Insects

Insects Arthropods (segmented body, exoskeleton, and jointed appendages) Invertebrates Insects

Insect Anatomy 3 body segments Head – with a pair of antennae and two eyes (usually compound- effective at detecting movement) Thorax – with 6 legs and usually 2 pairs of wings Abdomen – contains most of the insects organs Contains small tubes that allow air to enter the body; oxygen then travels directly to the cells.

Insect Anatomy Exoskeleton – outer covering (made of protein and chitin) that supports and protects the body

Insect Nutrition Nutrition – various diets for different insects: Plants/plant products Animals (ex. fleas and mosquitoes) Decaying animal bodies (ex. Carrion beetles) or animal waste (ex. Dung beetle)

Insect Feeding Mouthparts are adapted to type of food: Butterfly has long tube to “drink” nectar Ants have sharp mouthparts for cutting wood and seeds

Insect Senses Good senses (in addition to compound eyes) Chemical receptors on mouthparts, antennae, and legs to detect taste and smell Hairs on legs detect slight movements in air or water

Insect Life Cycles Development (life cycle)- metamorphosis- two types: Incomplete (ex. Grasshopper) Egg  nymph  adult

Insect Life Cycles Complete (ex. Butterfly) Egg  larvae (caterpillar)  pupa (cocoon)  adult (butterfly)

Beware the Bot Fly! Bot flies use mosquitos to carry their eggs to a host. The mosquitos inject the host with the eggs. Eggs grow to maturity underneath the skin.

                                           Finding: PLAUSIBLE Explanation: The myth that cockroaches will inherit the Earth in the event of nuclear warfare surfaced shortly after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Reports later emerged that the 300 million-year-old insects were among the razed Japanese cities' only survivors. During the Cold War, anti-nuclear activists and scientists spread the myth far and wide as a cautionary tale of the atom bomb's destructive potential. To test whether this doomsday scenario has any legs, the MythBusters subjected German cockroaches to three levels of radioactive metal cobalt 60. They started with a baseline exposure of 1,000 radon units (rads) of cobalt 60, capable of killing a person in 10 minutes, and followed it up with 10,000 and 100,000 rad exposures on separate guinea pig — er, roach — groups. (As a comparison, the bomb on Hiroshima emitted radioactive gamma rays at a strength of around 10,000 rads.) Since radiation gradually destroys organisms on the cellular level, the MythBusters monitored the radiated roaches for 30 days. After a month, half the roaches exposed to 1,000 rads were still kicking, and a remarkable 10 percent of the 10,000 rad group was alive. The results confirmed that cockroaches can survive a nuclear explosion — but only to a point, as none of the critters in the 100,000 rad group made it through. Cockroaches' ability to withstand extreme radiation exposure may come down to their simple bodies and slower cell cycles. Cells are said to be most sensitive to radiation when they're dividing. That's why humans are more vulnerable — they have some cells that are constantly splitting up. Roaches, on the other hand, only molt about once a week at most, which makes radiation's window of opportunity to attack cells much narrower. But if the nuclear explosion was powerful enough, even these ancient critters couldn't continue on. As seen in "MythBusters: Airplane on a Conveyor Belt."