1407 Test IV Phylum Arthropoda: Class INSECTA

PHYLUM: Arthropoda = “Jointed foot”

General Characteristics: All have..

Jointed appendages, not limited to “foot”.
Exoskeleton composed of Chitin a complex Polysaccharide, a component of cartilage.
Cephalization, a distinct head with sensory organs.

Compound or multifaceted eyes that exaggerate movement

Some have additional simple eyes

Organs for touch

Organs for smell/taste

Organs for equilibrium

CLASS: Insecta:

All breathe through Spiracles, openings on the segmented Abdomen

All have three body sections: Head, Thorax, and Abdomen (often called “tail”)

There are more species in Class Insecta than all other classes of animals combined.

There are Insects adapted to almost all environments on earth.

Vital Roles:

Food Chain: They are a vital food supply for many Vertebrates, including

Many Mammals, including Humans in many parts of the world

Most Reptiles

All Amphibians

Many Birds

Pollination:

Insects are vital for pollination of many critical flowering plant food crops.

Honeybees are the most vital. The Honeybee population has been dramatically reduced by a parasitic mite that clogs there spiracles and Colony Decline, thought to be from insecticide use.

Beneficial Roles:

Beneficial insects destroy harmful insects.

Lady Bugs destroy Aphids that tap into the Phloem of plant leaves and feed on the food made.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lady+bugs&sxsrf=ALeKk00E_UZj-VArUC4pr9gv09-anV49fg:1586142518829&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjIj5er6dLoAhVFVc0KHSClAtQQ_AUoAXoECBkQAw&biw=988&bih=620

Praying Mantis destroys many different harmful insects. My grandmother was an “Organic Gardner” before it was a term. She would order eggs of both and put in her garden. They’re still available.

https://www.google.com/search?q=praying+mantis&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiz3Mit6dLoAhVQSawKHU0PAWcQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=Pray&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMgQIABBDMgQIABBDMgIIADIECAAQQzICCAAyBAgAEEMyAggAMgIIADICCAAyBAgAEEM6BAgjECc6BQgAEIMBUOKkBFj70QRglOMEaAFwAHgAgAF-iAHbBJIBAzAuNZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1n&sclient=img&ei=O52KXvPSMtCSsQXNnoS4Bg&bih=620&biw=988

A species of wasp can detect chemicals given off by some plants being eaten by insect larvae/caterpillars. They follow the scent, lay eggs on the caterpillar, and when they hatch, they feed on the pest.

Many beneficial insects are available to destroy many different harmful garden/crop insect pests.

Food:

1,400 Species of insects are edible to supplement food supply.

Honey is a popular food produced by Honeybees

Medical roles:

Honeybee Venom Therapy: A protein in bee venom, Melittin, is an anti-inflammatory that has been used in treating Autoimmune Diseases. Anecdotal evidence where bee keepers did not have arthritis led to the discovery of the reason.

Raw Honey from your area can help with allergies. Never feed raw honey to infants due to the risk of Botulism food poisoning.

Surgical Maggots: Larvae are used to remove dead tissue, allowing a better chance of healing.

Lac insects: Body fluids from the Lac insect were used to produce Shellac and as a component of Varnish.

Synthetics have replaced the natural products.

Decomposition: Many different insects help decompose feces, dead plants, and dead animals to make nutrients available for new life.

Harmful Insects:

Destruction of property:
Wood- Termites
Paper-Silverfish
Wool-Moth larvae
CROPS: There are insects that can destroy crops in all stages from seeds to the finished product.
Disease Vectors: (Insects that spread disease)
Mosquitoes: They transmit several viral diseases and several parasitic diseases. Millions die each year from mosquito transmitted diseases.
Flies: Flies transmit many Fecal/Oral diseases from feces to human food.
Roaches: Transmit similar to flies.
Fleas: Fleas were the vector in Black Death/Bubonic Plague that killed half the population of Europe in the 1300s.
Lice: Transmit Typhus, and one, the Crab Lice is a STD.
Stinging Insects: w/venom that can be painful or deadly if highly allergic.
Ants: Many species. All bite and squirt venom in bite site. Lack stingers
Wasps: We have three species in this area: Red Wasp, Black Wasp, and Guinea Wasp (Often mistakenly called “Yellow Jackets”.
Yellow Jackets: Yellow Jackets usually have nest underground. They are black and yellow .
Hornets: Larger than wasps and build large paper nests often two feet long and 10+ inches across.
Cicada Killer: Rarely sting unless bothered. Often called “Ground Hornets”. They live underground and feed on Cicada (Called “Locusts” by many in ET.)

THE HONEYBEE

The Honeybee is one of the most important insects in the insect world. It is vital to the food supply of the world. It is threatened, thus threatening our food supply. If more knew more about this amazing animal, perhaps we would do a better job of protecting it. They demonstrate some of the most amazing instinctive behaviors in the animal world.

Many people fear them because they don’t understand them. There is some reason, so I’ll address that first. It’s true, a single sting can kill, but only if you are highly allergic to it. Some are called “KILLER” bees. That sounds scary.

KILLER BEES: A better name is “Africanized” bees. Bees were brought from Africa to South America with the thought that they would increase honey production. There were so many more predators in Africa that destroy colonies to steal their honey that they had to develop aggressiveness to survive. They escaped in Brazil in the 1950s, and have been migrating northward ever since. They have been in this area for many years. They look no different from our native bees. Their venom is no more potent than our native bees. The difference is their aggressiveness. They can attack and sting by the hundreds.

Honeybee Facts:

A Honeybee hive or colony is composed of three types of bees.
One QUEEN: The largest in the hive. The only fertile female. Her main role is to lay eggs. She mates and can determine the sex of the offspring by controlling if the egg is fertilized or not.
A few dozen DRONES: Their only role is to mate with a Queen, usually from a different hive. This is how “Killer” bees spread. A Killer bee drone mates with a regular Queen, then her offspring are Killer bees. They develop from unfertilized eggs by a process of “parthenogenesis”. Drones do not have stingers, thus cannot sting. They have it made! They don’t have to do any work in the hive. They just cruise around looking for “chicks”, looking for a Queen on her mating flight. When he finds one and mates, his “family Jewels” are ripped out and stored in the Queen. He dies. Then, come Fall, when there’s no nectar, the workers kick all the Drones out to die. It’s all for the survival of the hive. Remember, the Queen can just lay unfertilized eggs to make more Drones, come Spring.
WORKERS There can be tens of thousands of workers in a hive. They are infertile females and perform all of the work in the hive. They develop from fertilized eggs.

https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+bee+members&hl=en&sxsrf=ALeKk03nz02_5QqiowfilDMx2AEnaxEInQ:1586143443962&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJ2qjk7NLoAhUICs0KHYt-AP8Q_AUoAXoECA4QAw&biw=988&bih=620

Amazing Instinctive Behaviors
Navigation skills:

They can fly around for hours collecting nectar. When they are gorged, the can make a “Bee Line” back to the hive. If your parents told you to make a “B line” home from an activity, it meant come straight home. Don’t go anywhere else. This is where the term came from. It is thought that metal particles in their brain align with the magnetic North Pole and allows them to fly straight to the hive.

Communication skills:

When they return to the hive with nectar, they can communicate the location to other workers in the hive by doing a figure 8 dance, communicating the direction and the distance to the food source.

Engineering skills:

Workers take the wax that is secreted by their abdomen and shape it with their mandibles with such precision that it would take higher mathematics and engineering instruments to match its precision. They do it in the dark! Every side of the cell has to be exact length, thickness, and depth. It has to be at an exact angle to prevent the digested nectar from running out before it becomes viscous. The “honey comb” is perfection in design and function.

Chemistry skills:

Workers create an air circulation pattern in the hive to evaporate the water from the digested nectar until the viscosity/sugar concentration is such that it will not spoil. Then they put a wax cap over it. Stored honey is what the hive survives on through the winter until nectar flows again.

Replacing the Queen:

There are two ways a hive can lose a Queen:

She leaves with thousands of workers if the hive gets overpopulated.
She can die.

Workers produce Royal Jelly from materials collected. The Royal Jelly contains hormones that change the worker larvae into Queens. They find three worker larvae that are three days old and feed them Royal Jelly. How do they know which ones are three days old? They develop three to make sure one survives, but only one Queen can be in a hive. It two emerge at the same time, there is one “cat fight”. They fight until one leaves. If one emerges before the others, she stings them to death before they emerge. That’s the only time a Queen will sting. You can pick them up and play with them. They won’t sting.

Specific Roles:

Workers have specific roles within the hive. Some collect nectar, others Pollen to make bee bread to feed the young, others water. Some are housekeepers, keeping the hive clean. Some shape wax into comb. Some guard the hive against predators. Some feed the larvae. Some feed the Queen and Drones. Everyone does their job for the survival of the hive. This is not all of the chores performed.

Swarming:

When the Queen leaves with thousands of workers (Swarming), and lands somewhere, the workers attach to her and can form masses of a gallon or more in volume. Before they leave, the all gorge with honey, not knowing how long it will be before they find a new home. Scout bees are sent out to look for a suitable hive location. When they return, they communicate to the swarm, the swarm then follows them to the new location.

*Other tidbits you’re not responsible for:

(I learned a lot about honeybees from my grandfather who was born in 1889. He was a farmer. During that time period, people lived off the land. They raised their food and preserved it by canning or drying. They raised hogs and chickens for a meat source. They hunted to provide other meat. My grandfather also kept bee hives for honey when my mom was growing up. I learned to “bee hunt” from him when I was tired of squirrel hunting. I would put a watermelon rind down to attract them. He raised watermelons. I would observe that they would make three circles, then start off on their “Bee” line. I would follow the direction, and they would take me to their hive. When I would get off course, I’d set the rind down and get back on line. It is thought that metal particles in their brain react with the magnetic North Pole for them to be able to locate the hive, but how their brain computes from all their movement defies explanation. You may have been told to make a “B” line home from the dance/game or whatever. This is where it came from. It has been passed down for generations. They might not have known the origin of the saying.

We would then use a cross-cut saw and cut the tree down to “rob” the honey. He taught me that it had to be done early in the summer for them to have time to find a new home and have time to make enough honey for the winter.

When the tree fell, they would be just some upset! We covered up to keep from getting stung. We would then use a smoker and fill the area with smoke. Some think smoke “settles” them down. What really happens is that it triggers another instinctive behavior. I could then remove some of the protective covering. It was hot. In nature, when they smell smoke, they think a fire is coming. In response they all gorge with honey, thinking they may have to leave their hive. They get so full of honey that they can’t extend their stinger to sting. They do the same thing before they “swarm”. At that point, they do become more docile.

I’ve had some fun with the above knowledge. In college, a swarm formed just outside the window. It was before AC, so the window had been open and several were in the room. People scattered. I got up on the window ledge, reached out and very slowly eased my hand into the mass, knowing they had just swarmed and were gorged with honey. I had a handful of bees. I blew off the excess until I could cup my other hand over the mass. When you start slowly easing down the hall with your hand clasped over something, people get curious. When several had gathered around asking what I had in my hand, I removed my covering hand and said, “Bees!” Talk about feet spinning on slick tile!

Then when I started teaching here, a swarm formed just outside what is now the Liberal Arts building. I got a cardboard box and started slowly working my bare hands into the swarm and shaking them off into the box until I had most of them in it. Thousands of bees were in the air flying around me. Talk about an audience!! But it was from a safe distance.

I remember my grandmother grabbing a pan and a wooden spoon when she heard a swarm of bees going over. With all windows and doors open with just screens, the roar was very loud. They swarm moves slowly. She would start beating on the pan, and the swarm with land. I learned a similar thing by accident from remembering about the tapping above. Years later, in the ‘80s, when I cut a bee tree down and had put brood comb (comb with larvae and eggs) and comb with honey in the hive, bees would be everywhere in the air and all over the tree. I put sticks on the hive porch and into the tree cavity. I started tapping on the hive with my pocket knife, and it was like the Pied Piper. They marching right into the hive. It was eerie!

In the ‘80s, I had as many as eight hives in my back yard here in Athens. I was going to have to get rid of them as the “killer bees” were getting close, but parasitic mites wiped them out first.

There used to be so many bees on the pear trees on campus when they were in bloom, that you could hear the tree buzzing form quite a distance. Now, it’s hard to find a bee or two on one. It’s sad!)

Stinging Insects were listed earlier: Insect venom contains organic acid and protein components. Bases can be used to neutralize the organic acid. Enzymes can counter the protein component. Many household products are available to counter the venom. Wet baking powder is an excellent venom neutralizer.

Bumblebees: Bumblebees were listed with the list of stinging insects. Like honeybees, only the females sting.

We have three species of bumblebees in our area. Two species have their nests underground. One species is very aggressive when disturbed. It is a real threat to farmers and ranchers, and have led to deaths and serious injuries. It attacks in large numbers when disturbed like by mowing pastures and/or cutting hay. Tractors have a throttle vs an accelerator like vehicles. You set the throttle and just steer until it’s time to stop or make major direction changes.

I know of one person who was attacked while mowing hay. You don’t think too clearly when you are being stung all over by bumblebees. The bees came from his left, and he jumped off to his right where the sickle cutter was, cutting off his big toe. With the throttle set, the tractor keeps going.

A classmate was mowing pastures (brush hogging) when he encountered them. He jumped off the tractor, and the brush hog ran over him. He was lucky, most are picked up in body bags. He has been crippled ever since. He walks with two canes.

The third kind are wood-boring bumblebees. They bore holes in wood to make their nests. They prefer softwoods like cedar. They are the largest of the three species, so when you see the large ones visiting flowers, it this one. I learned as a small child about these. The Drones/males are easy to identify. They have a white/yellow spot on their head. It’s about the size of the head of a paper match. Remember, Drones don’t have stingers. My grandmother would catch one, tie a sewing thread around it, and I’d have a “pet bumblebee on a string.” It would fly on the end of the string.

You can freak people out when they see you about to catch a big black bumblebee. It really freaks ‘em out when you catch it, pop it in your mouth, and blow it out to fly away. Just make sure it has a spot on its head. It doesn’t take long to turn a female loose.