Entomology 401Identifying Friends and Foes

• Insect biodiversity accounts for a large proportion of all biodiversity on the planet, with over 1,000,000 insect species described.

• PestsAny living organisms which are detrimental, troublesome, noxious, destructive, a nuisance to either plants or animals, human or human concerns, livestock, human structures, wild ecosystems, etc.

• Beneficials- Food production

In the United States alone, pollination by bees accounts for over US$9 billion of economic revenue 

- Ecological services

- Products: honey, shellac, dyes, silkE.g. Honey bee, silk wormPredators: Minute pirate bug, Assassin bug, Damsel bug,

Green lacewing, Ladybug

Herbivores: Feeds upon living plant material

Predator: An animal that feeds upon other animals (prey) that are either smaller or weaker than itself

• Those with chewing mouthparts: simply chew up and swallow their victims

Herbivores: grasshopper, green clover worm, army worm, etc.

Predators: ladybugs, ground beetles, preying mantis, etc.

• Those with piercing sucking mouthparts: stick the mouthpart into prey and suck out the body content

Herbivores: redbanded stink bug, aphids, white flies

Predators: assassin bug, lacewing larvae, syrphid larvae

Chewing Pests

Coleoptera (head)

Cotton Boll Worm

• Grasshopper

Boll Damage

Adult Boll Weevil Feeding

Cabbage Looper

Tiger beetles

http://www.realmonstrosities.com/2012/01/tiger-beetle.html

Hymenoptera : Formicidae

• Ladybug

Dragon Fly

Piercing-Sucking & Rasping Pests

Hemiptera (piercing and sucking mouthparts)

Order Hemiptera

Whiteflies Thrips

Spider Mites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49dQtrLxkYo

Lygus Bugs

Stink Bugs

Damsel bug

Robber fly

• They have extremely sharp eyesight and can fly at high speed, catching other insects in mid air.

• They have stabbing mouthparts (proboscis) which inject a powerful neurotoxic venom and digestive juices into the victim, liquifying its innards, which the fly sucks afterwards.

Robber Fly

Assassin bug

Minute Pirate Bug

Bigeyed Bug Nymph

Predatory stink bugs

• Green Lacewing

Mantodea : Mantidae

Gonatista sp

Stagmomantis sp.

Tenodera sp.

Mantodea (thorax)

raptorial foreleg

Hymenoptera : Braconidae

Hymenopteran Parasitoids

Platygastrid wasp

Parasitoid Eggs

Hymenoptera (biology/ecology)

Syrphid Fly