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54 Cards in this Set
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1. Order Odonata – dragonflies and damselflies
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Note inability to completely fold wings and fact that wings have numerous veins–both indicate a primitive
condition in insects. You will not have to differentiate between dragonflies and damselflies. Either common name will suffice on an exam. Nymphs (juvenile stage, also called naiads) are aquatic; both nymphs and adults are predacious. The naiads feed on a variety of food including aquatic insects, tadpoles, crustaceans, fish, and each other. The adults are strong fliers capable of capturing many types of insects in flight. They do this by forming their legs into a basket and scooping up their prey in flight. Damselflies are weaker fliers than dragonflies and feed on less active prey. |
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Order Orthoptera
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grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, walking sticks, cockroaches
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short-horned grasshoppers
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this group contains our most common grasshoppers.
They are plant feeders (phytophagous) and many are important pests of cultivated plants. Most of them oviposit (lay eggs) in the ground and overwinter in the egg stage. |
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green katydids
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note camouflaged wings; many stridulate (produce sound
through friction). |
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crickets
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this group contains many common insects and the males are well-known
songsters. The light-colored crickets (Subfamily Oecanthinae) are the tree crickets. The song of most species of tree crickets is a prolonged trill. |
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walking sticks
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great mimics; these insects strongly resemble twigs and are
usually found on trees and shrubs. They are phytophagous. |
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cockroaches
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the best-known cockroaches are those that invade houses, where they
may be serious pests. They feed on a variety of foods and have an unpleasant odor. They hide in cracks during the day and feed at night. All are active, fast-running insects; many species seldom if ever fly. |
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Order Homoptera
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cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, aphids
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cicadas
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cicadas are common phytophagous insects but are more often heard than
seen since the majority are arboreal (live in trees). Sound is produced only by males and is usually a loud (sometimes pulsating) buzz. Most cicadas are large, blackish insects with greenish markings, that appeareach year in early July and August. Their life cycle lasts 2-5 or more years. Eggs are laid in twigs, which usually die and break off; nymphs live in the ground and feed on roots. Some species have a 13 or 17 year life cycle. They are often improperly referred to as “locusts” because of their plaguelike mass emergences, but they are not really related or similar to the migratory locusts of the Old World. |
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treehoppers
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phytophagous; treehoppers are easily recognized by the enlarged
pronotum (an enlarged exoskeleton plate derived from the thorax), which covers the thorax and abdomen and usually projects forward over the head as well. Treehoppers may appear thorn-like, humpbacked, or lobed. Like aphids (also homopterans), the nymphs (and occasionally the adults) of many species are tended (much like farmers tend their milk cows) by ants because of the sweet secretions (honeydew) they produce |
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Order Hemiptera
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true bugs, with the first pair of wings (forewings) called hemelytra. The hemelytra
have a leathery anterior part and the posterior portion is membranous. These forewings lay flat over the back of the abdomen and typically overlap at the tip when not in use. |
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giant water bugs
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aquatic insect; common predators of insects and
small minnows in ponds, streams, etc. Their flattened hindlegs are used for swimming. The forelegs grasp prey while the insect thrusts its powerful beak into its victim. Note modification of anterior pair of legs with grooved femora to accommodate tibiae when folded tightly. |
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water striders
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usually found running about on the surface of water. Gerrids are
common on the surface of slow streams and ponds. They feed on various small insects that fall onto the water surface. They do not bite humans. |
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stink bugs
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the name comes from the disagreeable odor these bugs produce. Both
adults and nymphs possess large stink glands located that open through slits on the ventral surface. Most are phytophagous but some are predacious. |
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waterscorpions
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waterscorpions are predaceous on other insects and can inflict a
painful bite if handled carelessly. Note the paired tail-like breathing tubes used to obtain oxygen while submerged. |
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Order Anoplura
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sucking lice
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Pediculus humanus,
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human louse, vector of louse-borne typhus, trench fever and
epidemic relapsing fever. |
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Hemimetabolous insects
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insects with incomplete metamorphosis; immature forms (called nymphs) are
similar to adults |
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Holometabolous insects
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insects with complete metamorphosis; immature forms (called larvae) and adults
differ greatly in body form and frequently habits as well. |
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Order Neuroptera
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nerve-winged insects
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green lacewings
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green lacewings are very common insects, found on grass,
weeds, and shrubs, usually in relatively open areas. They often give off an unpleasant odor when handled. Adults and larvae feed principally on aphids and are important agents in the control of these insects. |
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Order Coleoptera
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beetles; (hardened outer wings known as an elytra). Note that the elytra meet in a
straight line down the back. |
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tiger beetles
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predaceous; they inhabit a variety of habitats, including beaches,
sand dunes, sand pits, trails, woodland openings, and barren hillsides. Active mostly on warm, sunny days. The larvae construct special burrows in the ground and ambush unsuspecting prey that pass within reach. |
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ground beetles
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a great number of species occur in North America generally
beneficial due to predation on other insects (one species feeds on garden slugs). Many are omnivorous, while others feed exclusively on seeds and herbaceous plants. Note the conspicuous prothorax, narrow head, and long legs |
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whirligig beetles
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these beetles are often seen swimming in groups in an odd
gyrating fashion on the surface of ponds and streams. Their two pairs of compound eyes enable them to watch for enemies and prey both above and below the water surface. Adults and larvae are predaceous. Some adults when handled give off an odor similar to that of pineapple. |
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stag beetles
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most adult stag beetles feed on sap flows; larvae live in decaying logs
and stumps and apparently feed on juices of rotting wood. The greatly developed and sometimes branched mandibles of the males of a few species give these beetles their common name. |
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Japanese beetle
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a major pest of shrubs and trees in the eastern and midwestern
U.S.; a bacteria, Bacillus thuringensis has been fairly successful in controlling it but the beetle has so many host plants that it is difficult to keep up with it; larvae feed on roots of grasses and shrubs while adults defoliate branches. |
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click beetles
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larvae are known as wireworms and feed on roots of economically
important plants such as corn and other members of the grass family. A spine on the ventral side of an adult can be flipped down or "clicked" to cause the beetle to flip up when it is on its back–hence the common name. Note that body is usually rounded on each end. |
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ladybird beetles
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both larvae and adults are beneficial as natural enemies of
aphids, mealybugs, scale insects, etc. The "black sheep" of the ladybird family is the Mexican bean beetle, a pest of many species of beans including garden varieties. |
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blister beetles
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when handled, a toxic substance exudes from the base of the legs and
will cause blistering (not all species). A substance called cantharidin has been extracted from the exudation and is used medicinally as an aphrodisiac |
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long-horned wood boring beetles
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characterized by long antennae. Many
species lay eggs in tree branches and trunks and developing larvae cause damage by tunneling; some adults "girdle" a branch after laying eggs causing it to die; many bizarre tropical species in this family |
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leaf beetles
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a very large and economically important family and are
phytophagous; they attack cereal grains, potatoes, tomatoes, grapes, asparagus, corn, etc. A very well known species includes the Colorado potato beetle (black and white longitudinal stripes on elytra). |
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Order Hymenoptera
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ants, bees and wasps
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ichneumon wasps
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note the extremely long ovipositor which is used to insert a
parasitic egg within host caterpillar; very beneficial insects that are known as parasitoids (an insect that lives in its immature stage in or on another insect, which it kills after completing its own feeding); they attack various stages of hosts, parasitizing both larvae or adults. |
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green metallic bees
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– the female digs a nest of many branching burrows
underground or in dead wood or uses preexisting burrows of other insects. The female supplies each cell with a pollen ball and nectar, and lays an egg on each ball. These bees can often be seen visiting flowers. Returning bees carry impressive pollen loads on their hind legs. |
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horntails
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eggs are laid in dead and dying trees and the larvae bore into the trees,
attacking both deciduous and coniferous trees; note that there is no constriction between thorax and abdomen in this primitive group. Compare to situation in ants and higher bees and wasps. |
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yellowjackets
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these wasps build nests of a papery material in walls or attics so they
are commonly encountered around buildings. Some species nest in the ground and some species nest above ground in various protected situations. Females of these wasps inflict a very painful sting |
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honey bees (small) and bumble bees (large)
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honey bees exhibit a high degree of social
behavior. They live in colonies with 3 castes: the queen is diploid and sexually mature due to diet of royal jelly; workers (the most abundant and most commonly seen) are also diploid but sexually immature due to diet; drones are males and are haploid. Honey bees are extremely valuable not only for the honey and beeswax they produce but because of their pollinating activities. Bumble bees are also social with three castes. Most bumble bees nest in or on the ground, often in a deserted mouse nest. |
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ants
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This is a large and widely distributed group. Ants are colonial and ant
colonies can vary greatly in size, from a dozen or so to many thousands. Note winged (reproductive) and worker castes. Ants vary in habits: some are carnivorous, some are scavengers, and some are plant feeders. Most ants will bite when disturbed and many will sting. A few can eject a foul smelling secretion from the anus. |
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Order Diptera
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true flies; dipterans have only 1 pair of wings
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flower flies
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many are mimics of bees and wasps; these flies do not sting but collect
nectar and sap from flowers. |
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blow flies
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this is a large group of flies and its members are often common and
abundant. Many are metallic bluish or green. Larvae are generally scavengers, living in carrion, dung, and similar materials; most maggots one finds in the body of a dead animal are blow fly larvae. Very important scavengers in that they help reduce carrion and garbage to small volumes |
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crane flies
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common and abundant, these medium- to large-sized, long-legged,
mosquito-like flies do not bite. Larvae live in water or moist soil, and generally feed on decaying plant material. Adults are most common near water or where there is abundant vegetation. |
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Order Lepidoptera
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butterflies and moths
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monarchs
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the milkweed butterfly; unpalatable to predators and thus serve as models
for viceroy butterflies which belong to a different family and are palatable. Viceroys thus function as mimics. The host plant for monarchs is milkweed which has toxic chemicals taken up by the various species that feed on them and are stored in the body, thus protecting the monarch and other species that feed on milkweed from predators |
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viceroy
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mimics in the monarch-viceroy complex
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brush-footed butterflies
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includes many common species of butterflies
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sulfurs
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yellow and white; feed on a variety of plants including cabbages (as larvae);
very common. |
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tent caterpillars
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larvae are gregarious and some species construct a silken
tent, usually in the fork of a branch, and use it as a shelter. |
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swallowtails
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all are graceful fliers.
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giant silkworm moths
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this group includes our largest moths, some of which have
a wingspan of six inches. The mature larvae produce large cocoons of silk and leaf material, which are often attached to leaf twigs. Mostly nocturnal. |
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sphinx or hawk moths
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sphinx moths are strong fliers, with a very rapid wingbeat.
They feed on flowers, much like hummingbirds. Most species feed at dusk or at night; a few feed during the day. Some are pests of tomatoes, tobacco, and other plants. |
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Order Siphonaptera
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Fleas, being ectoparasites, have also secondarily lost their wings. Fleas appear to have evolved from a
group of flies probably during the early evolution and adaptive radiation of birds and mammals (all known fleas are restricted to these two groups of hosts today). Fleas tend to be compressed laterally (rather than dorsoventrally as in lice), have backward projecting hairs (setae) and have highly modified hind legs suited for jumping. Research in England has shown that the & flea can regulate her egg production to correspond with the gestation cycle of the mammalian host. For example, a flea feeding on the blood of a host rabbit (&) will suck up reproductive hormones in the blood and be physiologically stimulated to produce eggs of her own. The mechanism basically insures that baby rabbits will acquire their own population of fleas. |
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Xenopsylla cheopis
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the oriental rat flea, principal vector of bubonic plague,
endemic typhus and serves as an intermediate host for the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta. |