Insect Biology
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Presentation Transcript
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 http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/images.html
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 http://www.ent.iastate.edu/
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? http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/images.html