• 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
