Final

Question 1

If you feed an antibiotic to a termite you might kill the termite even though the antibiotic is not toxic to the insect. What causes the insect to die?

Answer 1

Starvation

Question 2

What is the Sister taxon of the entognatha?

Answer 2

Insecta

Question 3

What is a character found only in those organisms?

Answer 3

Johnston’s organ

Question 4

What is the sister taxon of Odonata?

Answer 4

Neoptera

Question 5

What is a morphological characteristic shared by those organisms? (Odonata and neoptera)

Answer 5

Foldable wings

Question 6

Malaria has influenced human evolution by selecting for a form of hemoglobin that causes sickle-cell anemia. Explain how natural selection can favor the allele for this deadly disease.

Answer 6

The sickle-cell allele provides protection from malaria for a heterozygous individual.

Question 7

What type of insect transmits malaria to humans?

Answer 7

Mosquito

Question 8

Another word for n-acetylglucosamine is

Answer 8

Chitin

Question 9

Give an example of an arachnid. Any common or scientific name is acceptable.

Answer 9

Jumping Spider

Question 10

Many insects store energy, e.g., for jumping, using the elastic protein __

Answer 10

Resilin

Question 11

Insect pests of crops cause economic damage by directly consuming a plant and by transmitting plant pathogens. Damage by insect medical and veterinary pests, however, results mostly from [What?]

Answer 11

Disease transmission

Question 12

The evolution of terrestrial animals promoted behavioral differences between sexes because life on dry areas of land requires [What?]

Answer 12

Internal fertilization

Question 13

For what reason might the presence/absence of certain aquatic insects be a better indicator of water pollution compared to chemical analysis of the water?

Answer 13

Pollutions levels can vary over time, e.g., the polluter may discharge chemicals only occasionally, so chemical analysis might miss that event. Aquatic insects are a more historical indicator, because their absence could be caused by past pollution

Question 14

What insect activity is essential for commercial fruit and vegetable production?

Answer 14

Pollination

Question 15

An insect with semi transparent surface layers 280 nm thick would appear to be this color.

Answer 15

Green

Question 16

Provide the name and major biological function(s) of each insect tagma.

Answer 16

Head: Ingestion, sensation, and neural processing
Thorax: Locomotion
Abdomen: Digestion and reproduction

Question 17

What are the four insect orders with the greatest number of species? Provide the scientific names

Answer 17

Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera

Question 18

What is a common name (not the scientific name) for a:
Social “cockroach”

Answer 18

Termite

Question 19

What is a common name (not the scientific name) for a:
Predaceous “cockroach”

Answer 19

Mantid

Question 20

What distinguishes species in the Endopterygota from all other insects?

Answer 20

Metamorphosis [or a pupal stage]

Question 21

List the following insect orders in groups of two that are most closely related.

Answer 21

Pair 1: Blattodea/Phasmatodea
Pair 2: Diptera/Siphonaptera
Pair 3: Lepidoptera/ Trichoptera
Pair 4: Coleoptera/ Neuroptera

Question 22

What distinguishes asynchronous insect muscles from synchronous muscles?

Answer 22

An asynchronous muscle contracts and relax many times per stimulation from a motor neuron. A synchronous muscle contracts and relaxes a single time per stimulation from a motor neuron

Question 23

A wave of depolarization sweeping down an axon is called [what?]

Answer 23

An action potential

Question 24

This is initially caused by the inward flow across the cell membrane of [what?]

Answer 24

Sodium Ions

Question 25

Includes species that cause the greatest disease threats to humans and domestic animals.

Answer 25

Diptera

Question 26

Includes the largest number of species

Answer 26

Coleoptera

Question 27

Includes the largest number of eusocial species

Answer 27

Hymenoptera

Question 28

May survive as a pharate adult when the host species is not in the nest.

Answer 28

Siphonaptera

Question 29

The metathoraic wings are gyroscopic organs

Answer 29

Diptera

Question 30

The aquatic larvae make a protective case.

Answer 30

Trichoptera

Question 31

Describe two different neural stimulation patterns for the muscles in #9 that would produce ⅓ length contraction in the muscle. Include the name of any neuron (i.e, the type of neuron) and the neurotransmitter released at the junction with a muscle fiber.

Answer 31

Repeated action potentials in the slow neuron leading to glutamate release to a single fiber. Simultaneous action potentials in the fast and inhibitory neurons, leading to the release of glutamate to all three fibers, with contractions blocked in two by the release of GABA Simultaneous action potentials in all three neurons. Fast/slow->glutamate. Inhibitory->GABA

Question 32

Imagine the image for question #9 did not have any labels on the neurons. What are the three features of the muscle you can see in the diagram that indicate it as an insect rather than a vertebrate muscle?

Answer 32

Only few muscle fibers Some fibers served by more than one neuron [Polyneuronal innervation] A neuron has multiple junctions with one fiber [Multi-terminal innervation]

Question 33

How can a hymenoptera female control the sex of her offspring?

Answer 33

She has control over the release of sperm from the spermatheca. Therefore, she can produce a male from an unfertilized egg when she “wants”

Question 34

What are three characteristics that make an animal species eusocial?

Answer 34

Sterile and nonsterile castes - Older siblings caring for younger siblings - Overlapping generations

Question 35

What environmental signal does an organism typically use to keep track of the time of year?

Answer 35

Daylength

Question 36

What is one physiological change an insect can make to allow it to survive freezing?

Answer 36

Production of antifreeze in blood, or move water from cytosol to intercellular space, or produce ice nucleating agent in intercellular space.

Question 37

Give an example of an insect that undergoes a long distance annual migration.

Answer 37

The monarch butterfly

Question 38

A chemical that mimics this hormone can kill an insect by causing it to become an abnormally large nymph.

Answer 38

Juvenile hormone

Question 39

If a female insect copulates with two males within a relatively short period of time: Which one of those males is most likely to become the father?

Answer 39

The second (most recent) male

Question 40

If a female insect copulates with two males within a relatively short period of time: B. Explain the reasoning for your answer to part a.

Answer 40

The sperm of the last male will be closest to the opening of the spermatheca, and so will be used for fertilization.

Question 41

In the video of ‘supersocities’, several scenes highlighted large bare-dirt structures rising from the ground. What kind of insects made those structures?

Answer 41

Termites

Question 42

What is a physiological function of your blood that is not (usually) a function of insect blood?

Answer 42

Several answers.. Gas exchanges and antibody production.

Question 43

During a honeybee waggle dance describing a distant food source. What information is provided by: A. The distance the dancer moves in a straight line?

Answer 43

The distance to the food

Question 44

During a honeybee waggle dance describing a distant food source. What information is provided by: B. The angle of the straight run relative to gravity?

Answer 44

The direction to the food relative to the sun’s position

Question 45

During a honeybee waggle dance describing a distant food source. What information is provided by: C. The duration of the waggling and noise production during the straight run?

Answer 45

The quality of the food

Question 46

Name one insect tissue or organ that originates from each germ layer.

Answer 46

A. Ectoderm Epidermis B. Mesoderm All parts of circulatory systems, muscles, endocrine glands, fat body, and gonads C. Endoderm Midgut

Question 47

Your instructor’s research program includes injecting an insect embryo with a DNA molecule in the hope that the injected DNA will reach one of the insect’s chromosomes. Success depends on doing this very early in embryonic development before a certain development event. What even is that?

Answer 47

The formation of cell membrane (formation of blastoderm)

Question 48

Be specific concerning the various layers of the cuticle during the process of insect molting. A. What occurs during apolysis?

Answer 48

The epidermis retracts from all outer layers of the cuticle. Muscle and neuron attachments are not severed.

Question 49

Be specific concerning the various layers of the cuticle during the process of insect molting. B. What occurs during ecdysis?

Answer 49

The old exocuticle and epicuticle are shed.

Question 50

It appears that it is relatively easy for eusociality to evolve within the aculeate Hymenoptera. Explain how each biological feature of these insects could promote the evolution of sociality. A. The sting.

Answer 50

Makes it more possible to defend the concentrated resources of a colony

Question 51

It appears that it is relatively easy for eusociality to evolve within the aculeate Hymenoptera. Explain how each biological feature of these insects could promote the evolution of sociality. B. Haplodiploidy

Answer 51

Produces a high degree of relatedness between sisters (up to 75%), often even greater than the relatedness between a female and her own offspring (50%). Therefore, natural selection may favor an individual helping to produce more sisters rather than her own offspring.

Question 52

Imagine honeybees have locus “EX” with two possible alleles, the dominant allele “X” and recessive allele “x”. Imagine a female with the recessive phenotype copulates with only one male, and he has the dominate phenotype. Concerning the offspring she produces after that: What is the probability (a number between zero and 1) that a male offspring will have the dominant phenotype?

Answer 52

0 [The mother is xx. Males are haploid, from unfertilized eggs, so any male offspring would have genotype x.]

Question 53

Researchers interested in human decomposition who cannot use human corpses for their research usually use a decomposing ______ instead.

Answer 53

Pig

Question 54

What genetic locus is usually used for DNA-based identification of a forensic insect?

Answer 54

Mitochondrial DNA

Question 55

What concept is used to extrapolate from the rate of insect growth observed at one temperature to the estimated amount of growth that occurred at another, never-examined temperature or temperature?

Answer 55

Accumulated degree hours ADH

Question 56

How have blow flies been used as tools by scientists concerned with the conservation of vertebrate animals?

Answer 56

They can be used to detect the vertebrates present in the area because they pick tissue and fecal samples of the local vertebrates. Also accepted time of death investigation for protected animal samples.

Question 57

What are two practical reasons an investigator might want to genotype the gut contents of a maggot that may have been on a corpse?

Answer 57

Pick two: -Genetic identification of the corpse when taking tissue from corpse not allowed. -Determine if a corpse was formerly where maggots found -To connect maggots at one location with a corpse at another location -To confirm that maggots on a corpse did not migrate from another nearby food source. -To resolve a chain of custody dispute

Question 58

If the time required for carrion insects to find and lay eggs on a corpse for the crime scene conditions is known, that amount of time equals ________________for an insect free corpse.

Answer 58

Maximum postmorterm interval

Question 59

Provide both the scientific and common names of two insect families commonly used as evidence in a death investigation.

Answer 59

Calliphoridae. Blow flies Sarcophagidae. Flesh flies

Question 60

A. A forensic insect requires 800 ADH with a threshold of 10 celsius to complete development. How many hours is that at 30 celsius?

Answer 60

(30-10) * X= 800 OR 800/20 OR 40

Question 61

B. At what temperature would development require twice as many hours as your answer to part A?

Answer 61

20 degrees

Question 62

You want to estimate the age of a Phaenicia sericata larva that is 8.5mm in length, and you think that the growth curve is appropriate for this task. The ADH threshold temperature is 9 celsius. What is the age of your larva in ADH?

Answer 62

Any age close to 2 days (48 hours) OR ADH= (29-9)*48 hours= 960 ADH

Question 63

The blow fly chrysomya megacephala has sexually dimorphic compound eyes as illustrated above (B: male. C:female). What do the male’s unusual eyes permit him to do in terms of vision?

Answer 63

Detect a fast moving object in low light.