Entomology Exam I

Ecosystem functions; nutrient recycling

Importance of insects (____ ____): _______ _______ (dung beetles collecting and burying animal dung for reproductive purposes)

Ecosystem functions; plant propagation

Importance of insects (___ ___): _____ _____ (pollen and seed dispersal)

Ecosystem functions; plant; phytophagy

Importance of insects (___ ___): Maintenance of ______ community structure (_____)

Ecosystem functions; animal

Importance of insects (___ ___): Maintenance of ______ community structure (Insects interactions such as disease, predators, parasitism)

Human survival; plant propagation; pollination

Importance of insects (___ ___): _____ _____(90% of wild plants rely on insects for ______; 75% of global crops)

Human survival; pest control

Importance of insects (___ ___): _____ _____(Predatory and parasitic insects)

Human survival; anticoagulants

Importance of insects (___ ___): _____ (chitin)

Human survival; waste removal

Importance of insects (___ ___): _____ _____(Dung beetles are worth some $380 million per year to the U.S. cattle industry)

Human survival; commercial products

Importance of insects (___ ___): _____ _____(silk from silk moth, red dye, shellac)

30%

Bees pollinate what percent of the world’s crops?

80%

Bees pollinate what percent of our wild plants?

Female

Shellac is obtained from secretion of ______ insects

Model research organisms

Importance of insects: _____ _____ _____ (genetic/cytology studies; social behaviors; sexual selection; mimicry)

50; 80

Over 1 million species distributed in 30 orders over ____% of all species diversity on earth. ____% of all animals

Coleoptera

5 major orders: biggest (beetles)

Diptera

5 major orders: True flies

Hymenoptera

5 major orders: Bees, wasps, ants

Lepidoptera

5 major orders: Butterflies and moths

Hemiptera

5 major orders: True bugs

Meganeuropsis permiana

Largest insect was the permian _______ ________ which had a wingspan of 30in and a body weight of over 1lb (about size of crow)

Goliath beetle; Hercules beetle

Largest insect today is the _____ _____ and ______ _____ weigh up to 50g as adults; 100g as larvae

Featherwing beetle

What is the smallest insect recorded?

0.325mm

How small is the smallest insect?

Egyptian religion

Ancient cultures: Scarab amulets often placed over the heart of the mummified. Meant to be weighed against the “feather of truth” during the final judgment

Clan totems

Ancient cultures: _____ _____ of Aboriginal Australians (honey ants and witchetty grubs [moth larvae])

Chinese immortality

Ancient cultures: Cicadas

Witchetty; Australian

_____ grubs live in the roots of witchetty trees in the ______ outback

Modern culture

Insect zoos (insectaria); insect food; insect farms; butterfly gardens

Asia; Australia; Latin America

Who uses insects as food?

Protein; vitamins; fat

Insects can be high in _____, _____, _____

Palmworms

Insects as food: Weevil larvae (in neotropics)

Witchetty grubs

Insects as food: Moth larvae (in Australia)

Ant “eggs”

Insects as food: Ant larvae (or Mexican caviar [Escamoles])

Biological; food

Today people raise “farm” insects for: _______ control agents; ____ (beetles and crickets as food and bees for their honey)

Rusty patch bumblebee

Conservation issues: Monarch; _____ ______ ______; American burying beetle; regal fritillary

Wah’Kon-Tah prairie

American burying beetles released onto…

Fort Chaffee, Ark

American burying beetles are bred at the St. Louis zoo; gathered from…

Bombus affinis

First bee species

Difficult

______ to get a high priority for insects

Flagship

Typically uses a ______ or charismatic species under which many species are then protected

Flagship

Mexican monarchs are ______ species

Wasps and galls

Alfred Kinsey collected what?

Integument

Epidermis and cuticle

Cuticle

Secreted by epidermis; consists of 3 layers; composed of chitin

Sclerotization

What is the term for when the cuticle is hardened by cross-linking proteins with phenolic compounds (quinones)

Exoskeleton

Protect body from physical damage; reduce water loss; invaginated to line tracheal system, portions of digestive and reproductive system, and provide internal braces for muscle attachment

Special modifications

Disadvantages of exoskeleton: Has to have ______ ______ special modifications for gas exchange, sensory receptors, growth

Molt

Disadvantages of exoskeleton: Need to _____ (shedding of cuticle during which they are vulnerable)

Size

Disadvantages of exoskeleton: Limits ultimate _____

Ecdysis

Shedding of cuticle

Eclosion

Emergence of insect

Spines; setae

Epidermis produces cuticular extensions ______ and _____

Less

Advantages to being small: Require ____ energy and time to complete development

Easier

Advantages to being small: _____ to find protection and habitats

More

Advantages to being small: Muscular action ____ efficient

Solar heating

Advantages to being small: use _____ _____ to warm body

Wind

Advantages to being small: Randomly dispersal by _____

Fall

Advantages to being small: Can _____ great distances without serious injury

Rain; wind

Disadvantages of being small: Predators; physical factors (____ and ____); transpiration

Physical

Color production: light scattering, interference and diffraction (from regular or irregular tubercles, ridges, hairs on cuticle

Pigments

Color production: Produces own metabolism (melanin); sequestering plant cpds (carotenoids)

Head; thorax; abdomen

3 main body regions (tagmata)?

20

Ancestors had ____ segments

6; 3; 11

Ancestor 20 segments: _ head, _ thorax, _ abdomen

Sclerites

Various exoskeleton plates

Sutures

Sclerites separated by _____ which are invaginations of exoskeleton

Do not

Sclerites ______ equal segments

Tergum

Top of bug

Sternum

Bottom of bug

pleuron

Sides of bug

Gena

“Cheek”

Vertex

Top of head

Frons

“sides of nose”

Clypeus

“Upper lip area”

Labrum

“Lower lip area”

Mandibles

“Jaws”

Labium

Fused mouthpart

Mandibles

______ highly modified to specialize on many types of

food sources

Chewing

______: Most common type; distal portions have cutting edges while basal portions have grinding surfaces (herbivores)

Cutting sponging; stylets; sponge-like

______: Parasites upon mammalian blood; mandible and maxillae elongated as ______ to pierce skin, _____-____ labium (black flies & horse flies)

Sponging

_____: Mandibles & maxillae lost or reduced; proboscis (tongue) essentially the labium & sponge-like labellum (labial palps) [stable flies & tsetse flies]

Siphoning; galea

_______: Proboscis for sucking nectar, typically coiled, greatly elongated _____ of the two maxillae held together, mandibles & labium greatly reduced lost or reduced (butterflies)

Piercing sucking; stylets

_____: Elongated and toothed _____ (mandibles, maxillae) enclosed by a sheath or labium to hold them into position (herbivores, parasites, carnivores)

Chewing lapping; glossae

______: Galeal parts of maxillae form tube around the _____ “tongue” of the labium; for sucking nectar; move the glossae up & down (honeybees & bumblebees)

Compound eyes; ocelli; antennae

Sensory structures (3)

Ommatidia

Compound eye is composed of _______

Corneal lens; crystalline cone; rhabdom

Ommatidia of eye (3)

Rhabdom

Light sensing apparatus which contains pigment cell and connects to nerve

Trichromatic

Insects have what kind of vision? (yellow-green, blue, UV)

Ocelli

Located on frons or vertex of adults (max number is 3); perceiving drastic changes in light such as a passing shadow, preparing insects to jump or fly

Antennae

Specialized in food and mating; sense tactility, odor, humidity, and hearing; many different shapes, selective reasons unknown

Scape; pedicle; flagellum

Antennae is composed of? (3)

Scape; pedicle

Antennae: _____ and _____ have muscles

Thorax

Function in locomotion (legs and wings)

Pronotum; mesonotum; metanotum

Thorax has 3 segments…

Wings

Function: Dispersal; food and mate location; physical protection; air reservoir; shield from UV; sexual signals; pigment for camouflage or aposematic

Tegmina

Forewings thickened (grasshoppers)

Hemielytra

Forewings hard proximally (true bugs)

Elytra

Forewings completely hardened (beetles)

Hamuli

Small hooks along the anterior margin of the hind wing. Hold fore- & hindwings together in flight. Easily seen in Hymenoptera