Biology 3484A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Elytron, Beetle, Neoptera
28 Jul 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Synapomorphies: complete metamorphosis; presense of pupal & larval stages; larvae with internal wing development. Coleoptera (beetles), diptera (flies), lepidoptera (moths), hymenoptera (wasps) Most # of described and predicted to have most undescribed species. Order coleoptera (beetles) sheath-winged insects (cid:862)coleo(cid:863)=sheath (cid:862)pte(cid:396)a(cid:863)= (cid:449)ing. **300,000 species described larvae commonly called grubs front pair of wings = elytra; generally not used in flying: back (hind) wings power flight, when at rest: back wings folded under elytra (serve as protection) like a sheath. Abundant in soil and leaf litter synapomorphy: shortened elytra. Lives revolve around feces: reproduce over balls of dung, lay eggs in balls of dung and bury it, larvae feeds on dung. Sexual dimorphism present: many adult beetles are pollinators. Insects communitcate via semiochemicals (chemicals that carry a message: semiochemicals: often derived from plant secondary metabolites (psm, eg. 30,000 species larvae and adults feed on living leaves together. 5,000 species introduced to na as pest control but became pest.
