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Insect Taxonomic Diversty
By: Kristen Vice
Ephemeroptera
• Mayflies or shadflies are insects
belonging to the order
Ephemeroptera.
• Mayflies are one of the most
important herbiverous invertebrate
aquatic insects.
• Insects of moderate size with an
incomplete metamorphosis.
• immature stage is aquatic and the
adult stage is very brief.
• They do not feed and only live from
1-2 hours to 14 days at most.
Odonata
• Odonata is an order of
carnivorous insects,
encompassing dragonflies.
• Dragonflies and damselflies are
fairly large flying insects.
• Very colorful and are
carnivorous.
• Odonates are in some ways
beneficial as predators because
they can be used to control
pests.
Blattaria
-
Blattaria includes the roaches, from the 6
inch tropical roaches of South America.
-
4,000 species worldwide.
-
Most species are about the size of a
thumbnail, but several species are bigger.
-
makes a chirping noise.
-
female cockroach lays between 10 and 90
eggs per time.
-
takes just a month for the baby cockroach
to become an adult cockroach.
Isoptera
• Termites are a group of eusocial
insects that, until recently, were
classified at the taxonomic rank of
order Isoptera.
• Termites mostly feed on dead plant
material.
• The nymphs of termites resemble
adults.
• 2 pairs of membranous wings of
equal length. Wings are present in
reproductive castes only and shed
after mating.
Dermatptera
- Earwigs are mostly dark coloured
(brown to black)
- 2 pairs of wings. The forewings are
short and protectively hardened.
- The name 'earwig' come from a
European myth that these insects
had a habit of crawling into human
ears.
- Female earwigs are able to store
sperm for several months before
fertilization.
Orthoptera
• Orthoptera is an order of insects
with paurometabolous or
incomplete metamorphosis,
including the grasshoppers,
crickets, cave crickets, Jerusalem
crickets, katydids, weta, lubber,
Acrida, and locusts.
• Rubbing their wings against each
other or their legs, the wings or
legs containing rows of corrugated
bumps.
• Brown like body.
Phasmida
• The Phasmatodea are an order of
insects, whose members are
variously known as stick insects,
walking sticks or stick-bugs,
phasmids, ghost insects and leaf
insects.
• Some forms are apterous (winged)
though often only the male flies.
• They have biting and chewing
mouthparts and are all
phytophagous.
Hemiptera
• Most people tend to call anything
with lots of legs a "bug.”
• To an entomologist, a "bug" is one
of the 35,000 or so species of the
order Hemiptera.
• Hemiptera means "half wing" and
refers to the fact that part of the
first pair of wings is toughened and
hard.
• Hemipterans also have modified
piercing and sucking mouthparts.
• Antennae vary and may be either
short, or long and conspicuous.
Coleoptera
• The main distinguishing
characteristic of the Coleoptera
is the hardened forewings six
legs and antennae.
• Complete metamorphoses.
• Providing food for amphibians,
reptiles, fishes, birds and
mammals, a role which they
share with most other insects,
beetles play other important
roles in the environment.
Lepidoptera
• Lepidoptera is a large order of
insects that includes moths and
butterflies.
• Lepidopteran species are
characterized by more than
three derived features, some of
the most apparent being the
scales covering their bodies and
wings, and a proboscis.
Diptera
- The order Diptera includes all true flies.
- All Dipteran larvae are legless.
- Live in fresh water, semi-aquatic, or moist
terrestrial environments.
- Commonly found in the soil, in plant, and
animal tissues
- Some species are herbivores, but most
feed on dead organic matter or parasitize
other animals, especially vertebrates,
molluscs, and other arthropods.
- These structures are reduced or absent in
the more advanced suborders where the
larvae, known as maggots, have wormlike bodies and only a pair of mouth
hooks for feeding.
Siphonaptera
• As adults, all fleas are blood-sucking external
parasites.
• Most species feed on mammals, although a
few live on birds.
• Only adult fleas inhabit the host's body and
feed on its blood.
• They are active insects with a hard
exoskeleton, strong hind legs adapted for
jumping, and a laterally flattened body that
can move easily within the host's fur or
feathers.
• Unlike lice, most fleas spend a considerable
amount of time away from their host.
• Adults may live for a year or more and can
survive for weeks or months without a blood
meal.
Hymenoptera
• Ants, Wasps, Bees, Sawflies, Horntails
• The Hymenoptera is divided into two
suborders:
• Symphyta (sawflies and horntails)
have a broad junction between thorax
and abdomen.
• Apocrita (ants, bees, and wasps) have
a narrow junction between the thorax
and abdomen.
• These insects eventually kill their host,
but not before completing their own
larval development within its body.
Mantodea
• Mantids & Praying Mantids
• Mantids have elongate bodies that
are specialized for a predatory
lifestyle.
• Long front legs with spines for
catching and holding prey, a head
that can turn from side to side, and
cryptic coloration for hiding in
foliage or flowers.
- There are only 5 species commonly
collected in the United States and 3
of these have been imported from
abroad.
Plecoptera
• Stoneflies
• Stoneflies are generally regarded as the earliest
group of Neoptera.
• Immature stoneflies are aquatic nymphs.
• They usually live beneath stones in fast-moving,
well-aerated water. Oxygen diffuses through the
exoskeleton or into tracheal gills located on the
thorax, behind the head, or around the anus.
• Most species feed on algae and other submerged
vegetation, but two families are predators of
mayfly nymphs and other small aquatic insects.
• Not active fliers and usually remain near the
ground where they feed on algae or lichens.
• Stoneflies are most abundant in cool, temperate
climates.
THE END