| Uniramia |
| --Centipedes |
| --Hexapoda 1 (insects) |
| --Hexapoda 2 (insects) |
| --Insect orders |
| ----Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths) |
| ----Ephemeroptera (mayflies) |
| ----Hemiptera (bugs, cicadas) |
| ----Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps & saw flies) |
| ------Bumblebees |
| ----Coleoptera (beetles) |
| ----Dictyoptera (mantids, cockroaches) |
| ----Diptera (true flies) |
| ----Neuroptera (lacewings, ant lions) |
| ----Orthoptera (crickets, locusts) |
| ----Thysanura (bristletails, silver fish) |
| ----Strepsiptera (stylops) |
| ----Thysanoptera (thrips) |
| ----Odonata (dragonflies, damselflies) |
| ----Trichoptera (caddis flies) |
| ----Siphonaptera (fleas) |
| ----Isoptera (termites) |
| ----Phasmida (stick & leaf insects) |
| ----Dermaptera (earwigs) |
| ----Anoplura/Sipunculata (sucking lice) |
| ----Mallophaga (biting lice, bird lice) |
| ----Psocoptera (book lice) |
| ----Mecoptera (scorpion flies) |
| ----Collembola (springtail) |
| ----Embioptera (web spinners) |
| ----Plecoptera (stone flies) |
| ----Diplura (bristletails) |
| ----Protura |
| ----Zoraptera |
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The Apterygote (wingless)
Classes
These are the Diplura (bristletails), Collembola (springtails), Protura and Thysanura (silverfish).
The bristletails and silverfish both have two long cerci, and
between this a caudal appendage. There are just under 10 000 described species
of Apterygotes.
Class Pterygota (winged) Classes
The insects in this class have two pairs of wings; one pair on
the mesothorax and another on the metathorax. The Pterygotes can be
further divided into two groups; those that undergo complete metamorphosis
(holometabolous), and those that undergo a gradual metamorphosis
(hemimetabolous). Hemimetabolous insects have young that resemble the adults,
and the gradual development of wings is external . Such insects include, Odonata (dragonflies), Orthoptera (grasshoppers), Dermaptera (earwigs) and Hemiptera (aphids, cicadas.
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Pterygotes have muscles which
allow them to close their spiracles so greatly reducing water loss and enabling
them to colonise drier habitats.
Abovet is a cicada nymph, a hemimetabolous insect. The young cicada resembles the adult,
and with each instar the wings develop more. Note the greatly enlarged forelegs
used by the cicada to dig. Cicada nymphs develop underground and feed on plant
roots.
Left is the caterpillar of the tussock moth, a holometabolous insect the
caterpillar looks nothing like the adult moth.
Holometabolous insects have
young (larva) that usually do not resemble the adult (see below), and often
occupy a different niche. These insects form a pupa (see below) before emerging
as the adult form.
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About 88% of the described insects are holometabolous and
include the four largest Orders that have diversified along with the
diversification and radiation of the Angiosperms; they are the Diptera (flies), Coleoptera (beetles),
Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, bees), and Lepidoptera (butterfiles and moths).
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Water beetle
pupa above and adult ladybird right |
Left is the pupae of a water beetle and above a moth, both holometabolous insects. These
undergo a complete metamorphosis during the pupal stage before emerging as an
adult. Note the breathing holes (spiracles) down the side of the privet hawkmoth (Sphynx ligustri) pupa above right. |
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Insect records
| Fastest flight |
Austrophlebia costalis
(Odonata: Aeshnidae), a dragonfly at 98 km/h
Hybomitra hinei wrighti
(Diptera: Tabanidae), a fly at 145 km/h |
| Fastest wing beat |
Forcipomyia sp.
(Diptera:Ceratopogonidae), a midge, species not known can beat its wings 1046
times per second. |
| Fastest runner |
Cicindela hudsoni, an
Australian tiger beetle can run at 2.5 metres per second. |
| Least specific vertebrate
blood sucker |
Glossina palpalis
(Diptera: Glossinidae), tsetse fly. It can feed on any vertebrate. |
| Longest |
Pharnacia serratipes, a
stick insect, at 55.5 cm (22 in). |
| Smallest adult |
Dicopomorpha
echmepterygis (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae), a parasitic wasp. The length of the
male is 139 µm. |
| Largest swarm |
Schistocerca gregaria,
the desert locust. In 1954 a swarm covering 200 km sq invaded Kenya. The swarm
was estimated to contain 10 billion individuals. |
| Largest eggs |
Xylocopa auripennis, a
carpenter bee
lays eggs 16.5 mm long and 3.0 mm in diameter. |
| Heat tolerant |
Cataglyphis bicolor
(Hymenoptera: Formicidae), a Saharan ant which can forage at body temperature
above 50oC and surface temperature of up to
70oC. |
| Cold tolerant |
Polypedilum
vanderplanki (Diptera), an African chironomid(midge) can survive submersion
in liquid helium at -270oC. |
| Most spectacular
mating |
Apis mellifera
(Hymenoptera), the honey bee. The drone (male) dies after mating once. The
queen bee files off with his phallus still in her vagina. The phallus having
broken off after spem exits explosively. The queen eventually ejects the
phallus and goes on to mate again. |
| Longest regular
migration |
Danaus plexippus
(Lepidoptera: Danaidae), the monarch butterfly. Some migrate more than 4000 km
from Southern Canada to Central Mexico. |
| Longest adult life |
Lasius niger, ant queen
survived 28.75 years in captivity.
Pogonomyrmex owyheei, ant queen,
30 estimated in the wild. |
| Longest life cycle |
Buprestis aurulenta
larva, a wood boring beetle, emerged after 51 years |
| Shortest adult
life |
Dolania americana
(Ephemeroptera), a mayfly, lives for less than five minutes after her final
molt. During the five minutes she chooses a mate, mates, and lays her eggs.
|
| Shortest generation
time |
Rhopalosiphum
prunifolia, an aphid, has the shortest generation time of 4.7 days at
25o C. |
| Most polyandrous (female with
higest number of mates) |
Apis dorsata
(Hymenoptera:Apidae) a queen bee mated 53 times, each with a different male.
Chrysochus cobaltinus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), a blue milkweed
butterfly female, had up to 60 matings, though some of these were multiple
matings with the same male. |
| Loudest |
Brevisana brevis
(Homoptera: Cicadidae), a cicada, produces a calling song with a mean sound
pressure level of 106.7 decibels at a distance of 50 cm. |
| Best "new" man |
Male Nicrophorus
orbicollis, a burying beetle, participate in all activities, remain with
the brood throughout development, and can take over all parenting
responsibilities if the female disappears. |
| The above insect records,
taken from Walker,
T.J., ed. 2001. University of Florida Book of Insect Records,
2001. |
| Fastest muscles |
Termes panamensis, (a termite) has the fastest muscles in the world. It needed film shot at 40 000 frames per second to calculate the speed at which T. panamensis snaps its jaws shut, and the result is 70.4 m s-1. Its jaw muscles are so big that they fill half the space inside its head, and they are triggered by seeing an intruder's face inside the nest. |
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