
b. Tympanal organs. lie beneath a drum-like membrane (the tympanum) where they
respond to sound vibrations.
c. Johnston’s organs. found within the pedicel of each antenna. Function as a
proprioceptor, supplying information on position or orientation of the antennae.

Insect Mechanoreceptors
▪ phasic response when stimulated — that is, they fire once when activated and again when
deactivated.
▪ tonic response, firing repeatedly as long as a stimulus persists.

o Stretch receptors. are multi-polar neurons that usually accompany muscle or connective tissue.
o Pressure receptors. provide sensory information about an aquatic insect’s depth in the water.

Chemoreceptors
➢ Insects can sense various chemical substances in their environment.
➢ In general, the sense of taste involves direct contact with a substrate (contact chemoreception)
whereas olfaction usually implies the detection of compounds in gaseous or airborne form
(remote chemoreception).

o Gustatory receptors (Taste receptors)

- are commonly described as thick-walled hairs, pegs, or pits.
o Olfactory receptors (Smell receptors)
- are usually thin-walled pegs, cones, or plates with numerous pores through which airborne
molecules diffuse.
▪ Semiochemicals – from the Greek word semion – signal, chemical odors are both interspecific and
intraspecific communication.
▪ Pheremones – first recognized in 1950s, produced by exocrine glands.
a. Sex pheromones. 2 stages: sex attraction pheromones acting at a distance, followed by close-
up courtship pheromones employed prior to mating.
b. Aggregation pheromones. the release of an aggregation pheromone causes conspecific
insects of both sexes to crown around the source of the pheromone.
c. Spacing pheromones. Spacing, epideictic or dispersion pheromones effect appropriate
spacing on food resources as with some phytopaghous insects.
d. Trail-marking pheromone. Many social insects use pheromones to mark their trails,
particularly those leading to food and the nest.
e. Alarm pheromones. Many aggregating insects produce chemical releasers of alarm behavior;
volatile, non-persistent compounds.

Semiochemicals: Allelochemicals
Allelochemicals – are semiochemicals that function between different species.
 Semiochemical parsimony – the use of chemical as intraspecific pheromone with two or more
functions.
▪ Kairomones. Those that benefit the receiver but disadvantage the producer.
▪ Allomones. Benefit the producer by modifying the behavior of the receiver while having
a neutral effect on the receiver.
▪ Synomones. Benefit both the producer and the receiver.

Carbon dioxide as a sensory cue

Photoreceptors. Ability to perceive light in visible or near visible range of the electromagnetic
spectrum.
▪ Compound eyes.
▪ Ocelli – Simple eyes (dorsal ocelli and lateral ocelli)
Extraocular Photoreception. This dermal light sense has been attributed to the response of
individual neurons in the brain and/or ventral nerve cord.
Light Production. The most spectacular visual displays of insects involve light production, or
bioluminescence.
- Light emitted may be white, yellow, red or green.
- enzyme luciferase oxidizes a substrate, luciferin, in the presence of an energy source of
adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and oxygen, to produce oxyluciferin, CO2 and light.
Insect Behavior
▪ Individual Reflexes (simple responses to simple stimuli) - flight response when the legs
lose contact with the ground, and cessation of flight when contact is regained.
▪ Multiple reflexes associated with movement of the insect can be divided into:
✓ kinesis (plural: kineses), in which unoriented action varies according to stimulus
intensity.
✓ taxis (plural: taxes), in which movement is directly towards or away from the
stimulus.
✓ akinesis, which is unstimulated lack of movement,
✓ orthokinesis, in which speed depends upon stimulus intensity, and
✓ klinokinesis, which is a “random walk” with course changes (turns)

LESSON 5 – INSECT REPRODUCTION

Reproduction - biological process by which new individual organisms (offsprings) are produced from their
parents.

Functions of Reproductive System

MALE FEMALE
• Production of sperm • Production of eggs, including yolk and
• Storage of sperm chorion formation
• Delivery of sperms to the female • Reception and storage of sperm (may be
for long times)
• Coordination of events that lead to
fertilization and oviposition

Male Reproductive System

▪ Testes - Usually near the back of the abdomen.
▪ Each testes is subdivide into functional units - Follicles - sperm is produced.
▪ At the distal end of each follicle-group of germ cells - Spermatogonia.
▪ Spermatogonia - divide by mitosis - Increase in size to form Spermatocytes.

Female Reproductive System

▪ A pair of ovaries.
▪ Each ovary - subdivided into functional units – Ovarioles – Eggs are produced.
▪ Near the distal end of each ovariole – group of germ cells – Oogonia – divide by Mitosis.
▪ Oogonia – increase in size to form Oocytes.
▪ Each oocyte – undergoes Meiosis – yields 4 cells – 1 egg and 3 polar bodies.

Process of Insect Reproduction

Mate Location
▪ Sexual aggregation.
- Individuals that need to mate convene in special sites
 - gathering of males for the purposes of competitive mating display
▪ Sexual attraction
- Visual, chemical, auditory signal
- Species-specific signals
▪ Swarming
- The active aggregations of small animals are often called “swarms”
- Swarms are predominantly of the male sex only, though female-only swarms do occur.

Pre-copulatory courtship
➢ Close-range, intersexual behavior that induces sexual receptivity prior to mating.

Copulation (Sperm Transfer)

➢ Direct Sperm Transfer

➢ Indirect Sperm
Transfer

Post-copulatory courtship
▪ Genital courtship
- Male genitalia are species-specific.
▪ Sexual Selection
- Male-male competition (exaggerated morphology, better nuptial gifts, etc.)
- Female Choice

Oviposition
➢ Majority of insects lay eggs that start developing after oviposition (Oviparity)
➢ Some insects develop eggs internally and lay live young (Viviparity)

Types of Reproduction
o Oviparity. Insects lay the fertilized eggs, which hatch outside the body of the female.
o Viviparity. female gives birth to the young ones, instead of laying eggs.
o Parthenogenesis. Eggs undergo full development without having fertilized.
o Hermaphroditism. A single individual has both the male and female reproductive organs.
o Polyembrony. A single egg produces two or more larvae.
o Paedogenesis. Immature stages (larvae and pupae) produce young ones