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Insect Midterm 3
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What Makes a Species Invasive? | An invasive species can be any kind of living organism that is not native to an ecosystem and has the ability to cause harm. Harm can be to the environment, economy, or human health. |
| Invasive Insects: | Invasive insects not only threaten human health and cause agricultural economic losses, but also endanger valued species and disrupt ecosystem functions. The accelerating pace of globalization creates opportunities for their movement. |
| Stages of Invasion: | arrival, establishment, and spread |
| Arrival (Stages of Invasion): | intentional or unintentional movement of a species outside of its native range. |
| Establishment (Stages of Invasion): | A non-native population becomes capable of survival and reproduction in a novel environment, creating a new population outside native range. |
| Spread (Stages of Invasion): | Dispersal from the novel population into new environments |
| Arrival of the Honeybee: | Honeybees are not native to the US and were deliberately imported from Germany. Honeybees are significantly important in agriculture, so they are defensible as an invasive species. Media attention disproportionately covers them over native pollinators. |
| Economy & Invasive Insects: | When discussing environmental invasive species, it can be hard to determine economic value. Most invasive insect research incentives tend to be focused on crops, agriculture, and human health. The effects of many are unknown. |
| The Spread of Invasive Insects: | Invasive species primarily spread by human activities, often unintentionally. People and goods travel worldwide quickly and often carry uninvited species. Insects get into wood, shipping palettes, and crates that are shipped around the world. |
| Firewood (Spread of Invasive Insects): | Insects can burrow into trees transported for firewood and can move to un-infested areas. This brings risk to forest ecosystems and backyards. States try to discourage movement of wood between states. |
| Emerald Ash Borer: | The emerald ash borer arrived in North America and Europe in the early 2000s. It is destructive to ash trees through larval feeding behavior and has killed millions of ash trees in North America. |
| Red Turpentine Beetle: | Red turpentine beetles are bark beetles that are native to forests of North America. When invasive, they kill expanses of pine in China. |
| Invasive Species & New Environments: | When dispersed to non-native environments, invasive insects escape population-regulating predators, parasitoids, and pathogens, and encounter naïve hosts. This disruption of coevolutionary |
| Invasion Biology: | Invasion biology is an applied discipline that asks these core questions: Which species are most likely to invade? Where are invasions most likely to be successful? How can this information be used to manage biological invasions? |
| What Makes a Good Invader? | Generalists and Parthenogenetic invaders are known to be efficient. Insects that are adapted to house environments are also good. |
| Generalists: | Eat a wide variety of food types. Examples include spotted wing drosophila, spotted lantern fly, and red imported fire ant. |
| Parthenogenetic: | Species with high reproductive potential. Examples include Asian longhorn tick and oleander aphid. |
| Adapted to human environments: | Examples include house flies, German cockroach, and yellow fever mosquito. |
| Rise in Urban Pests: | Over the last few decades, there have been significant changes in ecology, climate, and human behavior. These conditions favor the development of urban pests adapted to live in human habitats. Suburbs are growing into natural habitats of pests. |
| Insects & Humans: | Insects have adapted extremely quickly to human environments. They feed on our food as well as us! Some insects can no longer be found in natural environments and have completely moved indoors. |
| Importance of Urban Pests: | Urban pests are important sources of illnesses, bites, and food contamination. Many serve as disease vectors. They also serve as pests that damage the structural integrity of buildings. |
| Pest Populations: | Any pest that thrives in human habitats or urban areas will sustain populations. The yellow fever mosquito has adapted to urbanization and thrives in cities and wastewater. They are major vectors of several diseases. |
| Insects & Humans (German Cockroaches): | German cockroaches preferentially live indoors and have spread across the globe. German cockroaches are not found in natural environments, only their close relatives. |
| Tolerant to Pollution: | Some species thrive in polluted habitats. Some mosquitoes have adapted to utilize temporary habitats with poor water quality. Culex mosquitoes can live underground in sewers and subways. |
| Urban Entomology: | The rise of urban areas has led to urban entomology: the study of insects that affect people and their property. It attempts to improve control programs through economically feasible and environmentally sound solutions. |
| Insecticide Use: | Pesticides used indoors are correlated with human illness. Long-term exposure is a growing concern. Insecticides used in urban areas are a cause of concern for pollution as well as bioaccumulation. |
| Public Perception: | Most people dislike insects. As a result, insect-rich habitats have been destroyed. Pesticide issues become more acute with the increase of insecticide resistance—an estimated 3 million tons are released into the global environment annually. |
| Insect Decline: | Insect decline is not only an issue for people that love insects. It threatens human well-being, crop pollination, nutrient recycling, pest control, and food webs. Our world cannot function without them. |
| Insects & You: | Beneficial insects are all around us: in gardens, parks, farmland, soil, and in cracks of sidewalks. We should invite more insects into our spaces and change agricultural practices for sustainability. |
| Local Food Movement: | The local food movement aims to connect food producers and consumers in the same geographic region. Preserves the environment from large-scale agriculture. Beekeeping helps preserve bees. |
| Parasites: | Parasitism is a symbiotic relationship in which one organism is adapted to live in/on another. It is a long-term interaction between two organisms of different species where one species benefits and the other is harmed. |
| Ectoparasites: | (ex: fleas, lice, ticks) all have behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations to find and exist on hosts. They are often flattened, have some means of attachment, and allow for movement through host hair. |
| Social Parasitism: | Social parasites take advantage of eusocial insect species through invasion of the hive and exploitation of resources. Ant mimicry can be a result of anti-predation by visual means. |
| Ant Mimicry: | can be visual or non-visual (behavior or pheromones). This allows them to live unharmed in ant nests. Lycaenid butterflies mimic brood and alarm pheromones of ants to integrate themselves into nests. |
| Brood Parasites: | Brood parasites deceive hosts into caring for the mimic as they would their own young. Lycaenid butterflies rely on Myrmica ants to raise their brood. They are both chemically and physically similar to ant larvae and also act as predators. |
| Cuckoo Bees: | Cuckoo bees lack pollen collecting structures, entering nests of pollen-collecting insects to lay eggs. The larva hatches, consumes the host pollen, kills and eats the host larva. If the host is social, parasite stays in the nest and can replace queen. |
| Kleptoparasitism: | Kleptoparasitism is parasitism that involves theft. Kleptoparasites steal food or other resources collected or stored by other species. This is a form of facultative parasitism, which does not rely on any host for completion of life cycle. |
| Emery's Rule: | This is a trend of social parasites to be closely related to their host. The pattern is best known in Hymenoptera. |
| Cuckoo Wasps (Vespula austriaca): | These are obligate parasitic wasps and social parasites. They do not build their own nests and lack a worker caste. Females kill queens of the host colony, and host workers take care of their offspring. |
| Obligate Parasites: | Obligate parasites depend on the host for survival and cannot complete their lifecycle without host exploitation. It is advantageous to preserve the life of the host. They can live outside the host (ectoparasites) or inside the host (endoparasites). |
| Psocodea: Parasitic Lice: | Parasitic lice are ectoparasites which feed on blood. Species are adapted to where on the body they live. Two species infest humans: Pediculus humanus and Pthirus pubis. |
| Parasitic Lice Characteristics: | obligate parasites that spend their entire life on the host from egg to adult. Modifications of morphology aid in their ectoparasitic lifestyle. Their flattened body allows for easy movement through hair and feathers. |
| Parasitic Lice Host Specificity: | Parasitic lice require extreme host specificity — one species of louse is adapted to one host. Lice diverge along with their hosts in evolutionary time (cospeciation). The shape of the claw matches the width of host hair/feathers. |
| Human-Infesting Species Areas: | Species infesting humans are modified to certain areas → Pthirus pubis (pubic area) vs. Pediculus humanus (body louse), Pediculus humanus (body louse) vs. Pediculus humanus capitis (head louse). |
| Human-Infesting Lice Species: | They are typically spread through close contact between hosts and shared habitations. If the host dies, lice use phoresy to find another host. Phoresy is using another organism to travel. |
| Siphonaptera: Fleas: | Fleas have had a huge influence on human civilizations. They are external obligate parasites of mammals and birds that feed on blood. They are morphologically adapted to live in host fur and skin. |
| Fleas Morphological Adaptations: | Mouthparts of adults are adapted into a piercing stylet, Hind legs are adapted for jumping. Laterally flattened, allows for movement through host hair. Large bristles called combs help fleas remain on host and avoid being removed. |
| Flea Habitats: | Fleas are obligate ectoparasites as adults only. Eggs are laid on the host and fall off into the environment, causing nesting to be the primary habitat of immatures. Fleas only infest animals with such habitats. |
| Flea Ecology: | Fleas can extend the pupal stage during adverse conditions. This can last months before emerging. Vibration, CO₂, and heat trigger the flea to emerge and seek a host. |
| Flea Removal Tips: | Within a population of fleas, the majority are not found on the host → — 50% eggs — 35% larvae — 10% pupae — 5% adults Eggs can be resistant to pesticides. Best practice: Clean, clean, clean. |
| Endoparasites: | Parasitic flies occur across numerous taxa including bot flies (Oestridae). They infest warm-blooded animals and can be severe livestock pests. Eggs are deposited on the host, larvae hatch and burrow into skin. |
| Livestock Pests: | Modified structures and spines anchor the larvae into skin, causing extreme discomfort. They can be removed by obstructing the breathing channel and removing them with forceps. Alternatively, wait for pupation to occur. |
| Screw-worm Fly (Cochliomyia sp.): | Larvae infest exposed soft tissues such as wounds. Unlike other fly species which are necrophagous, screw-worm flies will feed on living tissue. Burrow deeper when disturbed. Eradicated using Sterile Insect Technique in 1982, but re-emerged in 2016. |
| Microparasites: | Most microparasites are hematophagic (blood feeding). Mosquitoes interact with the host briefly to take a blood meal. They have more than one host, reducing fitness by a small amount. |
| Hematophagy: | This behavior makes microparasites excellent vectors of disease. They pass smaller parasites from one host to another. |
| Insects & Humans: | Insects have had an immense impact on human history and civilization. They have decided outcomes of wars, causing death through diseases. |
| Fleas & Disease: | The oriental rat flea is the primary vector of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria which causes plague. "The Black Death" was responsible for the death of 75 to 200 million people in Europe—30 to 60% of the population. |
| Arthropods as Pathogen Vectors: | Arthropods form a major group of pathogen vectors, Many are hematophagous: blood feeding during some stage of their life. Pathogens can be transferred to a host during feeding. |
| Disease vector: | any agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen to another living organism |
| Zoonotic diseases: | infectious diseases of humans that move from non-human to human hosts |
| Disrupting the Vector Cycle: | Pathogens spread between reservoirs by vectors. Pathogen maintained in natural host animal and persists in environment. Prevention of transmission can occur by breaking these links |
| Zoonotic Disease Characteristics: | Vectors can carry pathogens without getting sick themselves, Reservoirs are populations of organisms where pathogens live and reproduce. Usually, reservoir host is a certain species where pathogen does not cause diseases |
| Insect vector: | Insect which carries and transmits an infectious pathogen |
| Insect vectors within arthropods: | Ticks, Mites, Hemipterans, Lice, Flies, Mosquitoes, Fleas. Must be able to acquire and maintain pathogens Can transmit pathogens directly through feeding or other means. |
| The Oriental Rat Flea and Plague: | The oriental rat flea is the primary vector of Yersinia pestis, bacteria which causes plague. "The Black Death" is responsible for the death of 75 to 200 million people in Europe. This was 30 to 60% of population |
| Yersinia pestis Transmission: | Yersinia pestis circulates in rodents. Belief during outbreaks that it was spread by rats. Later found to be flea disease that infested the rats. |
| Three Forms of Plague Infection with Yersinia pestis can present in 3 distinct illnesses: | Bubonic plague, pneumonia plague, and septicemic plague. |
| Bubonic Plague: | Causes flu like illness and painful swelling of lymph nodes → Buboes. Lowest mortality, 30-90% if untreated. Only spread by flea bites. If lymph nodes become overwhelmed can lead to secondary septicemic plague |
| Pneumonic Plague: | Arises from an infection in lungs. Causes fever, chest pain, shortness of breath and coughing blood. Can spread through aerosols. Near 100% mortality if untreated |
| Septicemic Plague: | Causing blood clotting throughout body that leads to necrosis, Bleeding into skin and other organs, Almost always fatal |
| Historical Impact of Flea Diseases: | Reshaped the course of European history. Took 200 years for population levels to reach pre plague levels |
| Modern Plague: | Plague still exists, found in surprising places. First introduced into the United States in the 1900s. Rare, but sporadic cases occur in western US. Prairie dogs are thought to be important reservoirs. Fleas may cross from reservoir hosts to house pets |
| Psocodea: Parasitic Lice Infection: | Infestation itself considered medical condition: Pediculosis |
| Diseases vectored by Psocodea: | epidemic typhus, relapsing fever, and trench fever. Only vectored by the body louse: Pediculus humanus humanus |
| Epidemic Typhus: | Caused by Rickettsia prowazekii (psocodea, parasitic lice). Introduced when human scratches louse bites, infected feces or crushed lice into wounds. |
| Henrique da Rocha Lima: | discovered Rickettsia prowazekii was a causative agent of epidemic typhus. Named bacterium after scientist and friend who died while studying typhus: Stanislaus von Prowazek |
| Historical Recognition for Epidemic Typhus: | 1928 Nobel Prize: Charles Nicolle for discovering lice transmitted epidemic typhus. Historically significant but becoming rare. 2018 outbreak in LA amongst the homeless of skidrow, spread by rats through the city. |
| Trench Fever: | Caused by Bartonella quintana (psocodea, parasitic lice). First documented during World War I. Thought to have affected 1 million soldiers |
| What do these diseases all have in common? | These diseases are arthropod-borne, historically devastating infections linked to flea or louse vectors, unsanitary conditions, and massive human impact across history. |
| Diptera: Flies: | Several fly species are vectors of disease. Diptera contains the highest number of vector species of all arthropod groups. Diptera contain non-vector species which can cause medical issues (horseflies) |
| Pool Feeders (Diptera Feeding Strategies): | Pool feeders are insects like sand fly and black fly. Chew well into host skin to form a pool of blood where they feed from. Parasites infect through saliva |
| Biting Midges (Diptera Feeding Strategies): | Gather in clouds and bite humans, cattle, sheep, and deer. Nuisance where bites form irritations. Scottish Highlands: annual tourist industry cost about 268 GBP million in lost visits. |
| Onchocerciasis (River Blindness): | Caused by the parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus and spread by blackflies in fast-flowing rivers. The worms’ larvae infect the skin and eyes, causing itching, nodules, and blindness, the second leading cause of infectious blindness. |
| Mosquitoes (Diptera): | Mosquitoes are by far the most dangerous animal to humans on the planet. Numerous species are competent vectors, and live in close association with humans. |
| Characteristics of Mosquitos: | Female mosquitoes feed on blood to produce eggs. Males and Females feed on nectar for general nutrition. Around 3,500 mosquito species. 10% bite humans. Generally, specialize on a few animals. |
| Mosquitos Life Cycle: | Incredible transition from larvae to adults. Larvae are aquatic detritivores with chewing mouthparts. Adults are terrestrial fluid feeders |
| Who is infected by vector-borne diseases? | Anyone can be infected by vector-borne diseases, but certain populations are at higher risk, including children under five. |
| Mosquito Feeding Strategies: | Mosquitoes have piercing sucking mouthparts. Insert stylet into skin to feed on blood. Pathogens usually carried in salivary glands which are transmitted directly to bloodstream of the host. |
| Mosquito Saliva: | Mosquitoes evolved to have painless bite that aids survival. Saliva used to facilitate blood feeding by containing a complex mixture of antihemostatic, anti-inflammatory and anesthetics. Saliva causes itching and opportunity for pathogen transmission. |
| Diseases Vectored by Mosquitoes: | Malaria, Yellow fever, Chikungunya, West Nile, Dengue fever, Filariasis, Zika and other arboviruses. By transmitting diseases, it causes the deaths of more people than any other animal: over 1 million deaths each year. |
| Malaria: | Caused by Plasmodium parasites spread exclusively through Anopheles mosquitoes. Fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches can cause seizures, coma, and death. Widespread in tropical and subtropical regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. |
| Epidemics of Malaria: | In 2021, around 250 million cases of malaria worldwide resulting in 650,000 deaths. Around 80% of deaths are children under 5. Around 95% cases in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Climate Change & Malaria: | Climate change is likely to impact transmission. More rainfall is associated with higher number of mosquitoes |
| Dengue Fever | Spread by Aedes mosquitoes; has 4 serotypes. The first infection causes flu-like symptoms and gives immunity to that serotype. A later infection with a different serotype can lead to the more severe Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. |
| Climate Change & Human Activity: | Many significant vectors of human disease have become invasive → Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Culex quinquefasciatus. Spread through human transport and trade. Additionally, range expansion is predicted as climate warms. |
| Insect Disease Vector Control: | Because vaccines are lacking for most vector-borne diseases, vector control has become the primary method of prevention. However, growing insecticide resistance in vectors and drug resistance in pathogens make control increasingly difficult. |
| Endosymbiosis (Bacteria): | An organism that lives inside the body or cells of another organism, often in a mutualistic relationship. Endosymbionts play key roles in the development and evolution of multicellular organisms, and insects acquire them through symbiont transmission. |
| Insect Microbes Interaction: | Heritable bacterial endosymbionts are common in insects. The past decade has seen an explosion of studies characterizing biology of symbionts. |
| Two groups of Insects Endosymbionts: | Obligate or primary symbionts, Facultative or secondary symbionts |
| Facultative Bacterial Symbionts: | Symbiont transfer where the host acquires its symbiont from the environment or another host. Pathogens can also spread this way through the bite of an infected organism. Can lead to a wide range of effects, from mutualism to reproductive manipulation. |
| Wolbachia: | obligate intracellular insect parasite. Perhaps the most common reproductive parasite on the planet. Explored in population replacement programs |
| How Wolbachia Affects Insects: | Highly varied across insects. Some require Wolbachia to mate, and can help hosts evade pathogens. Shown to prevent acquisition of Plasmodium in Anopheles mosquitoes (reduces transmission of diseases like malaria). |
| Wolbachia in Control Programs: | The endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia can manipulate the reproduction of its arthropod hosts in four ways, making it a valuable tool for insect control programs. |
| Wolbachia causes 4 important phenotypes: | 1) Male killing: males killed during larval development, 2) Feminization: males develop as females or infertile pseudo-females, 3) Parthenogenesis: Females can reproduce without males, 4) Cytoplasmic incompatibility |
| Cytoplasmic Incompatibility: | Males with one Wolbachia strain cannot mate successfully with females with no Wolbachia or a different strain. Interferes with chromosome division in embryonic cells, causing dividing out of sync |
| Wolbachia in Control Programs (Implementation): | Wolbachia-infected insects are mass-reared and released into target populations after checking for the bacteria’s presence. The infection spreads quickly, leading to population crashes through cytoplasmic incompatibility or reducing disease transmission. |
| Obligate Bacterial Symbionts: | Example: Pea aphids and Buchnera. The bacteria make essential amino acids lacking in the aphid’s diet (sap is low in amino acids, high in sugar), while the aphid provides food, shelter, and protection. |
| Characteristics of Obligate Bacterial Symbionts: | Essential bacterial partners passed vertically from parent to offspring. They cannot live outside the host and usually supply vital nutrients, helping insects that feed on poor diets such as plant sap or cellulose. |
| Blattodea: | includes cockroaches and termites. Until recently, termites were treated as a separate order: Isoptera. Recent molecular evidence suggests that termites and roaches are closely related. |
| Cockroaches as Pests: | It's suspected that humans have an evolutionary aversion to cockroaches that makes them more feared than mosquitoes. Blattodea have 30 species that are associated with humans. Only 4 are considered pests. |
| Cockroaches & Diseases: | Do not vector disease but are linked to allergic reactions that cause asthma. Can passively transport pathogens on body surfaces. Aversion to light, so present even when not visible (up to 48% infestations not detected). |
| Cockroach Endurance: | Extremely resilient, difficult to control. Can survive without feeding for up to a month. Some can survive below freezing temperatures. Pest species tend to prefer dark and damp spaces |
| Cockroaches in Nature: | Majority of species are inoffensive. Live in a range of habitats, abundant in tropics and sub tropics. Roaches that live outdoors can be found in leaf litter, under bark, and in wood. Few species are of conservation concern |
| Cockroach Diet and Symbionts: | Omnivorous insects that feed on nearly anything. Some species have gut symbiotic bacteria that digest cellulose, and in many, these symbionts are essential for survival. Their shared symbionts indicate a close evolutionary relationship with termites. |
| Social Behavior in Cockroaches: | Social insects: Gregarious or inclined to aggregate, Small number exhibit some level of parental care, Pheromones influence behavior with ability to distinguish through odors, German cockroaches leave fecal trails to guide others to food sources |
| Termites: | Eusocial insects in the order Blattodea, likely evolved from subsocial cockroaches, with genetic relatedness aiding this transition. |
| Diversity of Blattodea Social Behavior: | Cockroaches form aggregations and display level of parental care, termites are eusocial. Cryptocercus, wood-dwelling roach genus, exhibits parental care and has symbiotic relationship with wood digesting bacteria |
| Cryptocercus (Key Evolutionary Link): | A genus of cockroaches, Feeds on wood, Subsocial, Houses similar gut bacteria to termites, Termites thought to have evolved from roaches like these (evolutionary step), Share closer phylogenetic relation to termites than other cockroaches. |
| What is the primary evolutionary pressure for termite eusociality? | Food sources. |
| Termite Feeding Strategies: | Gut symbionts shape diet. Lower termites eat wood and need symbionts to digest cellulose. Higher termites lost these symbionts and have a compartmentalized gut with diverse bacteria. |
| Termite Dietary Diversity: | Allows for feeding on lichen, soil, decaying plant material and wood. Adaptation has led to higher diversity of termites |
| Insects & Fungus Interactions: | Involve both beneficial or harmful interactions |
| Fungiculture: | Occurs when insects have evolved to farm fungus |
| Leaf Cutting Ants: | Harvest leaves to grow fungal gardens, their main food. In these ants, the fungi are fully domesticated (higher agriculture), while in other species, fungal relationships may be facultative or obligate. |
| Termites as Farmers: | Termites also act as farmers where fungus and termites are dependent on each other for survival. Termitomyces (known as termite mushroom). Termites house and culture mushroom and the mushrooms provide food for termites |
| Parasitic Fungi (Infection Process): | Infect insects when spores enter the body cavity and proliferate, eventually killing the host and releasing more spores. They often manipulate host behavior to enhance fungal spread. |
| Entomopathogenic Fungus: | Entomopathogenic fungi like Metarhizium and Beauveria invade insects through the exoskeleton without ingestion. They are explored as eco-friendly alternatives to chemical insecticides. |
| Zombie Ants: | Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects carpenter ants in tropical, humid areas. The fungus is visible at the end of its life cycle when the fruiting body emerges from the dead host. |
| Zombie Ants Behavioral Manipulation: | Infection by Ophiocordyceps alters ant behavior, making them leave the nest, climb vegetation, and lock their mandibles onto leaves—an ideal position for fungal growth and spore dispersal. |
| Cordyceps Diversity: | There are thousands of Cordyceps species, each typically specialized to infect a single insect species. |
| Primary Reproductive (Termite Castes) | Only individuals winged after the last molt. Wings discarded after mating flight. After insemination, the queen's body undergoes modification of a swollen abdomen. Only one reproductive remains in the colony |
| Supplementary Reproductive (Termite Castes): | Capable of producing eggs but development inhibited. Reduced compound eyes, no wings and less sclerotized |
| Workers (Termite Castes): | Most numerous members, Usually of either sex and sterile, Perform duties related to maintenance of the colony, foraging, nest construction and tending young |
| Soldiers (Termite Castes): | Workers with special development of the head for defense, Some species have enlarged mandibles, Cluster around openings when a nest is damaged, Unable to feed themselves so rely on workers for food |
| Termite Worker Types: | Workers are divided into true workers and pseudergates (false workers). False workers are nymphs who may contribute to colony maintenance |
| Developmental Plasticity: | Immatures maintain phenotypic plasticity, and can later molt into alates or soldiers. Reproduction takes place during a nuptial flight in which alates leave the nest. Males and females will pair before finding a suitable place for a nest |
| Evolution of Termite Sociality: | Likely evolved with the sub social route of cockroaches. The step to eusocial may have been aided by genetic relatedness |
| How do Termite Adaptations Help Them? | Allows for feeding on lichen, soil, decaying plant material and wood. Adaptation has led to higher diversity of termites |
| Evolutionary Pressures: | Eusocial, monophyletic insects closely related to roaches, relying on gut microbiota to digest poor-quality food. Parental care driven by food sources likely shaped their eusocial evolution. |
| Insect-Microbe Interactions: | Heritable bacterial endosymbionts are common in insects. Past decade has seen explosion of studies characterizing biology of symbionts. Divided into two groups → described as obligate or primary symbionts and facultative or secondary symbionts |
| Obligate Bacterial Symbionts: | Mutualists with nutritional function that occur in insects that feed on imbalanced diets such as plant saps or cellulose. |
| Example of Obligate Bacterial Symbionts: | Pea Aphid and Buchnera: Bacteria produce amino acids for insect while insect provides food and shelter to bacteria |
| Facultative Bacterial Symbionts: | Have a much broader array of effects, ranging from mutualism to manipulation of reproduction. |
| Example of Facultative Bacterial Symbionts: | Wolbachia → most common arthropod intracellular bacteria, common reproductive parasite. Decreases lifespan of Aedes aegypti and decreases efficacy of pathogen transmission. Exploited as a method for pest control. |
| Decomposer: | organism that breaks down dead or decaying material. Make up an essential part of our food chain → all species are nourished by death. |
| Insect Decomposers: | feed on dead or rotten animals and plants. |
| Three Categories of Insect Decomposers: | those that feed on dead or drying plants, those that feed on dead animals (carrion), those that feed on excrement. |
| Insect Decomposers Taxa | include numerous taxa → beetles, flies, termites, ants, wasps, flies, and can rapidly consume a carcass. |
| Excrement: | many insect species are attracted to the odor of animal excrement. Manure fly and dung beetle adults lay eggs on fresh feces and larvae feed on the organic matter in waste products. |
| Dung Beetles: | Prefer specific herbivore manure, locate it using smell, roll it into a brood ball, lay eggs inside, and provision larvae. Rolling quickly in a straight line enhances reproductive success. |
| Dung Beetles and the Milky Way: | Use celestial cues as visual compasses. Even on moonless nights, they maintain straight paths by orienting to the Milky Way’s bright band instead of individual stars. |
| Necrophagy: | Feeding on carrion the animal did not kill. Decomposition begins immediately, attracting insects that vary by decomposition stage, each adapted to specific conditions. |
| Diptera: Brachycera: | ecology of brachycera is diverse. Generally, they feed on soft or liquid food, and lack the ability to chew. Maggots modified to live within the food source. |
| Diptera: | large compound eyes, varied mouthparts. Flies associated with decomposing matter have sponging mouthparts. |
| Brachyera: Larvae: | all larvae are legless, maggots. Mouths hooks, limbless, terminal abdominal spiracles. Important in food webs both as prey and decomposers and in medicine. |
| Brachyera Larvae Ecology & Medicine: | maggots can be used in a medical setting for wound healing. Maggot debridement therapy uses larvae to remove neurotic tissue from wounds. |
| Brachyera Larvae & Wound Healing: | larva can be used for wound treatment through eating necrotic tissue. Larvae can have antibacterial properties that can inhibit secondary infections. Movement of maggots helps promote circulation. |
| Maggot Debridement Therapy: | reduces cost and need for invasive therapy. Larvae are reared in a sterile environment. Larvae are placed inside a dressing to restrict larvae escaping. Only feed on necrotic tissue. |
| Parasitic Maggots & Living Tissue: | parasitic maggots infest living tissue. Myiasis is an infestation of a fly species in living flesh. Eggs are deposited on the host, larvae hatch and begin to burrow into the skin. |
| Livestock Pests: | screw worm → cocholiomya sp. Larvae infest exposed soft tissues such as wounds. Burrow deeper into tissue when disturbed. |
| Cattle & Livestock Pests: | the screw worm is capable of killing an animal through severe tissue damage. Eradicated using Sterile Insect Technique in 1982, but re-remerged in 2016. Released a lot of sterile males all over Florida that led to a bottleneck population. |
| Necrophagous Insects: | eggs are laid directly on the food source. Adults seek the site of egg laying on dead flesh and maggots immediately feed. A basic form of parental care, adult ensures nutrition for offspring survival. |
| Necrophagy and Forensics: | Feed on dead or decaying animals, recycling nutrients in ecosystems. Their predictable colonization patterns help forensic scientists estimate the postmortem interval (PMI). |
| What is Forensic Entomology? | This application of the study of insects and arthropods to legal issues. Can be applied to different areas of the legal field: urban — criminal and civil, stored product — civil, medico-legal — criminal. |
| Medico-Legal Forensic Entomology: | criminal in nature. Related to insects gathered at the scene of a murder, rape, suicide. Investigations observe insects that have arrived to decompose the deceased. |
| What Does a Forensic Entolomologist Want to Know? | Involves identifying insect species at a crime scene and their larval instars. Since each instar has a predictable duration, it helps estimate how long insects have been feeding on the body |
| Insect Succession: | pattern of insect colonization as stages of decomposition progress. Abundance of taxa, life stages, and a number of individuals at each stage can be obtained from the studies. |
| Murder Investigations | deals with specific insects arriving at the body to lay eggs. Forensic entomologists assess location on body and order of insect appearance. Determining insect colonizers can determine time of colonization in time of death estimates. |
| Species Most Common in Criminal Forensics | Certain insects, like blow flies and dermestid beetles, are commonly found on corpses and are well-studied. They provide statistically reliable data for estimating postmortem intervals in criminal cases. |
| Growth of Forensic Entomology | introductory books and increased output of research articles fuel growing interest. |
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smurtab