Entomology
Entomology
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What is Entomology?
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It is the study of insects. Insects are
always around us. Scientists called
entomologist spend most of their time
studying these insects
Entomology

What is the average amount of insects
that are on the earths surface.
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There are more than 750,000 species of
insects which have been identified
There is about 2,000,000 species that have
not been identified
Entomology
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Are all insects harmful to humans?
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No, There is about 10,000 that are harmful
to humans.
Entomology
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Are insects good or bad?
In history we have seen both sides of
insects.
 The bad side is the destructive ways of
mowing down crops or fields.
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Entomology

Did anyone read or hear about the
Armyworm problem this spring?

Explain what happened?
Entomology

Some more problems with insects have
been?
Deadly epidemics of the past have been
caused by diseased organisms carried by
insects.
 Example: bubonic plague epidemic that
wiped out the population of Europe in the
14 century was carried by fleas that
infested rodents
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Entomology

Cont….

Digging of the panama Canal have been
hindered by insects

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Started by the French in 1880 and abandoned
because of workers dieing caused by malaria
and yellow fever
Which this was carried around by mosquitoes
Entomology
Did you know?
 That the discovery of America was
indirectly tied to the larvae of a moth.
 This moth feeds on particular trees of
the mulberry family
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Entomology
These moths spun cocoons of long and
smooth fibers to create a cloth called
silk.
 This cloth during the Middle Ages was a
high demand or market for this.
 Columbus was looking for a passage
way to the eastern countries when he
ran into America.
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Entomology
On page 316.
 There is a statue of this insect which is
located in Enterprise Alabama.


This area depends on cotton production
Entomology
Around Alabama
 Crops that mostly grow are cotton but
the invasion of the boll weevil destroyed
the crops and a guy named George
Washington Carver developed many
uses for other crops that would grow in
that area.
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Entomology

Some of those crops are :

Peanuts

Which came to be more profitable that the
cotton
Entomology

Why do people eat insects?

Some cultures will eat insects for food.

Termite larva are considered to be delicious by
some people who live in the tropics.
Entomology

Classification of insects:

There are different levels of classifying
insects:
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–
–
–
–
–
–
Kingdom
Phyla
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
Entomology
The highest level is the Kingdom
 The most specific is the species level.
 Organisms are usually classified by the
genus and species.
 This is called a binomial nomenclature
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Entomology

Here are six orders of insects:
Orthoptera- which includes the
grasshopper and locust
 Hemiptera which includes the true bugs
such as leaf hoppers and plant bugs
 Lepidoptera – moths and butterflies
 Homoptera- aphids

Entomology

Cont…
Thysanoptera- thrips
 Coleoptera- which is the largest group of
the insect orders this has beetles
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Entomology
How are insects grouped?
 They are grouped by the way they feed
on plants. So they are grouped by their
mouth parts.
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Entomology

There are six different mouth parts
Sponging
 Rasping- sucking
 Siphoning
 Chewing-lapping
 Chewing
 Piercing- sucking
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Entomology
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Insects have no internal skeleton and
they rely on their hard outer coating
called exoskeleton which protects their
inner organs and supports their body.
Entomology
What is the exoskeleton composed of ?
 non cellular layer compose of a
material called chitin which is secreted
by an inner layer of cells. Chitin is
coated with a waxy layer that helps
insects retain fluid content of the body
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Entomology
Parts of an insect?
 There are three parts to any insect
 They are
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Head
 Thorax
 Abdomen
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Entomology
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Head
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Has a pair of compound eye and two
sensory appendages called antennae.
Entomology
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Thorax
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It is divided into three segments from
which are attached three pairs of legs
Entomology
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Abdomen
It is attached to the thorax
 which will contain more segments
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Entomology
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There are two different life cycles that
an insect can go through and they are:
Incomplete Metamorphosis
 Complete Metamorphosis
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Entomology
Incomplete Metamorphosis
 Goes from Adult
 to late nymph(wings developing)
 to Early nymph (no wings)
 Eggs
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Entomology
Complete Metamorphosis
 Adult to
 Pupa to
 Larva to
 Eggs to
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Entomology
What is a larva?
 It is when the young insect has soft
tubular body and looks very much like a
worm
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Entomology
What is a pupa stage?
 It is when the larva matures and will
pass throw the pupa stages which is
usually a relatively dormant stage.
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Entomology
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Phytophagous insects
phyto means plant and phagous means
eating. Whenever a plant is eaten on it is
damaged in terms of growth and
productivity
Entomology
Parasitism is a relationship that is beneficial to
one animal and harmful to the other.
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Entomology
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What is DDT?

This is a chemical that was discovered by
German name Othmar Zeidler in 1874
It is a chemical to cut down on the number
of insects in a given area.
 Example mosquitoes in the tropics
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Entomology
Integrated pest management uses
 Cultural methods
 Insect diseases and predators
 Pheromones
 Release of sterile males
 Insect resistant plants varieties
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Entomology
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Project:
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You will be given a copy of some insects
you will then make flash cards with the
insect on a card. You will need to color
you insects by the description that it gives
you. So you might want to bring in color
pencils. You will then have time in class to
study and make cards.
Entomology
On these cards
 One side will have insect picture
 Second side will have what it will
damage and what it will look like
 Time of attack
 Description of insect
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