Insect
Insect Temporal range:
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A wide diversity of insects from various orders. Insects have a three-part body: head with large compound eyes and antennae, a thorax with three pairs of legs and often wings, and a segmented abdomen. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Clade: | Pancrustacea |
Subphylum: | Hexapoda |
Class: | Insecta Linnaeus, 1758 |
Subgroups | |
Synonyms | |
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Insects (from
The insect
Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. Insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton, so development involves a series of molts. The immature stages often differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat. Groups that undergo four-stage metamorphosis often have a nearly immobile pupa. Insects that undergo three-stage metamorphosis lack a pupa, developing through a series of increasingly adult-like nymphal stages. The higher level relationship of the insects is unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm (22 to 28 in). The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants.
Adult insects typically move about by walking and flying; some can swim. Insects are the only invertebrates that can achieve sustained powered flight; insect flight evolved just once. Many insects are at least partly aquatic, and have larvae with gills; in some species, the adults too are aquatic. Some species, such as water striders, can walk on the surface of water. Insects are mostly solitary, but some, such as bees, ants and termites, are social and live in large, well-organized colonies. Others, such as earwigs, provide maternal care, guarding their eggs and young. Insects can communicate with each other in a variety of ways. Male moths can sense the pheromones of female moths over great distances. Other species communicate with sounds: crickets stridulate, or rub their wings together, to attract a mate and repel other males. Lampyrid beetles communicate with light.
Humans regard many insects as
Etymology
The word insect comes from the
Insects and other bugs
Distinguishing features
In common speech, insects and other terrestrial
-
Insect: Six legs, three-part body
(head, thorax, abdomen),
up to two pairs of wings -
Spider: eight legs,
two-part body -
Woodlouse: seven pairs of legs, seven body segments (plus head and tail)
-
Centipede: many legs,
one pair per segment -
Millipede: many legs,
two pairs per segment
Diversity
Estimates of the total number of insect species vary considerably, suggesting that there are perhaps some 5.5 million insect species in existence, of which about one million have been described and named.[9] These constitute around half of all eukaryote species, including animals, plants, and fungi.[10] The most diverse insect orders are the Hemiptera (true bugs), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Diptera (true flies), Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, and bees), and Coleoptera (beetles), each with more than 100,000 described species.[9]
-
True bugs
(Hemiptera) -
Butterflies and moths
(Lepidoptera) -
Flies
(Diptera) -
Wasps
(Hymenoptera) -
Beetles
(Coleoptera)
Distribution and habitats
-
The snow scorpionfly Boreus hyemalis on snow
-
The great diving beetleDytiscus marginalislarva in a pond
-
The green orchid bee Euglossa dilemma of Central America
-
The desert locustSchistocerca gregarialaying eggs in sand
-
Sea skater Halobates on a Hawaii beach
Insects are distributed over every continent and almost every terrestrial habitat. There are many more species in the tropics, especially in rainforests, than in temperate zones.[11] The world's regions have received widely differing amounts of attention from entomologists. The British Isles have been thoroughly surveyed, so that Gullan and Cranston 2014 state that the total of around 22,500 species is probably within 5% of the actual number there; they comment that Canada's list of 30,000 described species is surely over half of the actual total. They add that the 3000 species of the American Arctic must be broadly accurate. In contrast, a large majority of the insect species of the tropics and the southern hemisphere are probably undescribed.[11] Some 30–40,000 species inhabit freshwater; very few insects, perhaps a hundred species, are marine.[12] Insects such as snow scorpionflies flourish in cold habitats including the Arctic and at high altitude.[13] Insects such as desert locusts, ants, beetles, and termites are adapted to some of the hottest and driest environments on earth, such as the Sonoran Desert.[14]
Phylogeny and evolution
External phylogeny
Insects form a
Internal phylogeny
The internal phylogeny is based on the works of Wipfler et al. 2019 for the Polyneoptera,[17] Johnson et al. 2018 for the Paraneoptera,[18] and Kjer et al. 2016 for the Holometabola.[19] The numbers of described extant species (boldface for groups with over 100,000 species) are from Stork 2018.[9]
Insecta |
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Taxonomy
Early
Diagram of Linnaeus's key to his seven orders of insect, 1758[20]
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In 1758, in his Systema Naturae,[22] Carl Linnaeus divided the animal kingdom into six classes including Insecta. He created seven orders of insect according to the structure of their wings. These were the wingless Aptera, the 2-winged Diptera, and five 4-winged orders: the Coleoptera with fully-hardened forewings; the Hemiptera with partly-hardened forewings; the Lepidoptera with scaly wings; the Neuroptera with membranous wings but no sting; and the Hymenoptera, with membranous wings and a sting.[20]
Modern
Traditional morphology-based
The use of phylogenetic data has brought about numerous changes in relationships above the level of
The Pterygota (
Evolutionary history
The oldest fossil that may be a primitive wingless insect is
Four large-scale radiations of insects have occurred: beetles (from about 300 million years ago), flies (from about 250 million years ago), moths and wasps (both from about 150 million years ago).[36]
The remarkably successful
-
The giant dragonfly-like insectMeganeura monyi grew to wingspans of 75 cm (2 ft 6 in) in the late Carboniferous, around 300 million years ago.[39]
Morphology and physiology
External
Three-part body
Insects have a
Segmentation
The head is enclosed in a hard, heavily
Exoskeleton
The outer skeleton, the
Internal systems
Nervous
The
Digestive
An insect uses its digestive system to extract nutrients and other substances from the food it consumes.
Reproductive
The
For males, the reproductive system consists of one or two
Respiratory
Circulatory
Because oxygen is delivered directly to tissues via tracheoles, the circulatory system is not used to carry oxygen, and is therefore greatly reduced. The insect circulatory system is open; it has no
Sensory
Many insects possess numerous specialized
Most insects, except some
The individual lenses in compound eyes are immobile, but fruit flies have photoreceptor cells underneath each lens which move rapidly in and out of focus, in a series of movements called photoreceptor microsaccades. This gives them, and possibly many other insects, a much clearer image of the world than previously assumed.[72]
An insect's sense of smell is via chemical receptors, usually on the antennae and the mouthparts. These detect both airborne volatile compounds and odorants on surfaces, including pheromones from other insects and compounds released by food plants. Insects use olfaction to locate mating partners, food, and places to lay eggs, and to avoid predators. It is thus an extremely important sense, enabling insects to discriminate between thousands of volatile compounds.[73]
Some insects are capable of magnetoreception; ants and bees navigate using it both locally (near their nests) and when migrating.[74] The Brazilian stingless bee detects magnetic fields using the hair-like sensilla on its antennae.[75][76]
Reproduction and development
Life-cycles
The majority of insects hatch from
Other developmental and reproductive variations include
Some insects are
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis in insects is the process of development that converts young to adults. There are two forms of metamorphosis: incomplete and complete.
Incomplete
Complete
Communication
Insects that produce sound can generally hear it. Most
Light production
A few insects, such as
Sound production
Insects make sounds mostly by mechanical action of appendages. In
Very low sounds are produced in various species of
Communication using surface-borne vibrational signals is more widespread among insects because of size constraints in producing air-borne sounds.
Some species use vibrations for communicating, such as to attract mates as in the songs of the
Chemical communication
Many insects have evolved
Social behavior
Only insects that live in nests or colonies possess fine-scale spatial orientation. Some can navigate unerringly to a single hole a few millimeters in diameter among thousands of similar holes, after a trip of several kilometers. In philopatry, insects that hibernate are able to recall a specific location up to a year after last viewing the area of interest.[113] A few insects seasonally migrate large distances between different geographic regions, as in the continent-wide monarch butterfly migration.[114]
Care of young
Locomotion
Flight
Insects are the only group of
The evolution of insect wings has been a subject of debate; it has been suggested they came from modified gills, flaps on the spiracles, or an appendage, the epicoxa, at the base of the legs.[121] More recently, entomologists have favored evolution of wings from lobes of the notum, of the pleuron, or more likely both.[122] In the Carboniferous age, the dragonfly-like Meganeura had as much as a 50 cm (20 in) wide wingspan. The appearance of gigantic insects is consistent with high atmospheric oxygen at that time, as the respiratory system of insects constrains their size.[123] The largest flying insects today are much smaller, with the largest wingspan belonging to the white witch moth (Thysania agrippina), at approximately 28 cm (11 in).[124]
Unlike birds, small insects are swept along by the prevailing winds[125] although many larger insects migrate. Aphids are transported long distances by low-level jet streams.[126]
Walking
Many adult insects use six legs for walking, with an alternating
Swimming
A large number of insects live either part or the whole of their lives underwater. In many of the more primitive orders of insect, the immature stages are aquatic. In some groups, such as water beetles, the adults too are aquatic.[62]
Many of these species are adapted for under-water locomotion. Water beetles and water bugs have legs adapted into paddle-like structures. Dragonfly
Ecology
Insects play many critical roles in ecosystems, including soil turning and aeration, dung burial, pest control, pollination and wildlife nutrition.[133] For instance, termites modify the environment around their nests, encouraging grass growth;[134] many beetles are scavengers; dung beetles recycle biological materials into forms useful to other organisms.[135][136] Insects are responsible for much of the process by which topsoil is created.[137]
Defense
Insects are mostly small, soft bodied, and fragile compared to larger lifeforms. The immature stages are small, move slowly or are immobile, and so all stages are exposed to predation and parasitism. Insects accordingly employ multiple defensive strategies, including camouflage, mimicry, toxicity and active defense.[138] Many
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in the reproduction of plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction.[144] Most flowering plants require an animal to do the transportation. The majority of pollination is by insects.[145] Because insects usually receive benefit for the pollination in the form of energy rich nectar it is a mutualism. The various flower traits, such as bright colors and pheromones that coevolved with their pollinators, have been called pollination syndromes, though around one third of flowers cannot be assigned to a single syndrome.[146]
Parasitism
Many insects are
-
Plant parasite ormicropredator: a coreidbug sucking plant sap
-
Human head-lice are directly transmitted obligateectoparasites.
Relationship to humans
As pests
Many insects are considered
In beneficial roles
Insects produce useful substances such as
Insects that feed on or parasitise other insects are beneficial to humans if they thereby reduce damage to agriculture and human structures. For example,
Fly larvae (maggots) were formerly used to treat wounds to prevent or stop gangrene, as they would only consume dead flesh. This treatment is finding modern usage in some hospitals. Insects have gained attention as potential sources of drugs and other medicinal substances.[176] Adult insects, such as crickets and insect larvae of various kinds, are commonly used as fishing bait.[177]
Population declines
At least 66 insect species extinctions have been recorded since 1500, many of them on oceanic islands.[178] Declines in insect abundance have been attributed to human activity in the form of artificial lighting,[179] land use changes such as urbanization or farming,[180][181] pesticide use,[182] and invasive species.[183][184] A 2019 research review suggested that a large proportion of insect species is threatened with extinction in the 21st century,[185] though the details have been disputed.[186] A larger 2020 meta-study, analyzing data from 166 long-term surveys, suggested that populations of terrestrial insects are indeed decreasing rapidly, by about 9% per decade.[187][188]
In research
Insects play important roles in biological research. For example, because of its small size, short generation time and high
As food
Insects are consumed as food in 80% of the world's nations, by people in roughly 3000 ethnic groups.
In other products
In religion and folklore
See also
- Entomology
- Ethnoentomology
- Flying and gliding animals
- Insect-borne diseases
Notes
- pillbugs).[6]
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External links
- Insect species and observations on iNaturalist
- Overview of Orders of Insects
- "Insect" at the Encyclopedia of Life
- A Safrinet Manual for Entomology and Arachnology SPC
- Tree of Life Project – Insecta, Insecta Movies
- Fossil Insect Database: Holotypes at the International Palaeoentological Society
- UF Book of Insect Records
- InsectImages.org 24,000 high resolution insect photographs