Term
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Definition
"a" = without, "ptera" = wing
wingless insects; ametabolous immature development
contribute to breakdown of organic matter in forests and fields |
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Term
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Definition
springtails.
Small, rotund, cute little soil-dwelling insects. Typically with a huge,
swollen abdomen. All species possess complex jumping apparatus that allows them to spring up
when disturbed (furcula and tenaculum). Bizarre mating behavior |
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Term
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Definition
| leaf litter and soil; lack antennae (use forelegs as antennae); mostly detritovores. |
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Term
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Definition
leaf litter and soil; have antennae; mostly detritivores. Thought to be most primitive
of all insects. |
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Term
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Definition
jumping bristletails
They were wingless and live, at least today, in moist
habitats in the soil and leaf litter. Commonly found under rocks and in the soil. Feed at night on
lichens, algae and decaying vegetation. The earliest fossil insects are bristletails in the order
Archaeognatha |
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Term
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Definition
silverfish, firebrats
Mostly live in damp locations such as soil and
leaf litter, rotting wood. Some have become household pests and you can find them under coke
machines and probably under your refrigerator at home |
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Term
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Definition
remaining hexapod orders comprise of these
winged pterygota
most primitive = odonata and ephemeroptera (can't fold their wings)
the rest can fold their wings |
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Term
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Definition
damselflies and dragonflies
Generally large, aggressive, voracious predators both
as adults and as immatures. Some fossil odonates were huge, with wingspans of up to half a
meter in length. Immature stages are all predators in aquatic ecosystems, such as ponds, streams,
and lakes. |
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Term
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Definition
mayflies
like odonates possess aquatic nymphal stages. Nymphs may live
for years feeding in streams, ponds, and rivers, either as detritivores, predators or herbivores.
Only the nymphal stage feeds. Adults emerge from streams in huge numbers typically in the
spring and mating takes place within hours of emergence. Adults typically live less than one day
(hence they do not feed). Emergence can cause major traffic disruptions caused by clouds of
mayflies. For those of you who are fly fishermen, mayfly larvae are a very important model for
fly tying. |
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Term
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Definition
| "neo" = new, "ptera" = wing; all have ability to fold their wings over their bodies |
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Term
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Definition
stoneflies
Aquatic larvae; living under stones and fast-flowing streams. As
nymphs they are mostly herbivorous (some predaceous). Good indicators of water quality --
when streams become polluted these are the first insects to disappear. Adults live only briefly.
Mating involves sounds produced by the males, who bang their abdomens against plant stems to
produce drumming sounds. Some species emerge from the streams in the winter (winter |
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Term
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Definition
web-spinners
Bizarre, somewhat rare insects that mostly live in the tropics.
Parents produce a web-like nest from silk glands located in their forelegs. Together they raise a
brood of nymphs beneath the web-like cover. Females are wingless. Females provide parental
care to their young within the web-covered nest. |
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Term
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Definition
walking sticks
large, elongate bodies, typically found on plants. Herbivores;
usually rely on cryptic coloration and shape to hide from predators. Some are very large (up to
1/3 meter in length). Make great pets; many tropical species. |
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Term
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Definition
| grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, locusts familiar to most of you. Herbivorous and mostly terrestrial. Courtship involves sound production; males produce loud sounds you hear on a summer evening. Locusts are a major problem in Africa and the middle east. |
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Term
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Definition
earwigs
mostly nocturnal, live in moist habitats and are omnivores. Most
species feed on living and dead insects, decaying plant material, and living plants. Some,
however, inhabit the fur of African rats. They show parental care, with a mother brooding over
her clutch of eggs until they hatch and then guarding the young nymphs. Their forceps are not
harmful and they DO NOT inhabit human ears, as the name implies. |
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Term
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Definition
rock crawlers, ice bugs
Bizarre, cricket-like creatures that live at high
elevations near snow fields and glaciers. They are active at very low temperatures (0-5C) and are
considered the most primitive orthopteroid insects. |
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Term
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Definition
heel walkers
– New order of insects “discovered” (recognized?) in 2000.
First specimen found in 45 mya Baltic amber. Then related specimens were noted in a museum
in Tanzania. Then more museum specimens were discovered from Namibia (southwest Africa),
and finally, an expedition found living insects in several Namibian localities. Also found in S.
Africa. Ground-dwelling or live in shrubs or grass. Predaceous, with raptorial legs. Feed on
small flies, bugs, and moths. Superficial appearance as a cross between a mantid and a walking
stick. Called “heel-walkers” because the distal tarsomere is held off the substrate. |
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Term
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Definition
termites
closely related to cockroaches. Form large, highly complex societies with
a queen and a king and various types of sterile workers and soldiers. Most common in arid
regions where they build huge nests out of soil. Not a good thing to have in your house. Some
queens may live 50 years and colonies may reach 100,000 workers. Species that make large
colonies also have evolved a complex air conditioning mechanism. |
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Term
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Definition
cockroaches
Mostly tropical; typically omnivorous feeding on decaying animal
and plant materials. One group of cockroaches is eusocial, like termites, and parents remain with
their offspring for long periods of time. Both parents and offspring eat wood and have cellulosedigesting
protozoa in their guts. These are really not as boring and uninteresting as the common
household pets would lead you to believe. |
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Term
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Definition
mantids
Small to very large voracious predators. Capture prey with their Alien Empire – Diversity - 4
raptorial forelegs, sometimes in flight. Have amazing, high resolution eyes for capturing prey
and are beautifully colored. Some large species will attack small birds and other small
vertebrates. Females of some species decapitate males while mating. |
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Term
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Definition
zorapterans
Bizarre, enigmatic group of only 30 species that are most common
in the tropics. They are usually found under bark of rotting logs and occasionally in sawdust
piles. Scavengers and predators on mites, springtails, and nematodes. Possibly social, like
termites, but not closely related to termites. |
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Term
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Definition
barklice/booklice
Small to minute insects with large heads and
membranous wings (if present) held tent-like above abdomen. Chewing mouthparts, most are
scavengers, feed on carbohydrate sources. Inhabit buildings, caves, rocks, foliage, fungus, birds,
mammals, ant nests. |
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Term
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Definition
parasitic lice
Obligate ectoparasites of birds & mammals (except bats,
notably).
Small, wingless, dorsoventrally flattened, highly adapted for parasitism. Eyes reduced or absent,
legs stout and modified for clinging to hairs or feathers with strong claws.
Suborder Malophaga have chewing/biting mouthparts. Suborder Anoplura have mouthparts
modified for piercing and sucking – blood-feeding. Most lice are scavengers of skin or other
debris, a few (i.e., Anoplurans) feed on blood. Anoplurans feed on mammalian blood only.
Some species transmit disease |
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Term
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Definition
thrips
Tiny insects (0.5-15mm). Fringed wings - wings (if present) narrow
with fringe of hairs (setae). Slender, elongate bodies. Unique mouthparts with atrophied right
mandible; left mandible formed as a stylet for piercing. Feed mostly on plant juices, but some are
also predators and gall formers. Some social as well. Many species in flowers. Some eat pollen.
Some transmit plant viruses |
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Term
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Definition
true bugs, cicadas, leafhoppers, aphids, etc
(previously all but true bugs have been called homoptera)
Large group of about 55,000 species, unified by a rostrum or proboscis made out of mandibles
and maxillae modified into piercing stylet that is housed in a tubular labium. Legs adapted for
walking unless predaceous. “Suborder Homoptera” feed on plant fluids - Xylem or phloem,
many producing honeydew and are tended by ants. Some parthenogenetic. Wings (if present)
usually held roof like over abdomen. Suborder Heteroptera (true bugs)- mostly phytophagous,
some predacious, some aquatic. Wings usually folded flat over abdomen |
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Term
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Definition
aka endopterygota
complete metamorphosis
several larval instars, pupal stage, adult stage
morphology and behavior of aduts much different than their larvae; good because they dont have to compete for the same resources |
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Term
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Definition
dobson flies
Small groups of about 300 temperate
species in 2 families. Adults mandibulate with large eyes and strong mandibles, but apparently
do not use mandibles for feeding. Wings when folded, usually extend beyond abdomen, adults
look similar to Neuroptera. Nymphs are aquatic, predatory, with mandibulate mouthparts |
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Term
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Definition
snakeflies
About 175 species in 2 families, mostly temperate Northern
Hemisphere (in US only found West of Rockies). Terrestrial predators as adults and larvae.
Adult prothorax “neck like”, with large eyes and mandibulate chewing mouth parts. Adults use
long prothorax to strike, snake-like, at prey. Female with long ovipositor. Larvae cylindrical
with mandibulate mouth parts, living in rotten wood, leaf litter. Pupa mobile, in excavated
chamber. Adults about the size of a green lacewing. |
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Term
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Definition
lacewings
Adults and larvae are mostly terrestrial and mostly
predaceous. Adults soft bodied with large eyes and mandibulate chewing mouth parts. Larvae
elongate with mouth parts adapted for piercing and sucking (mandibles and maxillae combine to
form hollow “hypodermic” sucking mouthparts), walking legs. Adults eat insects or nectar and
honeydew. Pupate in silken cocoon or mobile. |
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Term
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Definition
beetles
This is the largest order of insects (>400,000 spp.). Beetles alone
comprise more than 25% or all insect species. Found in all possible habitats and consume
virtually every kind of food (very few are parasitic however). |
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Term
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Definition
wasps, ants, bees
Primitively the Hymenoptera are
phytophagous. The larvae of sawflies feed externally or internally on plants and look much like
caterpillars. Most of the Hymenoptera however, are carnivorous and the vast majority are endoand
ectoparasites of other insects. Female wasps lay their eggs on the host (or in the host) and the
larvae feed on the host organs. The stinging wasps, ants and bees arose from the parasitic wasps
and we will talk much about their behavior in this course. Most of the social insects are in the
Hymenoptera. |
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Term
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Definition
moths and butterflies
Second largest Hexapod order. Larval stages are entirely
herbivorous (and many are major pests on crops). Adults have mouthparts modified for drinking
nectar -- a long proboscis formed from the galea of the maxilla and lack mandibles (except in the
most primitive members). Wings are covered with scales. Some bizarre members include
blood-sucking moths in Asia that pierce the skin of tapirs and wild buffalo (Calyptra). Most are
very beautiful because of their complex wing color patterns. Many species are chemically
protected by secondary compounds they ingest as larvae and accumulate in their bodies. |
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Term
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Definition
caddisflies
Related to the Lepidoptera. Larvae are entirely aquatic. In most
species the larvae construct elaborate cases that they live in and carry with them while they graze
on rocks for algae and diatoms. Cases may be made of wood, stone, sand grains, etc. all glued
together with silk produced by the larval silk glands. At each molt, they must construct a new
case. Some species spin silken webs that they use to filter food from the water column. These
species are essentially spiders of the freshwater habitats. As adults, caddisflies are rather bland,
brownish moth-like creatures. However, they do have interesting mating behavior: some species
produce pheromones and others produce sounds associated with mating. |
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Term
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Definition
scorpionflies
Adults have four wings, a long snout-like face and, in males, a
bizarre genital capsule that looks like the sting of a scorpion (they do not sting however). Adults |
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Term
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Definition
fleas
Ectoparasites of warm-blooded animals like mammals and birds.
Wingless but have very powerful hindleg muscles that they use for jumping. Adults live most of
their lives on the host and are usually adapted morphologically for moving through the hair or
feathers of the host. Eggs are laid following a blood meal and usually fall off the host into the
resting place or the host (the nest or den). Larvae typically feed on detritus like dead skin cells,
hair or feathers, or the dried droplets of digested blood produced by adults. The pupal stage can
be prolonged and emergence of the adults can be triggered by vibration of the substrate. This
explains why fleas seem to appear as if by magic when you enter the house of someone who has
had a dog or a cat. Fleas transmit various diseases -- the most famous and deadly of which is the
plague. The vector of plague is Xenopsylla cheopis (the oriental rat flea) an the pathogen is a
bacterium, Yersinia pestis. In the mid-fourteenth century the plague spread through Europe as a
result of transmission via fleas from rats to humans (see Langer [1964] Scientific American
210:114-120). Fleas can also transmit typhus. |
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Term
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Definition
twisted-winged parasites
Rare, obscure group. Females wingless; males with
a single pair of wings. Primarily endoparasites of various insect orders (mostly Hemiptera &
Hymenotera). Males and females are endoparasites as larvae. Winged males disperse from the
host as adults; wingless females remain within the host (typically protruding slightly from the
host's abdomen). Mating takes place on the host and females lay 1st instar triungulin larvae on
flowers, where they will encounter more hosts. Entrance into host takes place early in
development. |
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Term
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Definition
true flies
Possibly the pinnacle of insect evolution. Large insect order (4th largest;
125,000 species). Live in almost all possible habitats including some that are uninhabitable by
most other organisms. Fly larvae are present in the hot salt ponds of Death Valley and in the
Great Salt Lake, Utah (Ephydridae). Some flies (Psilopa petrolei; Ephydridae) live in ponds of
crude oil in Alaska. Flies eat just about everything, including plants, fungi (some live in
mushrooms), other insects, dung, rotting animal flesh (including humans), and many are blood
feeders, which makes them vectors of disease. |
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Term
| which orders include mostly predaceous species? |
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Definition
| odonata, mantodea,mantophasmatodea, neuroptera, hymenoptera |
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