BIOL 286

Lecture 1
INTRODUCTION PART B
I- Why study insects? (cont’d)

A. Basic Biological Reasons

B. Beneficial Insects
C. Harmful Insects
C. HARMFUL INSECTS

Of an estimated 3 million species of insects, probably not more than

15,000 spp. (0.5%) interact directly or indirectly with humans.

1) Insects attacking plants

2) Insects attacking animals and humans

 1) INSECTS ATTACKING
PLANTS
a. Feeding on plants:
• Herbivorous insects can cause direct injury to the plants by
feeding on them.
• For example, caterpillars and grasshoppers chew and feed on
plant leaves.

b. Injuring plants during egg-laying:

• Some insects injure the plant following oviposition.
• Ex. Female cicadas have sword-like ovipositor and cut slits in
twigs to deposit their eggs (to protect them from desiccation).
The twig portion above the cut does not receive water and
sugars, and dies.
c. Transmitting plant diseases:

• Certain herbivorous insects, mainly the plant

sucking bugs (Homoptera and Hemiptera) feed by
sucking plant juices (sap) and can transmit plant
diseases, specially viruses (about 300 spp.).
• The important vectors are aphids, white flies and
leaf hoppers.
• Ex. cucumber mosaic virus transmitted by aphids.

Leaf hopper

Aphids
 Plant viruses can be transmitted in 2 ways (depending on the virus):

i. Stylet-borne viruses or non-persistent viruses:

These are transmitted as contaminants of the mouthparts
(sucking stylet or proboscis) of the aphid or vector.
Such viruses adhere passively on the outside of the stylet as an
aphid feeds on an infected plant; hence, they are easily lost
when the vector feeds and moves from one plant to another.

ii. Persistent or circulative viruses:

Once ingested with the plant sap of an infected plant, these
viruses will move, settle and multiply in the salivary glands of the
aphid (or other vector).
Therefore, every time the aphid feeds on a new plant, it will
inject, with the saliva, viruses.
This way the aphid remains ‘infective’ or capable of transmitting
viruses for a long time (throughout its life).
d. Attacking stored products:

i) Some insects feed on stored products:

• Almost any stored product (animal or plant origin) may
be subjected to insect attack, especially by beetles
(larvae and adults) and by moths (larvae only).
• Insect feeding on stored products can attack:
rice, cereals, cheese, meat, nuts, flour, chocolate,
pepper, tobacco…
• Examples:
The drugstore beetle; rice weevil; flour weevil
Indian meal moth.
 Ants

d. Attacking stored products (cont’d)

ii) Wood is attacked by ants and termites. Termite

iii) Household goods including fabrics, clothes,

furniture, carpets are subject to attack by certain
beetles and moth larvae, mainly the carpet
beetle and the cloth moth.
These insects have the ability to digest wool, as
they possess the enzyme keratinase.
2) INSECTS ATTACKING HUMANS AND
ANIMALS
a. Annoyance of insects:
Bot flies and face flies do not bite or sting,
but rest on animals’ eyes and face annoying cattle
and horses…

b. Entomophobia:
This is fear from insects.

c. Delusory parasitosis:
• a psychotic behavior;
• the patient imagines that insects are attacking
him/her.
• The body reacts (inflammation…)
d. Insects as vectors of animal and human diseases:

These are primarily the blood feeders: mosquitoes, flies, fleas…

Some disease organisms are transmitted via the saliva of the insect
vector; and the vector remains infective for a long time.
Examples:
i. Malaria
The vector is Anopheles females (mosquito).
The causal agent is Plasmodium sp. (a protozoan).
The plasmodia are transmitted through the saliva as a mosquito bites
a new person.
ii. Plague
The vector is the flea.
The causal agent of the disease is a bacterium, Yersinia pestis
iii. Sleeping sickness of humans and nagana of animals
The vector is the Tse Tse fly, Glossima species.
The causal agent is a protozoan, Trypanosoma sp.
 d. Insects as vectors of animal and human diseases (cont’d)

Other disease organisms are transmitted mechanically, on

the outside of the body of the insect vector.
In such a case, the microbes are lost in a short time.
(The vector is not infective for a long time).

Examples:
• Typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery transmitted by flies.
The bacteria causing these diseases are transmitted as
outside contaminants on the fly’s body.

• Food poisoning by Salmonella bacteria, which is

transmitted mechanically by cockroaches.
e. Venomous insects:
These are mainly bees, wasps, and ants.
Their bites are painful.
The toxins can cause irritations, swelling,
paralysis and anaphylactic shock in very
sensitive people.

Also, some caterpillars (ex. pine caterpillars)

have stinging hairs.
 f. Parasitic insects:
Few insects are parasites (internal or external).
Chewing louse.
Among the external parasites, there are:
• Chewing lice that feed on the feathers of birds.
• Hair lice on humans scalp/hair.
• Fleas sucking blood of various mammals.
Hair louse

Flea
 f. Parasitic insects (cont’d)

Some fly larvae are internal parasites in humans or other

animals. They cause myiasis.
Myiasis is the invasion of tissues or organs by a fly larva, which
for a period, feeds on decaying (necrotic), dead or living tissues.
Myiasis can be cutaneous, dermal, subdermal, ophthalmic,
urogenital, nasopharyngeal, or intestinal (in that case, the larva is
feeding on the nutrients of the host).
When the larva burrows below the skin it is called creeping
myiasis.
Example:
Ox warble fly: larva feeds below the skin of cattle.
Tumbo fly: larva feeds below skin of humans.

Tumbo fly larvae

 II. Insect diversity

Insects are the most diverse group of organisms to appear on Earth.

They evolved 360 million years ago (vs. 2 millions of years of evolution in humans).

The diversity of habitats they occupy is enormous.

• Insects are primarily terrestrial.
• They are also important in fresh water.
• However, they are relatively scarce in the marine environment (0.1% of the spp.).
• Some insects occupy extreme habitats, such as hot spring (40-40⁰ C), arid deserts,
deep caves, crude petroleum pools, salt lakes, snow covered places…
• Moreover, insects are found in suburban and urban areas.
 Insects have diverse food habits:

1. Scavengers (decomposers)
2. Phytophagous (herbivores)
3. Zoophagous (carnivores): predators and parasitoids.
4. Parasites (live on/in the host without killing the host).
 Their success is due to:

• Small size:
They have less requirements from the environment.
As a result, much more niches are available for them than for other animals.
• Enormous reproductive rate:
Very high fecundity and short developmental time.
• Exoskeleton:
Tough waterproof exoskeleton covering the whole body, like an armor.
• Flight:
This give them the ability to colonize new areas, search for food and mates and
to escape enemies.
• Metamorphosis:
• This allows specialization of the life stages,
• Larvae are concerned with feeding
• Adults are concerned with dispersion and reproduction.
• This helps to reduce or avoid competition between larvae and adults.
End of lecture 1- PART B