DOCSLIB.ORG

Canola Insect Scouting Guide

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Canola Insect Scouting Guide CANOLA INSECT SCOUTING GUIDE Millimeters Inches SCOUTING METHODS SCOUTING SCHEDULE BY PLANT GROWTH STAGE Scout fields weekly, checking both high and low in the canopy and Pre-seed/Seedling Seedling Rosette Budding Flowering Ripening inspecting all plant parts, including roots. When insect pest numbers approach action threshold levels, sample more frequently. Occasional insect Bertha armyworm pests may be present in crops but are typically found in low quantities with less frequency (seldom requiring control measures). Common insect pests Cabbage root maggot are encountered more frequently, can be in high quantities and may require Cabbage seedpod weevil control measures. The recommended method for each of the common canola insect pests is shown in the chart on the left. Cutworms Plant counts – The number of insects per canola plant Diamondback moth Area insect count – The number of insects/metre2 Flea beetles Flea beetles Sweep net count – Using a 38 cm diameter net, sweep a full Grasshopper 180o arc 10 times/100 acres Lygus bug Root zone inspection – Look for insects near roots or on plants Percentage defoliation – Percentage of area eaten away COMMON INSECT PESTS BERTHA ARMYWORM (LARVA) CABBAGE ROOT MAGGOT (LARVA AND ADULT) • Pale brown to velvety black (colour variations are common) with yellow/orange stripe along each side • Long, whitish larvae feed on root and create tunnels into roots • Move to pods as leaves are consumed and larvae grow which can lead to disease-causing infection • Action threshold is 6-34/m2, depending on seed and spray costs • Adults resemble house flies but smaller and covered in black (control typically required around 20/m2) bristles; don’t cause damage 40mm 8mm (Larva) CABBAGE SEEDPOD WEEVIL CUTWORMS (LARVA) (LARVA AND ADULT) • Redbacked (pictured), pale western, darksided and dingy cutworms • White, grub-like larvae with brown heads feed in pods on 5-6 all cause damage; feed on cotyledons, leaves or stems at or under soil developing seeds; exit holes in <25% pods (when leaving to pupate) surfaces, or may climb plants (vary by species) indicate populations below damaging levels • Scout top 5 cm of soil around cut-off plants/margins of damaged • Adults have a grey body with prominent, curved snout and feed area (at seedling to rosette stage) on buds causing bud-blasting and lay eggs on developing pods 30mm • Action threshold is ~25-30% stand reduction, but damage may be patchy 3mm (Larva and Adult) DIAMONDBACK MOTH (LARVA AND ADULT) FLEA BEETLES (ADULTS) • Larvae are smooth, pale, yellowish-green worms that are narrow at • Oval bluish black bodies (crucifer flea beetle) or black with two both ends and fatter in the middle and wriggle violently on a silk yellow stripes (striped flea beetle) thread or drop off when disturbed • Feeding causes shot-hole appearance on cotyledons and leaves • Tunnel into leaves and feed on leaf surface, leaving only veins or • Action threshold is >25% cotyledon defoliation if still feeding “window panes”; feed on pod and stem, causing striping on newly developing plants. Canola can recover from 50% loss • Action threshold is 100-150 larvae/m2 in immature to flowering of cotyledon with no yield loss 8mm (Larva) plants or 200-300 in flowering/podding plants (in dense stands) • Adults are small, thin moths that feed on nectar 3mm LYGUS BUG (NYMPH AND ADULT) GRASSHOPPER (ADULT) • Nymphs are pale green, often with black dots. Adults are green to • Some nymphs are pale green, while others have variable markings. reddish brown/black, with a “V” in the upper center of their backs Adults have darker/more distinct colouration but both feed on • Suck sap from buds, flowers and pods, causing flower blasting and leaves, stems and pods shriveled seeds. Heavy feeding, with sap covered plants should be • Most significant damage is done when feeding on pods monitored closely 38mm • Action threshold is likely >12 grasshoppers/m2; better • Only count older nymphs with black spots or developing wing to control younger instars 6mm (Adult) ”shoulder” pads (not younger nymphs without spots) OCCASIONAL INSECT PESTS BENEFICIAL INSECTS * ALFALFA LOOPER (LARVA) APHID (NYMPH PARASITIC WASP (ADULT) AND ADULT) • Light green/olive worm with a paler • Numerous species of Braconid and head and light stripes down each side • Small, often green, soft-bodied, pear- Ichneumonid wasps, with slender and two along the back shaped winged or wingless insects waists and long antennae • Feeds on leaf margins and clips flowers • Often seen in a dense layer at tips • Parasitize plant bugs, bertha 25mm and pods in patchy infestations 2mm of canola; feeding may lead to 15mm armyworm, diamondback moth • Generally don’t cause economic compressed growth and other caterpillars damage but heavy defoliation could warrant control CARABID BEETLES (ADULTS) BEET WEBWORM (LARVA) BLISTER BEETLE (ADULT) • Large, somewhat flattened beetles (often black or brown) that have better • Change from dark green to black as • Large, narrow, often shiny beetles survival in minimum tillage fields they mature; have two white stripes • Feeds on leaves and flowers – 30mm • General predators of cutworms, along the center of the back with two generally in clusters/patches diamondback moth, bertha armyworm rows of paired circular figures outside in a field of the stripes larvae, lygus nymphs and many 25mm 25mm • They may move to canola when other insects • Feed on leaves, then stems and pods nearby alfalfa is cut causing early desiccation; spin silk “webs” at plant tops • Action thresholds may be similar HONEY BEE (ADULT) to bertha armyworm • Clear-winged adults have a black and yellow body and pollinate canola CLOVER CUTWORM IMPORTED 15mm (LARVA) CABBAGEWORM (LARVA AND ADULT) • Dark grey or green body with yellowish GREEN LACEWING pink stripes and light brown head; curls • Larvae are green worms with a (LARVA AND ADULT) up when disturbed velvety texture and faint yellow stripe down the back; feed on leaves 30mm • Progresses from feeding on leaf • Larvae have tiny alligator-shaped, undersides to all parts as they mature • Adult feeds on nectar and doesn’t yellowish to mottled grey bodies with red, brown or black markings and short • Similar in appearance to bertha 30mm (Larva) damage canola (the adult stage is armyworm but appear earlier in not a pest) bristle clumps. They mainly feed on soft-bodied insects like aphids, thrips, the season and damage tends to 10mm (Larva) be in patches lygus nymphs and small caterpillars as well as insect eggs • Adults are pale green with a slender, delicate body and clear wings. They feed on nectar of flowering plants PAINTED LADY (LARVA) RED TURNIP BEETLE * • Black worms with spikes along the back (ADULT AND NYMPH) and yellow stripes along the side HOVER FLY (ADULT, • Beetle with red and black patches • Feed on leaves on the head and three black stripes PICTURED, AND LARVA) down the back • Larvae are flattened yellowish maggots 40mm 7mm • Larvae are black and 10-12 mm long with pale stripes and eat aphids • Primarily feeds on leaves but can • Adults are small brightly coloured consume entire young plants 10mm hairless flies that resemble bees and • Often found just inside of field edges pollinate canola SWEDE MIDGE (LARVA AND ADULT) LADY BEETLE (LARVA AND ADULT) • Larvae are pale, semi-transparent worms when younger and turn yellow THRIPS (ADULT* • Larva looks like a tiny alligator, with as they mature. Older larvae can flip or AND NYMPH) orange and black patches on the back fling themselves when disturbed and three sets of legs • Larvae attack growing points, • Appear as black specks in a sweep • Mainly feed on soft-bodied insects, causing flowers to remain unopened, net (very tiny). Up close, have a 4mm (Larva) 10mm (Larva) including aphids and lygus nymphs, undeveloped or to turn brown and narrow, brown/black body and can and insect eggs dry up. Brown, corky scarring visible be winged (and fringed with fine under magnification hairs) or wingless • Control options are very difficult 1mm • Best identified by the twisted ROVE BEETLE (ADULT) to time because of multiple, pods resulting from feeding overlapping generations (see damage, also pictured) • Usually slender, elongated, • Adults are tiny, delicate-looking flies cylindrical flattened bodies with *Pictured with long legs (don’t damage canola, several abdominal segments visible except for egg deposition) from above due to shortened wing 20mm covers (elytra) • Adults and larvae prey on cabbage root maggot eggs and larvae, aphids, mites and other insects CCC 6164 (2015) CCC For more information on appropriate thresholds and managing canola insects, contact your local Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist, sign up for our Canola Watch e-newsletter at canolacouncil.org, or call toll-free at (866) 834-4378. 400-167 Lombard Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0T6 Phone: 204-982-2100 Toll-Free: (866) 834-4378 Photo credits: John Gavloski, MAFRD, Tyler Wist AAFC Saskatoon, Vincent Hervet University of Lethbridge.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Buzz About Bees: Honey Bee Biology and Behavior
    4-H Honey Bee Leaders Guide Book I The Buzz About Bees: 18 U.S.C. 707 Honey Bee Biology and Behavior Publication 380-071 2009 To the 4-H Leader: The honey bee project (Books Grade 5 1 - 4) is intended to teach young people the basic biology and behavior of honey bees in addition to Living Systems 5.5 hands-on beekeeping management skills. The honey The student will investigate and understand that bee project books begin with basic honey bee and organisms are made up of cells and have distin- insect information (junior level) and advance to guishing characteristics. Key concepts include: instruction on how to rear honey bee colonies and • vertebrates and invertebrates extract honey (senior level). These project books are intended to provide in-depth information related Grade 6 to honey bee management, yet they are written for the amateur beekeeper, who may or may not have Life Science 5 previous experience in rearing honey bees. The student will investigate and understand how organisms can be classified. Key concepts include: Caution: • characteristics of the species If anyone in your club is known to have severe Life Science 8 allergic reactions to bee stings, they should not The student will investigate and understand that participate in this project. interactions exist among members of a population. The honey bee project meets the following Vir- Key concepts include: ginia State Standards of Learning (SOLs) for the • competition, cooperation, social hierarchy, and fourth, fifth, and sixth grades: territorial imperative Grade 4 Acknowledgments Authors: Life Processes 4.4 Dini M.
    [Show full text]
  • Wisconsin Bee Identification Guide
    WisconsinWisconsin BeeBee IdentificationIdentification GuideGuide Developed by Patrick Liesch, Christy Stewart, and Christine Wen Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) The honey bee is perhaps our best-known pollinator. Honey bees are not native to North America and were brought over with early settlers. Honey bees are mid-sized bees (~ ½ inch long) and have brownish bodies with bands of pale hairs on the abdomen. Honey bees are unique with their social behavior, living together year-round as a colony consisting of thousands of individuals. Honey bees forage on a wide variety of plants and their colonies can be useful in agricultural settings for their pollination services. Honey bees are our only bee that produces honey, which they use as a food source for the colony during the winter months. In many cases, the honey bees you encounter may be from a local beekeeper’s hive. Occasionally, wild honey bee colonies can become established in cavities in hollow trees and similar settings. Photo by Christy Stewart Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) Bumble bees are some of our most recognizable bees. They are amongst our largest bees and can be close to 1 inch long, although many species are between ½ inch and ¾ inch long. There are ~20 species of bumble bees in Wisconsin and most have a robust, fuzzy appearance. Bumble bees tend to be very hairy and have black bodies with patches of yellow or orange depending on the species. Bumble bees are a type of social bee Bombus rufocinctus and live in small colonies consisting of dozens to a few hundred workers. Photo by Christy Stewart Their nests tend to be constructed in preexisting underground cavities, such as former chipmunk or rabbit burrows.
    [Show full text]
  • Phylum Arthropod Silvia Rondon, and Mary Corp, OSU Extension Entomologist and Agronomist, Respectively Hermiston Research and Extension Center, Hermiston, Oregon
    Phylum Arthropod Silvia Rondon, and Mary Corp, OSU Extension Entomologist and Agronomist, respectively Hermiston Research and Extension Center, Hermiston, Oregon Member of the Phyllum Arthropoda can be found in the seas, in fresh water, on land, or even flying freely; a group with amazing differences of structure, and so abundant that all the other animals taken together are less than 1/6 as many as the arthropods. Well-known members of this group are the Kingdom lobsters, crayfish and crabs; scorpions, spiders, mites, ticks, Phylum Phylum Phylum Class the centipedes and millipedes; and last, but not least, the Order most abundant of all, the insects. Family Genus The Phylum Arthropods consist of the following Species classes: arachnids, chilopods, diplopods, crustaceans and hexapods (insects). All arthropods possess: • Exoskeleton. A hard protective covering around the outside of the body (divided by sutures into plates called sclerites). An insect's exoskeleton (integument) serves as a protective covering over the body, but also as a surface for muscle attachment, a water-tight barrier against desiccation, and a sensory interface with the environment. It is a multi-layered structure with four functional regions: epicuticle (top layer), procuticle, epidermis, and basement membrane. • Segmented body • Jointed limbs and jointed mouthparts that allow extensive specialization • Bilateral symmetry, whereby a central line can divide the body Insect molting or removing its into two identical halves, left and right exoesqueleton • Ventral nerve
    [Show full text]
  • Biological Pest Control
    ■ ,VVXHG LQ IXUWKHUDQFH RI WKH &RRSHUDWLYH ([WHQVLRQ :RUN$FWV RI 0D\ DQG -XQH LQ FRRSHUDWLRQ ZLWK WKH 8QLWHG 6WDWHV 'HSDUWPHQWRI$JULFXOWXUH 'LUHFWRU&RRSHUDWLYH([WHQVLRQ8QLYHUVLW\RI0LVVRXUL&ROXPELD02 ■DQHTXDORSSRUWXQLW\$'$LQVWLWXWLRQ■■H[WHQVLRQPLVVRXULHGX AGRICULTURE Biological Pest Control ntegrated pest management (IPM) involves the use of a combination of strategies to reduce pest populations Steps for conserving beneficial insects Isafely and economically. This guide describes various • Recognize beneficial insects. agents of biological pest control. These strategies include judicious use of pesticides and cultural practices, such as • Minimize insecticide applications. crop rotation, tillage, timing of planting or harvesting, • Use selective (microbial) insecticides, or treat selectively. planting trap crops, sanitation, and use of natural enemies. • Maintain ground covers and crop residues. • Provide pollen and nectar sources or artificial foods. Natural vs. biological control Natural pest control results from living and nonliving Predators and parasites factors and has no human involvement. For example, weather and wind are nonliving factors that can contribute Predator insects actively hunt and feed on other insects, to natural control of an insect pest. Living factors could often preying on numerous species. Parasitic insects lay include a fungus or pathogen that naturally controls a pest. their eggs on or in the body of certain other insects, and Biological pest control does involve human action and the young feed on and often destroy their hosts. Not all is often achieved through the use of beneficial insects that predacious or parasitic insects are beneficial; some kill the are natural enemies of the pest. Biological control is not the natural enemies of pests instead of the pests themselves, so natural control of pests by their natural enemies; host plant be sure to properly identify an insect as beneficial before resistance; or the judicious use of pesticides.
    [Show full text]
  • Ants in the Home Fact Sheet No
    Ants in the Home Fact Sheet No. 5.518 Insect Series|Home and Garden by W.S. Cranshaw* Almost anywhere in the state one the nest, tend the young and do other Quick Facts travels, ants will be the most common necessary colony duties. Many kinds of insects that can be found in yards, gardens, ants produce workers that are all the • Most ants that are found in fields and forests. Tremendous numbers same size (monomorphic); some, such as homes nest outdoors and of ants normally reside in a typical house field ants, have workers that vary in size enter homes only to search lot, although most lead unobserved lives (polymorphic). for food or water. underground or otherwise out of sight. Each colony contains one or, sometimes, Often it is only when they occur indoors or a few queens (Figure 1). These are fertile • Almost all ants are workers, produce their periodic mating swarms that females that are larger than workers and wingless females that search they come to human attention. dedicated to egg production. The minute for food and maintain the Overall, the activities of ants are quite eggs are taken from the queen and tended colony. beneficial. Many feed on other insects, by the workers. Upon egg hatch, the • A small proportion of an including pest insects. Ant scavenging pale-colored, legless larvae are fed and helps to recycle organic matter and their protected by the workers. When full-grown, ant colony are winged tunneling is useful in aerating and mixing ant larvae produce a smooth silken cocoon reproductive forms.
    [Show full text]
  • Insects Carolina Mantis Mayfly
    I l l i n o i s Insects Carolina mantis mayfly elephant stag beetle widow skimmer ichneumon wasp click beetle black locust borer birdwing grasshopper large milkweed bug (adults and nymphs) mantisfly walking stick lady beetle stink bug crane fly stonefly (nymph) horse fly wheel bug bot fly prairie cicada leafhopper robber fly katydid alderfly syrphid fly Order Ephemeroptera mayfly Species List Order Coleoptera black locust borer click beetle This poster was made possible by: nsects and their relatives (arthropods) make up nearly 80 percent of the known animal species. Scientists elephant stag beetle lady beetle Illinois Department of Natural Resources Order Plecoptera stonefly currently estimate that 5 to 15 million species of insects exist. In contrast, 5,000 species of mammals are Order Orthoptera birdwing grasshopper Carolina mantis Division of Education found on our planet. In Illinois, we have more than 20,000 species of insects, and many more likely katydid Illinois Natural History Survey I Order Hemiptera large milkweed bug Illinois State Museum occur, as yet undetected in our state! The scientific study of insects is known as entomology. Entomologists stink bug wheel bug Order Diptera bot fly study insects for many reasons, including their incredible number of species and their wide variety of sizes, crane fly horse fly colors, shapes, and lifestyles. The 24 species depicted on this poster were selected by Michael R. Jeffords of robber fly syrphid fly Order Homoptera leafhopper the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Natural History Survey, to represent the variety of prairie cicada Order Phasmida walking stick insects occurring in our state.
    [Show full text]
  • Insect Life Cycle a Reading A–Z Level L Leveled Book Word Count: 607
    Insect Life Cycle A Reading A–Z Level L Leveled Book Word Count: 607 Written by Chuck Garofano Visit www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com for thousands of books and materials. Photo Credits: Front cover, back cover, pages 3, 4, 7, 13, 15 (top): © Brand X Pictures; title page, page 11: © Kenneth Keifer/123RF; page 5: © Eric Isselée/ Dreamstime.com; page 6: © Mike Abbey/Visuals Unlimited, Inc.; page 8: © Richard Williams/123RF; page 9: © Oxford Scientific/Peter Arnold; page 10: © Anthony Bannister/Gallo Images/Corbis; page 12: © Dennis Johnson; Papillo/Corbis; page 14: © 123RF; page 15 (bottom): © ArtToday Written by Chuck Garofano Insect Life Cycle Level L Leveled Book Correlation © Learning A–Z LEVEL L Written by Chuck Garofano Fountas & Pinnell K All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 18 www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com DRA 20 Table of Contents Flower beetle Introduction ................ 4 What Are Insects? ............ 6 Egg ....................... 8 Larva ......................10 Pupa ..................... 12 Ladybug Tropical ant Adult ..................... 13 Introduction Nymph . 14 When you were born, your body Index...................... 16 was shaped a lot like it is now. It was smaller, of course, but you had a head, legs, arms, and a torso. When you grow up, your body shape will be about the same. But some baby animals look nothing like the adults they will become. Insect Life Cycle • Level L 3 4 These animals have a different kind What Are Insects? of life cycle. A life cycle is the series There are more than 800,000 of changes an animal goes through different kinds of insects.
    [Show full text]
  • Insect Order ID: Coleoptera (Beetles, Weevils)
    Return to insect order home Page 1 of 3 Visit us on the Web: www.gardeninghelp.org Insect Order ID: Coleoptera (Beetles, Weevils) Life Cycle–Complete metamorphosis: Adults lay eggs. Larvae eat, grow and molt. This stage is repeated a varying number of times, depending on species, until hormonal changes cause the larvae to pupate. They form a pupal case, inside of which the pupae change in form and in color and develop wings. The emerging adults look completely different from the larvae. Adults–Forewings (elytra) form a hard, usually rounded shell and meet in a straight line down the middle of the back, completely covering the membranous hindwings but not always covering the entire abdomen. A hard protective shell (pronotum) covering the thorax between the head and wings and the hard-shelled forewings make most adult beetles look armor-plated. Adults are winged and do not change or grow. (Click images to enlarge or orange text for more information.) Hard-shelled pronotum Hindwings Forewings meet Hard-shelled membranous in straight line down forewings (elytra) center of back Forewings do not always cover Not all have Weevils & curculios abdomen smooth forewings have long snouts Return to insect order home Page 2 of 3 Eggs–Adults lay eggs where larval food is plentiful. (Click images to enlarge or orange text for more information.) Lady beetle eggs Larvae–All have three pairs of legs, although some legs are hairlike and barely visible. None have wingbuds. Most commonly encountered species are in one of three different forms, depending on species: elateriform (wireworms), scarabaeiform (grubs), and campodeiform (often spiny).
    [Show full text]
  • The Novel Aerodynamics of Insect Flight: Applications to Micro-Air Vehicles
    The Journal of Experimental Biology 202, 3439–3448 (1999) 3439 Printed in Great Britain © The Company of Biologists Limited 1999 JEB2214 THE NOVEL AERODYNAMICS OF INSECT FLIGHT: APPLICATIONS TO MICRO-AIR VEHICLES C. P. ELLINGTON* Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK *e-mail: [email protected] Accepted 15 September; published on WWW 16 November 1999 Summary The wing motion in free flight has been described for accompanies repeated clapping of the wings, but the spiral insects ranging from 1 to 100 mm in wingspan. To support LEV can be used to augment the lift production of the body weight, the wings typically produce 2–3 times propellers, rotors and micro-air vehicles (MAVs). Design more lift than can be accounted for by conventional characteristics of insect-based flying machines are aerodynamics. Some insects use the fling mechanism: the presented, along with estimates of the mass supported, the wings are clapped together and then flung open before the mechanical power requirement and maximum flight speeds start of the downstroke, creating a lift-enhancing vortex over a wide range of sizes and frequencies. To support a around each wing. Most insects, however, rely on a leading- given mass, larger machines need less power, but smaller edge vortex (LEV) created by dynamic stall during ones operating at higher frequencies will reach faster flapping; a strong spanwise flow is also generated by the speeds. pressure gradients on the flapping wing, causing the LEV to spiral out to the wingtip. Technical applications of the Key words: insect, flight, aerodynamics, flapping flight, micro-air fling are limited by the mechanical damage that vehicle.
    [Show full text]
  • The Use of Radiation Is Improving the Biological Control of Insect Pests
    by Jorge Hendrichs and To Kill a Pest Alan Robinson The use of radiation is improving the biological control of insect pests. he IAEA’s support to Member States in What is Biological Control? the field of insect pest control has mainly Despite centuries of technological development, Tfocused on the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), insect pests continue to exact a very high toll on which is a type of insect birth control, where mass agricultural production and human health. A well- reared and systematically released sterile males established, successful approach to this problem is of the target pest insect mate with wild females the use of natural enemies, called biological control in the field, thereby interfering in an environment- agents, to manage pest populations. The biological friendly way with the reproduction of the pest control agent can be a predator, a parasitoid, a bac- A giant ichneumon wasp population. This approach effectively reduces terium, a fungus or a virus. In this article we will con- adult boring the surface the use of insecticides and has been successfully centrate on predators, which eat the pest (prey), and of fir trunk infested with used to manage, and in some cases eradicate, parasitoids, which parasitize the pest (host) by sting- wood wasp larvae. populations of major pest insects. Nevertheless, ing and thereby laying eggs into it. (Photo: Boris Hrasovec, there are other areas where Member States can Faculty of Forestry, benefit from radiation in the field of entomology. When insects escape their native natural enemies, Bugwood.org) One of these is biological control.
    [Show full text]
  • A Guide to Arthropods Bandelier National Monument
    A Guide to Arthropods Bandelier National Monument Top left: Melanoplus akinus Top right: Vanessa cardui Bottom left: Elodes sp. Bottom right: Wolf Spider (Family Lycosidae) by David Lightfoot Compiled by Theresa Murphy Nov 2012 In collaboration with Collin Haffey, Craig Allen, David Lightfoot, Sandra Brantley and Kay Beeley WHAT ARE ARTHROPODS? And why are they important? What’s the difference between Arthropods and Insects? Most of this guide is comprised of insects. These are animals that have three body segments- head, thorax, and abdomen, three pairs of legs, and usually have wings, although there are several wingless forms of insects. Insects are of the Class Insecta and they make up the largest class of the phylum called Arthropoda (arthropods). However, the phylum Arthopoda includes other groups as well including Crustacea (crabs, lobsters, shrimps, barnacles, etc.), Myriapoda (millipedes, centipedes, etc.) and Arachnida (scorpions, king crabs, spiders, mites, ticks, etc.). Arthropods including insects and all other animals in this phylum are characterized as animals with a tough outer exoskeleton or body-shell and flexible jointed limbs that allow the animal to move. Although this guide is comprised mostly of insects, some members of the Myriapoda and Arachnida can also be found here. Remember they are all arthropods but only some of them are true ‘insects’. Entomologist - A scientist who focuses on the study of insects! What’s bugging entomologists? Although we tend to call all insects ‘bugs’ according to entomology a ‘true bug’ must be of the Order Hemiptera. So what exactly makes an insect a bug? Insects in the order Hemiptera have sucking, beak-like mouthparts, which are tucked under their “chin” when Metallic Green Bee (Agapostemon sp.) not in use.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolution of the Insects David Grimaldi and Michael S
    Cambridge University Press 0521821495 - Evolution of the Insects David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel Frontmatter More information EVOLUTION OF THE INSECTS Insects are the most diverse group of organisms to appear in the 3-billion-year history of life on Earth, and the most ecologically dominant animals on land. This book chronicles, for the first time, the complete evolutionary history of insects: their living diversity, relationships, and 400 million years of fossils. Whereas other volumes have focused on either living species or fossils, this is the first comprehensive synthesis of all aspects of insect evolution. Current estimates of phylogeny are used to interpret the 400-million-year fossil record of insects, their extinctions, and radiations. Introductory sections include the living species, diversity of insects, methods of reconstructing evolutionary relationships, basic insect structure, and the diverse modes of insect fossilization and major fossil deposits. Major sections cover the relationships and evolution of each order of hexapod. The book also chronicles major episodes in the evolutionary history of insects: their modest beginnings in the Devonian, the origin of wings hundreds of millions of years before pterosaurs and birds, the impact that mass extinctions and the explosive radiation of angiosperms had on insects, and how insects evolved the most complex societies in nature. Evolution of the Insects is beautifully illustrated with more than 900 photo- and electron micrographs, drawings, diagrams, and field photographs, many in full color and virtually all original. The book will appeal to anyone engaged with insect diversity: professional ento- mologists and students, insect and fossil collectors, and naturalists. David Grimaldi has traveled in 40 countries on 6 continents collecting and studying recent species of insects and conducting fossil excavations.
    [Show full text]