Download Insects: Their Importance, Characteristics, and Diseases - Prof. Lee Guillebeau and more Study notes Animal Biology in PDF only on Docsity! EXAM 1 REVIEW • Mosquitoes are the most deadly insect. • Insects usefullness • Pollination • Recycling/ decomposition • controlling pests • food and other products • Smallest - Megaphtagma Trichogrammatidae- 3 could fit on the edge of dime • Biggest • Mass- Goliath Beetle • Longest- Australian phasmid (stick insect) 25 cm • Wing span- Atlas moth 24 cm • Insect Succes • Adaptable exoskeleton • small body size • short generation time • early dry land colonizers • efficient flight • metamorphosis • Insect vectored diseases • Human diseases - malaria, chagas disease, west nile virus, dengue, yellow feaver, encephalitis, sleeping sickness, river blindness, typhus, filariasis, tularemia • Animal diseases- heartworm, eastern equine encephalitis, trypanosomiasis, bluetongue • Plant diseases- tomato spotted wilt, pierces disease, mosaics, yellows, dutch elm disease, fire blight, plum pox, iris yellow spot, aster yellows • Insects in environment • decompose organic materials • modify soil • make some areas unlivable • key element of many food webs • Fruit flies are used in research as 177 human genes are shared • insects account for • 75% of all described animal species • 50% of all described plant and animal species • not in the ocean • occur from antartica to the 75th parallel and 6000m mountains • Taxonomy is the science of naming things • Three domains of life • Prokaryotes- no nuclear membrane • Archaea- the prokaryotes of extreme environments • Eukarya-DNA contained in nuclear membrane • protists, plants, fungi, animals • Arthropods • exoskeleton, must molt to grow • segmented • jointed appendages • ventral nerve chord • open circulatory system • bilateral symmetry • sexual reproduction ← ← • Crustacea • nearly all aquatic • two pairs of antennae • gills • 5 pairs of legs or more (biramous) • head and thorax fused (cephalothorax) • Arachnida • no antennae • chelicerate mouthparts • pedipalps- sperm parts (on front) • order- araneae-spiders • spcorponida-scorpions • acari-ticks and mites • Varroa mites • suck blood out of bees • kills bee colonies • move with drifting and robbing bees • difficult to manage • Tracheal mites • spend nearly entire life in bee trachea • kill bee colonies • transmitted with drifting and robbing bees • Chilopoda- (Centipedes) • one pair of legs per segment (15 to 177 pairs) • one pair of large antennae • nearly all predaceous • Diplopoda- (Millipedes) • two pairs of legs per segment (up to 375 pairs) • not venomous, chemical release common • Insecta • 3 body regions • 3 pairs of legs • compound eyes • usually wings • one pair of antennae • trachea • Division Exopterygota (nymph similar to adults) • wings develop externally • incomplete metamorphosis • Division Endopterygota (wings as internal buds) • wings develop internally • complete metamorphosis • Basic insect taxonomy • kingdon- animal • phylum- arthropoda • class- insecta • order- hymenoptera • family- apidae • Ephemeroptera (Mayfly) • Over winter as naiads (aquatic nymph) • four triangular wings with many veins • adults with vestigial mouth parts • two to three cerci • abundant in permanent freshwater habitats
