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CLASSIFICATION – A Few Insect Orders
orthoptera [straight wings]
grasshoppers, crickets, locusts
20,000 species
Michel before coffee (sometimes after)
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Characteristics
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simple
(gradual) metamorphosis |
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most are winged
(click to expand/collapse)
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fore are
long, narrow & leathery |
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hind are
broad & membranous (folded, fanlike, beneath fore wings) |
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flat
against body at rest |
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mouth - chewing, regurgitates
brown juice for defense (must be the coffee) |
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auditory organs
called tympana: grasshopper - abdomen; cricket - front legs |
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antennae - can
be long
& conspicuous |
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hind legs
elongated for jumping |
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"singing
ability" by rubbing forewings (or hind legs & forewings) |
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Forestry
Application: (click to expand/collapse)
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some
crickets are pests of pine nurseries in the southern pine region of the
US |
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outbreaks of
grasshoppers & locusts are a problem for range plants |
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odonata [toothed mouth]
dragonflies, damselflies
5,300 species
 
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Characteristics
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Incomplete
metamorphosis (naiads in water, adults are terrestrial) |
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2 pr
membranous wings (click to
expand/collapse)
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wings at rest:
dragonflies flat, damselflies folded together in upright position |
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can beat wings
independently – can do loop-the-loop, hover in place, fly backwards |
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are fast
flyers (some @ 30 kph, Olympic record @ 58 kph) |
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mouth chewing (predaceous)
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legs modified
with spines to grab (and hold) prey out of the air |
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ancient lineage
- 250 million years |
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large insects – one
fossil with a wing span of 75 cm; big ones today have 19 cm wingspan |
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important food
supply for fish & water birds |
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Forestry
Application: (click to expand/collapse)
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Important
biological control agent |
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hemiptera [1/2 wing] true bugs
~4,000 species
 
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Characteristics
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simple (gradual)
metamorphosis |
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fore wing is
half & half (click to expand/collapse)
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base is
hardened, end is membranous |
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hind wind all
membranous and shorter |
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forewings
overlap as a “X”, flat over back |
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mouth is piercing-sucking (cone & seed),
arises from front of head and points backwards
(click to expand/collapse)
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most feed on
plant juices |
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some feed on
blood of mammals or birds |
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some are
predators of other insects (ambush & assasin bugs) |
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pronotum ...
typical, but scutellum is large and exposed (triangular piece between the
bases of the wings) |
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many species
emit a distinctive (obnoxious) odour if threatened (i.e. stink bugs)
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Forestry
Application: (click to expand/collapse)
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forest seed
pests – insert stylet thruough cone, saliva digests seed and then it sucks
the contents out of the seeds (western conifer seed bug) |
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lace bugs -
feed on underside of deciduous leaves; issue for ornamentals |
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plant bugs -
can damage range plants |
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homoptera [same wing] adelgids,
aphids, scales, cicadas, spittle bugs
~6,000 species
 
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Characteristics
(click to expand/collapse)
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simple
(gradual) metamorphosis |
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winged and wingless species
(click to expand/collapse)
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forewing is uniform structure
(slightly thickened or membranous) |
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hind are membranous |
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wings are held
roof-like over back |
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mouth is piercing-sucking (sap sucking), arises from
back of head |
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often protect themselves
with
(click to expand/collapse)
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froth
(spittle bugs) |
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woolly threads of wax (Balsam
Woolly Adelgid) |
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hard or
soft wax shells (scales & lacs) |
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gall tissue
formed by host plant (Cooley Spruce Gall Adelgid) |
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aphids exude honeydew and are “farmed” by ants |
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may
have complex life cycles (alternate
between hosts, alternate generations with sex and no sex, no sex period –
females only – parthenogenesis) |
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Forestry
Application:
(click to expand/collapse)
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aphids/adelgids
feeding on foliage and stems balsam woolly adelgid
on Abies giant conifer aphid green spruce
aphid (Ss) Cooley spruce gall adelgid
(Fd <-> S) |
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isoptera [equal wings]
termites
 
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Characteristics
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simple (gradual)
metamorphosis |
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wing/wingless
(click to expand/collapse)
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fore & hind wings = size (iso) (ant’s hind
wing is smaller) |
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held flat over body when at rest, (ant wings are
held vertical) |
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wings are longer than body
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mouth is chewing (wood)
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soft body, consume “wet wood”, create large/complex nests,
appear “ant-like” but are light coloured |
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colonial,
with castes (variety of forms of the insect for specialized tasks)
(click to expand/collapse)
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Queen
can lay up to 10,000 eggs/day
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reproductives – males & females (fully winged, darker, have
compound eyes), have yearly swarms – mate – chew off wings and begin a new
colony in damp wood |
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workers – pale in colour, no compound eyes, make tunnels of
mud (colony is “sealed off” from outside world), feed queen & brood |
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soldiers – big head with large mandibles & muscles, defend
against attack (head in hole, or form a fence outside) |
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Forestry
Application:
(click to expand/collapse)
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play a critical
role in recycling |
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pests if in the
home |
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diptera [2 wing] true flies
~ 130,000 species
 
Blood suckers!!
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Characteristics
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complete
metamorphosis |
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wings - 1
pair
(click to expand/collapse)
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forewings are membranous
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hind wings are “small clubs” called halteres
(used to stabilize flight – able to hover) |
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mouth types
are: piercing (mosquitoes), stabbing & lapping (deer flies),
sponging (house fly) |
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larvae are
usually legless and are called maggots
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great opportunists
and eat a great variety of food:
(click to expand/collapse)
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decaying
plant/animal material (good for recycling) |
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dung (yuck)
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living plants
(compete for our food and tree products) |
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blood
(bastards) |
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and even other
flies (good) |
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Flies and
mosquitoes have had an enormous impact on humankind
(click to expand/collapse)
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many diseases are vectored by
dipterans
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e.g. mosquito-borne diseases affect ~700,000 million people per year
(300-500 million are malaria)
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~2.5 million
people die each year from malaria (= greater Vancouver)
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in each major
war, more people have died from insect-borne disease than bombs & bullets
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Forestry Application:
(click to expand/collapse)
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parasitoids (Tachinidae) |
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cone/ seed feeders (cone maggots
& midges) |
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minor damage to foliage |
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hymenoptera [membranous wing]
bees, wasps, ants, sawflies
120,000-300,000
species
Hey
Babe, my name’s Zach.
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Characteristics
(click to expand/collapse)
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complete
metamorphosis |
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two pairs of
wings
(click to expand/collapse)
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all membranous.
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hind are
smaller |
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linked
together by tiny hooks |
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mouth - chewing
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solitary (most)
or social insects with complex organizations
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many beneficial
(click to expand/collapse)
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products
(esp. from bees) |
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pollination
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bio-control: parasites – many wasps, predators – ants and some wasps
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Forestry
Application:
(click to expand/collapse)
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some sawflies
are defoliators in the larval stage |
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seed chalcids
[kal-sid]
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hyperparasites
(click to expand/collapse)
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Ichneumonidae
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Brachonidae
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Lepidoptera [scale wing] moths
& butterflies
~150,000 (300,000)
species (85% moths)
  
butterfly moth
body thin thick
wings vertical flat
antennae clubbed often filament-like (feathery), esp. males
pupae no cocoon cocoon
flight usually day usually twilight – night
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Characteristics
(click to expand/collapse)
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complete
metamorphosis |
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wings fore &
hind with overlapping scales,
♀ sometimes
wingless |
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mouth
(click to expand/collapse)
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adult is
sucking (or absent)
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larva is chewing
(defoliators)
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silk is
drawn from the salivary glands; used for webbing, spinning down and
cocoons |
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larvae are
called caterpillars and most have 3 pairs of jointed legs (will become the
adult legs) plus 5 more pair of pro-legs (also false-legs, they are squishy
and unjointed) |
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Forestry
Application:
(click to expand/collapse)
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defoliators -
very damaging, # 2 in BC (#1 in Canada)
(click to expand/collapse)
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Douglas-fir tussock moth
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western (spruce) budworm
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black-headed budworm
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hemlock
looper |
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gypsy moth
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coleoptera [“hardened’ sheath
wing] beetles, weevils (beetles with a long
snout)
360,000+ named species
Kinda looks like Reid
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Characteristics
(click to expand/collapse)
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largest order of insects (animals for that matter)
(click to expand/collapse)
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360,000+ named spp.
(perhaps ~500,000) |
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25% of all named animal species are a beetle of
some sort |
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complete
metamorphosis |
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wings
(click to expand/collapse)
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fore (elytra) are hard & meet in
straight-line down back |
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hind are
membranous, folded under forewing |
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elytra may be
reason for success of order (protection of body and flight wings)
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mouth is chewing (wood borers) - very damaging $$$
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larvae are
called grubs and usually have very reduced legs
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Forestry
Application:
(click to expand/collapse)
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some act as
predators (control agents) |
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losses in
forests by beetles exceeds all other insects
(click to expand/collapse)
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nurseries -
seed & cone beetles |
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young forests –
terminal weevils and root weevils |
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mature forests –
bark
beetles |
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products – ambrosia beetles |
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can cause
significant changes in ecosystems (species composition, hydrology, habitat,
energy flows, etc.) |
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significant
families:
(click to expand/collapse)
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Scolytidae -
bark beetles, ambrosia beetles |
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Buprestidae -
metalic (flat-headed) wood borers |
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Cerambycidae -
long-horn (round-headed) wood borers |
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Curculionidae -
weevils |
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