Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
Blogging has been slow this week as, among other things, I’m readying the final exam for Insects & People. Here is an excerpt from a practice exam administered earlier this evening:
In the absence of posting, I figured I’d at least offer some multiple-choice questions.
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net; or follow @Myrmecos on Twitter.
a. a. b.
whoops – in haste I wrote (a) instead of (c) for the first one…I am a horrible student
Aw, cetoniines! Wow, I’d never heard of Seguy at all– will pass that on for future Insects in Art lectures. Also, I would like framed prints of all of his beetle art immediately, pls.
The main reason I know Seguy is that the NC State library has a large collection of his entomological works in their special collections (I have seen them myself). Here is a link to see some of them: http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog?fispartof_facet=E.+A.+Seguy+Insectes+and+Papillons
I am not having the best luck…the comment stripped part of the link. Here is a bitly: http://bit.ly/Ji7WCK
I just failed your course. I guess, given my regression, I’m now an ecologist. I’m off to go argue with someone about the “best” statistical analysis, eva!
c, a, b
Gives me ideas for making my Biology of Insects exams more fun!
We want more ants.
Is there a simple rule for all insects that distinguishes adults from immatures?
hmmmm…
Not likely considering the number of species and diversity of morphs involved. You could generalize within hundreds of thousands of species in a certain development group (eg Holometabola) but the large numbers of species in more ‘primitive’ groups are problematic.
Possession of wings, but some adults lack them (as the “primitive ones menitoned by Biobob, and some others), and exceptionally, immature mayflies have them.
Just WAY too many species in which adults do not have wings, even in the Holometabola.
Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite ‘em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum….
How about “If it looks like a larva, it most likely is” (also with exceptions)?
dfg, here is a general cheat sheet… but it is by no means ‘simple:
Ephemeroptera:
- Wingless / aquatic = immature
- Terrestrial / short caudal filaments / 4 cloudy wings (rear are small) = subimago
- Terrestrial / long filaments / transparent wings = imago (aka adult)
Odonata:
- Wingless / aquatic = immature
- 4 wings / terrestrial= adult
Plecoptera:
- Wingless / aquatic = immature (with exceptions – there are wingless species)
- 4 wings / terrestrial = adult
Blattodea:
- Wingless = immature (with exceptions – there are wingless species)
- 4 wings = adult
Mantodea:
- Wingless = immature
- 2 wings / 2 tegmina = adult
Isoptera:
- Wingless grub = immature
- Wings AND/OR “termitey-looking” = adult
Dermaptera:
- Wingless = immature (with exceptions – there are wingless species)
- Wings = adult
Orthoptera:
- Wingless = immature
- 4 wings (front pair often leathery) = adult
Phasmantodea:
- Wingless = immature (with exceptions, there are wingless species)
- 2 wings/ 2 tegmina = adult
Psocoptera:
- Wingless = immature (with exceptions, there are wingless species)
- 4 wings = adult
Hempitera:
- Wingless = immature (with exceptions, there are wingless species)
- 2 wings = adult (most species possess two pairs of wings, but some have only one pair and a few species have none)
Hymenoptera:
- Wingless larva = immature
- Wings, “Anty looking” = adult (most ants lack wings – only reproductives have them, velvet ants are actually wasps without wings, there are some other wasps without wings as well)
Coleoptera:
- Wingless grub = immature
- 2 wings / 2 elytra = adult
Mecoptera:
- Wingless = immature
- 2 wings = adult
Diptera:
- Wingless / some aquatic = immature
- 2 wings = adult (with exceptions, there are wingless species
Megaloptera:
- Wingless / aquatic = immature
- 4 wings / terrestrial = adult
Raphidioptera:
- Wingless = immature
- 4 wings = adult
Neuroptera:
- Wingless = immature (often with large mandibles)
- 4 wings = mature
Lepidoptera:
- Wingless / mandibles = immature
- 4 wings / coiled proboscis = adult
Trichoptera:
- Wingless / aquatic / many with cases = immature
- 4 wings / terrestrial = adult
Thysanptera:
- Wingless = immature
- 4 fringed wings = adult
Siphonaptera:
- Larva = immature
- “flea-like” = adult
Strepsiptera:
- Wingless = immature male/ female or adult female (if free living = a male, if protruding between abdominal segments in adult wasps = adult females)
- 2 wings = adult males
Embioptera:
- Wingless = immature male/female or adult female (with exceptions, there are wingless species)
- 4 wings = adult males
…and then of course there are the ones that we just won’t mention: Phthiraptera, Zoraptera, Grylloblattodea, Protura, Collembola
Please feel free to quality control folks… when I work from memory, mistakes can run rampant
I suspect that you would need a number more “= adult (with exceptions, there are wingless species)” in groups in which you do not have them. Especially in the more diverse groups like Coleoptera, but others as well.
Based on my vast ignorance, however, I will not suggest specific places where you need to add the phrase.
I will just agree with James C. Trager and say
”
” We want more ants.
BTW, James, I have no problem with the folks who call immature “hemimetabola” “larva” but you might given that statement “looks like a larva”.
hmmm….exactly what DOES a larva look like anyway ?
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Liphyra%20brassolis%20larva%20DJ.jpg
There is a simple rule – adults are sexually mature, immatures are not.
So a micromalthid ‘pupa’ may be an adult, but a winged mayfly subimago is not. A silverfish is an adult when sexually mature, but may undergo numerous additional moults as an adult. Technically, one could argue that any bug that looks like an adult but needs further maturation to reproduce is not yet an adult. So, even this simple rule is not very simple. Also, arthropods don’t seem interested in making our definitions any easier. For example, some collembolans (not an insect) apparently alternate between sexually mature and inactive stages after their first adult stage.
Here’s a great example of how complicated ‘adult’ may be:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/498200/bgimage
So since the ‘adult’ of Micromalthus debilis is not reproductively functional, technically it isn’t the adult. Only the reproductive ‘larval’ forms are adults.
That is beyond wierd!
(And BioBob, I’m okay with odonates and other pupa-less insects having larvae.)
Speaking of mayflies, did you know that if you take eggs from mature larva (nymphs) of certain families still in the aquatic stage (not subimagos, not imagos) they WILL hatch and grow fine. Nobody knows if their is actual reproduction in this manner but there it is.
It gets wierder the more you look….
c, a, b!!! I got a couple Seguy prints hanging on my cubicle
Need more posts!