Download Insect Habitats

Open your class notebook to the next available
page and label it with today’s date and the title
above. Now you are ready to begin.
As you review the remaining slides in the powerpoint, take notes. Pay close
attention to the habitat slides. Take notes, including drawing pictures. The
questions that you want to answer are “What is an insect?” What does the body of
an insect look like?” and “What do insects require in their habitat to survive?”.
You will use your learnings to create an insect habitat later this week so be very
observant.
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An insect always has 2 antennas and 3 body
parts. Most of them have wings and can fly.
All insects have 6 or more legs.
Insects belong to a special group called
Anthropods.
Insects are the most numerous life form
on the planet (in terms of number of
species). Approximately seven out of
every eight living species are insects.
Insects show a number of
characteristics, the three by which they
are most easily recognized are:The body is divided into three distinct
regions - head, thorax, and abdomen.
There are
three pairs of
walking legs
on the thorax,
one pair to
each
segment. The
legs show a
very
characteristic
structure, but
this is often
modified to
fulfill a variety
of tasks, e.g.
swimming or
holding of
prey. The
generalized
structure of
an insect
leg:-
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Respiration
Insects 'breathe' through a system of branching tubes, the trachea.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide move along these by a process called
diffusion. It is this method of 'breathing' which stops insects from
getting very large. The insect body cannot get bigger than a diameter of
about three centimeters. Above this size diffusion of oxygen into the
body tissues becomes too inefficient for the insect to live.
Vision
The head bears a pair of compound eyes. These consist of a number of
individual 'eyes', each of which produces a separate image. Hence the
overall picture that the insect sees is made up of a series of dots.
Antennae
The antennae (or 'feelers') are mainly organs of smell and taste. They do
have other functions in certain insects, e.g. they may be used to detect
air currents.
Tarantula Feeding
The tarantula's appearance is worse than its
bite. Tarantula venom is weaker than that
of a honeybee and, though painful, is
virtually harmless to humans.
Fireflies have dedicated light organs that are
located under their abdomens. The insects take in
oxygen and, inside special cells, combine it with a
substance called luciferin to produce light with
almost no heat. Firefly light flashes in patterns
that are unique to each species. Each blinking
pattern is an optical signal that helps fireflies find
potential mates. Firefly light may also serve as a
defense mechanism that flashes a clear warning of
Farmers love them for their appetite. Most ladybugs
voraciously consume plant-eating insects, such as
aphids, and in doing so they help to protect crops.
Ladybugs lay hundreds of eggs in the colonies of
aphids and other plant-eating pests. When they hatch,
the ladybug larvae immediately begin to feed. By the
end of its three-to-six-week life, a ladybug may eat
some 5,000 aphids
A habitat is a place where living things live and
survive. A habitat has everything that the living
thing requires to survive in an environment.