Module 1 Flashcards
How much of all named species are insects
About 50 percent
Vertebrates
Have an internal skeleton and a spinal column to reach large body sizes
Invertebrates
No internal support structure
Support structure is outside the body
Exoskeleton
What animals are vertebrates
Fish
Birds
Amphibians
Reptiles
Mammals
All other animals are invertebrates
Arhtropods are
Organisms with jointed appendeges
Arhtropods make up what percentage of known organisms
60 percent
Arthropod body plan
Bilateral symmetry
Segmented body
Ventral nerve cord
Dorsal blood vessel
Exoskeleton
Bilateral symmetry
If an organisms can be split vertically evenly
Radial symmetry
Circular body plan
Dorsal ventral axis
Top to bottom
Anterior posterior axis
Front to back
Lateral axis
One side to another
Ventral nerve cordis exclusive to
Arthropods
Arthropod open circulatory system
Athropods don’t have a networ of blood vessles but rather a single dorsal blood with openings to criculate blood
Tissues are directly exposed to this
Exoskeleton
Made up of cuticle and epidermis
Cuticle is made up of
Chitin
Layers of cuticle
(Top to bottom)
Epicuticle
Exocuticle
Endocuticle
Epidermis
Layer beneath the cuticle that secretes it
Basement membrane
Seperates epidermis from body cavity
Epicuticle
Prevents water loss and prevents disease
Exoskeleton ridges
Internal ridges that act as sites for muscle attachment and provides support for the internal organs
Exoskeleton is both
Hard and fleixble
Exocuticle
Hardened through tanning and maybe mineralization and calcification
Tanning
Cross-linking of proteins- also known as scleritization
Endocutucle
Soft and fleixble layer
Exoskeleton constraints
Limits size of organism
Arthropod solution to constraint
Moulting- shedding exoskeleton for new one
Moulting step 1
Apolysis
Seperation of old cuticle from underlying epidermal cells
Apolysis is triggered by
Ecdysteroid moulting hormone from prothoracic glands
Moulting step 2
Digestive fluid breaks down endocuticle
Moulting step 3
New cuticle is secreted by epidermal cells
Moulting step 4
Ecdysis
Old cuticle is cast off
New cuticle after moulting is
Pale and soft
To increase hardness of cuticle atrhtopods
Contract its muscles to increase internal fluid pressure in its body
This inflates the gut to occupy more space
Cost of moulting
Very vulnerable to predation and desicration
First athropods came in the
Cambrien period
Most dominent atrhropod during cambrien
Trilobytes
Trilobyte features
Spiny exoskeleton for defense
Distinct body segmentation
Jointed legs
Trilobyte lived in
Water environments
Earliest land animals were
The arthropods in the celerian period
Arthropod traits that made them fit for land
Exoskeleton and jointed legs to provide protection from drying out and gravity and means of locomotion
More recent arthropod that evolved
Honeybees (34 million years ago)
Insect fossils at the U of A
Can be 56 million to 39 million years old
Trilobytes first evolved
520 million years ago
Trilobytes went extinct
250 million years ago
Lived 4 major extinction events
Phylogeny
Evolutionary history
Taxonomy
Classifying and naming organisms in a system
Taxonomic ranks
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
All animals belong to the kingdom
Anamillia
Arthropods belong to the phylum
Arhtropoda
Major groupings of arhtropods
Chelicerata
Myriapoda
Crustacea
Hexapoda
Chelicerata
Horseshoe crabs
Spiders
Scorpions
Can be predators, herbivores, or parasites
Myriapoda
Millipedes
Centipides
Crustacea
Crabs and lobsters as well as isopods
Hexapoda
Insects and non-insect groups
Recent studies for crustacea and hexapoda state
They should be together in a gorup called pancrusteacea
How to tell apart an insect from something else
Number of body regions
Number of pairs of legs in adults
Number of antanae
Presence of wings
Tagmata
Body regions
Chelicerata and myriapoda have how many body regions
2
Hexapoda have how many body regions
3
Chelicerata have how many pairs of legs
4
How many pairs of leg do myriapoda have
8+
Hexapoda have how many pairs of legs
3
Chelicerata do not have
antanae
Myriapoda and hexapoda have how many pairs of antanae
1
Chelicerata and myriapoda have how many wings
None
Do hexpoda have wings
Only insects
None-insects have
entognathous moutparts
Mouthparts are in a cavity within the head
Insects have
Ectognathous mouthparts
External to the head
Carboniferous period insects
Dragonflies had wings up to 75cm long
Some insects were 2.6 metres long
What restricts insect size now
Less oxygen content in the atmosphere
Insect gas exchange is done by
simple diffusion
Insect gas exchange system
Done by trachea (tracheal system) which are tiny tubes that process air into smaller branches (tracheoles)
Being small advantages
Less resources needed
Can make use microhabitats
Insect temperature regulation
Ectotherems
Rely on external sources of heat
Insects have a large surface area to volule ratio to better absorb heat
Passive dispersal
When animals use modes of locomotion other than their own muscles (eg. wind dispersal)
Small body size disadvantages
Increased predation
Greater vulnerability to damage
Puts them at risk to water loss from evaporation
Sensilla
Perceive and relay info from exoskeleton to nervous system
Allows insects to navigatwe their environment
Ametabolous development
Juveniles look and act like smaller versions of adults
Only distinction is the lack of sexual features in juveniles
They have never evolved to have wings
Only small amount of insects go through this
Apterygote
wingless insects
Incomplete metamorphosis
Hemimetabolic development
Juveniles require different environments from the adults (ie dragonfly juveniles living in aquatic environments
Only differ by lack of wings and reproductive organs
Holometabolous development
Complete metamorphosis
Juveniles and adults live in the same environment
Young and adult insects differ grreatly
Exoterygotes
Wings grow externally to the body
only found in insects with incomplete metamorphosis
Pupa
dormant form between the juvenile and adult form
pupa can be covered in cocoon or covered by part of the exoskeleton or puparium
Eclosion
Hatching of adult or hatching of egg
Larvae
Juvenile insects with great differences from adults
Imaginal discs
Cause wing development in the body
Endopterygotes
Wing development happens in the body
Holometabola
Phylogenetic group that has endopterygotes
Juvenile hormone
Inhibit adult characteristics
Hemimetabolous stages
JH levels
Nymph will only moult into an adult when JH is absent
Holometabolous stages
JH levels
A reduced level of JH puts the insect into the pupil stage
JH is absent during the pupil stage leading to moulting to an adult
JH in adult life
Can play a role in repro for females
Diapause
Developmental arrest due to unfavorable conditions
Repro is halted
Metabolic stages are limited
Can happen in any season
Wings is a tell that an insect is an
Adult
Wings require insects to have an
Advanced sensory system to adapt to moving fast
Insects colonies
Queen only reproduces and males forage and provide structure
How many species of insects have been found
1 million
All insects belong to the class
Insecta which is part of hexapoda
How many insect orders are in insecta
29
Holometabola
Undergo complete metamorphosis
Order Odonata
Dragonflies and damselflies
6000 species
One of the oldest orders to exits
Incomplete metamorphosis
Adults have membrane wings and large heads and thin bodies
Found near bodies of water as juveniles are aquatic or semiaquatic
Incomplete metamorphosis
Blattodea
4500 species of cockroaches and 3000 species of termites
Incomplete metamorphosis
Cockroach guts
Have symbiotic relationship with microbes that allow them to consume things other bugs cannot
Termites
Dependant on close relationships with microbs in their gut
Eusocial and live in large colonies with a king and queen
Important for nutrient cycling
Can be pests
Incomplete metamorphosis
Cockroaches
Long thin legs for running
Dorsoventrally flattened to go under small spaces
Adults have leathery, protected forewings
Incomplete metamorphosis
Orthoptera
27k species of grasshoppers, crickets and katydids
Can be herbivores, omnivores or carnivoresJuvedults
Adults have leathery, protective forewings
Have well developed thorax that houses flight muscels
Hind-legs modified for jumping
Have elaborate courtship behaviors (Males make songs by rubbing wings)
Can be pests
Incomplete metamorphosis
Hemiptera
80k species
Having piercing-sucking mouthparts
Important agricultural or medical pests
Can transmit pathogens to crops or people
Incomplete metamorphosis
Colepotera (Beetles)
Over 390k species
Elytra (scleritized forewings that protect the hingwings to allow flight)
Complete metamorphosis
Can resemble what they eat and are important for nutrient cycling
Predation is common
Can beetles be pests?
Yes but they can also help an ecosystem
Hymenoptera
Over 150k species
Ants, wasps, bees
Haplodiploidy
Haplodiploidy
The gender is determined by the amount of chromosomes they receive (males have one females have two)
Diptera
160k species
True flies
One single pair of membranous wings
Hind wings are turned into halteres
Halteres
Help guide rapid flight
Adult flies live off of
Liquids
Allows them to either be something like a polinator or be a vector of human disease
Lepidoptera
180k moth and butterfly species
Wings are covered by scales which are modified hairs
Also have a proboscis that allow them to consume food (coiled up below head when not used)
Larvae can be pests (caterpillars)
Malaise traps
Traps flying insects
Pitfall traps
For groundwelling insects
Baited traps
Traps specific species
What best collects insects
Nets (works in both aquatic and land insects)
Collecting aquatic organisms
Dump it into a white bowl and then pippete the individuals
Aquatic invertebrate bodies are
Very fagile so need to be kept in 95 percent ehtanol
How are captured insects preserved
They are pinned to a spreading board and then preserved
Soft bodied insects are kept in ehtanol
Small insects are attached to a triangular piece of paper
Labelling of insects
Location is neeeded
Collection date
Collector name
Taxonomic info on a different piece of paper
placed on a pinning block or with alcohol proof paper to not disturb the insect