INSECT TAXONOMIC DIVERSITY BY TYWON MARTIN INSECT ORDERS

INSECT TAXONOMIC DIVERSITY BY: TYWON MARTIN

INSECT ORDERS Ephemeroptera Orthoptera Diptera Odonata Phasmida Siphonoptera Blattaria Hemiptera Hymenoptera Isoptera Coleoptera Mantodea Dermatptera Lepidoptera Plecoptera Orthoptera Phasmida Hemiptera

EPHEMEROPTERA They have to hold their wings in a upward position because they’re unable to fold their wings over their back. They generally live in unpolluted habitats with fresh flowing water.

ODONATA Damselflies and dragonflies are very similar but can be separated by looking at their wings. In dragonflies the hind wings are slightly broader than the forewings and in damselflies both wings are more or less similar size. Wings are held horizontally to the body in dragonflies and vertically in damselflies when at rest.

BLATTARIA The Blattaria includes the roaches, from the six-inch tropical roaches of South America to their small cousins that are probably tiptoeing through your kitchen. . .

ISOPTERA Definition of Isoptera: previously the name given to the Order of insects containing the termites. Recent work has shown that termites are social cockroaches.

DERMATPTERA The Dermaptera are divided into four suborders. The Archidermaptera comprise ten fossil species from the Jurassic with segmented cerci in adults and four or five segmented tarsi (Bey-Bienko, 1936). Both character states are considered primitive for Dermaptera and used as diagnostic features. The Forficulina are by far the largest group comprising about 1800 species in 180 genera, including the common earwig and the striped earwig. The body shape of these species is characteristic for the whole suborder. The species are omnivorous, phytophagous or predacious. The adult cerci are unsegmented and forceps-like. The larval cerci are unsegmented except in two primitive groups. If not wingless, the hind wings are complexly folded in a unique way, and covered by tegmina.

ORTHOPTERA Hemimetabola incomplete development (egg, nymph, adult) Orthopteroid closely related to Blattodea and Dermaptera Distribution: Common and abundant throughout the world

PHASMIDA Body and legs very long and slender; no wings in our spp. (one species in Florida has very short wings, many exotic forms are fully winged

HEMIPTERA: hemi 'half' + pteron 'wing'; refers mainly to True Bugs, whose forewings have a leathery basal part and membranous apical portion

COLEOPTERA Coleoptera means sheath wings; coleo – sheath, ptera = wings. Beetles front pair of wings are modified to hardened casings, known as elytra, to protect the hind wings and body below.

LEPIDOPTERA Adults have four membranous wings (rarely wingless); hindwings are usually smaller than forewings, both largely or entirely covered with scales. Adult mouthparts adapted for sucking, the proboscis is usually in the form of a coiled tube (adults of some species lack mouthparts and do not feed as adults). Images showing the characteristics of the order Lepidoptera

DIPTERA Diptera means two wings; di = two, ptera = wings. Flies do very well with their single pair of fore wings. The hind pair are often reduced to a couple of knob-like balance organs

SIPHONOPTERA Adult: body dark, laterally flattened, wingless; hind legs adapted for jumping; mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood; row of large bristles often present on head and/or thorax (called genal and pronotal combs) Larva: pale legless worm-like body covered with sparse bristles; head reduced, eyeless, with chewing mouthparts

HYMENOPTERA Typically two pairs of wings, with forewings usually larger than hindwings, but some groups (such as ants) wingless in most life stages. Wings have few cross-veins, these are angled to form closed cells. Antennae typically with 10 or more segments. Often 13 segments in male, 12 in female, but sometimes as few as 3 or up to 60 segments. Antennae longer than head, but usually not highly elongated (longer than head and thorax combined). Highly elongated in some parasitic groups. Females have prominent ovipositor, modified in some groups to be a "stinger", used to paralyze prey and for defense. Chewing mouthparts, but some groups have a "tongue" used for lapping up fluids, such as nectar.

MANTODEA Relatively large, elongate insects up to several inches long. Typical features include triangular heads with large compound eyes set on either side and usually three ocelli in between(6); very flexible articulation between the head and prothorax providing great mobility and allowing a mantid to "look over its shoulder"(7); raptorial forelegs used to capture prey.

PLECOPTERA Adult: drab colored with four membranous wings held flat over the abdomen when at rest; front wings narrower than hind wings; expanded anal lobe of hind wing often folded fan-like at rest; wings of males of several species reduced or absent; antennae, long, slender, manysegmented; abdominal cerci often long and prominent; mouthparts adapted for chewing Nymph: body flattened and elongate with two, usually long cerci; most nymphs have tufts of branched respiratory gills on sides of thorax and around bases of legs; the gills are filamentous, not plate-like or leaf-like pictorial key to families with good wing venation diagrams

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