The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
- The Good
  - estimated benefit in US alone - $57billion/ year
  - pollinators
    - most fruit crops require pollination - bees, flies, butterflies, beetles
    - 30% of our diet requires insect pollination
    - colony collapse disorder (CCD)
    - TED talk
  - food
    - other insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals (esp. birds)
    - humans
      - picture 4 quarter pounders
      - allowable limits of insects in our food
        
        chocolate: 60 parts / 100g
        
        peanut butter: 30 parts/ 100 g
        
        flour: 150 parts / 100g
        
        juice: 5 eggs & 2 larvae / 250ml
      - TED talk
    - livestock
  - products
    - honey, bees wax, pollen, royal jelly, propolis
    - silk
    - shellac
    - dyes (cochineal - red) ... 1 g worth the same as 1 g of gold
  - predators / parasites
    - some help at pest control at endemic levels
    - less control @ epidemic levels
    - TED talk
  - weed destroyers
  - scavengers
    - recyclers of dead OM
  - scientific value
    - genetic studies
    - env. change
    - pop'n dynamics
- The Bad
  - human health
    - malaria (mosquito)
    - yellow fever (mosquito)
    - dengue [hemorragic fever] (mosquito)
    - encephalitis (mosquito)
    - West Nile Virus (mosquito)
    - typhus (lice, fleas) [not Typhoid Fever)
    - plague (fleas)
    - sleeping sickness (tsetse fly)
    - chagas (assasin bugs)
  - crop destroyers
    - agriculture
    - forests
  - product damage
    - wood (paper)
    - clothes
- The Ugly
  - External Bits
    - Head
      - eyes
        
        simple (ocelli ... light detectors)
        
        compound (with ommatidia)
        
        stemmata ("motion sensors" on larva)
      - antennae
        
        odour
        
        touch
        
        sound
        
        temperature
        
        humidity
      - mouth
        
        feeding style
        
        chewing
        
        piercing
        
        siphoning
        
        lapping
        
        parts
        
        labrum
        
        mandibles
        
        maxillae
        
        labium
    - Thorax (locomotion)
      - 3 segments
        
        pro
        
        meso
        
        meta
      - legs
        
        3 pair
      - wings
        
        usu. 2 pair (meso & meta)
      - spiracles - meso & meta
    - Abdomen
      - 8-11 segments
      - guts
      - sex
      - more spiracles
    - exoskeleton
      - layers of waxes & chitin (glucosamine)
      - functions
        
        water loss
        
        protect organs
        
        muscle attachment
        
        sensory perception (setae, tympanum)
      - restricts to small size
      - must molt to grow
  - Internal Bits
    - circulatory
      - open system of hemolymph (no veins/ arteries)
      - transport nutrients, hormones, waste
      - dorsal - heart & aorta
      - functions
        
        transport food, wastes, hormones
        
        pump up wings
        
        protection/coagulation
    - respiratory
      - spiracles (2/8)
      - tracheae ... tracheoles
      - air sacs
    - nervous
      - brain
      - ventral nerve cord(s)
      - ganglia - nerve bundles
    - digestive
      - foregut - store & grind food
      - midgut - digest & absorb
      - hindgut - absorb food & water
    - excretory
      - Malpighian tubules absorb metabolic waste and dump into hindgut
    - reproductive
      - most have male & female
      - some only female (or limited males) - less sports & belching
      - some females can store sperm and allow fert. when time is right
      - ovipositor sometimes specialized
    - endocrine
      - growth & development (molting)
      - juvenile hormone inhibits metamorphosis