Theme of the Month: Insects
Background Information
It's safe to say not everyone likes insects and bugs.
It's probably also safe to say that very few of us know there's a difference
between an insect and a bug.
Insects, for instance, are "Arthropods," meaning they have jointed
legs, the body is divided into segments and the skeleton is on the outside
of the body. Arthropods are the largest subdivision of animals on the planet
and make up 80 percent of the animal kingdom. Insects are just part of
the Arthropod subdivision. There are more than one million different "known"
species of insects in the world, but some experts estimate there might
be as many as 10 million in actual existence.
True "bugs," on the other hand, are also Arthropods, and belong
to a special group of insects called "Hemiptera." "Hemiptera"
means "half-wing;" there are approximately 25,000 different kinds
of these "half-wings." They range in size from less than a quarter
of an inch long to as much as five inches long as in the case of certain
giant water bugs. The front pair of a bug's wings are thick and leathery
at the base and thin at the end, while the second pair is transparent.
A triangular plate is usually found between the front and back wings that
in some bugs completely covers the wings. The mouth of a true "bug"
is a sharp beak for poking holes in plants or animals and sucking out the
fluids.
So, now you know. Bugs are always insects, but insects aren't always bugs!
Most insects and bugs are very small, although some, like ants, can lift
and carry far more than their own weight. There are a number of good bugs
that eat bad bugs, and even a few that eat their mates following courtship.
Last, but not least, while some insects once carried diseases of biblical
proportion still others were thought to be medically curative (take three
beetles and call me in the morning).
No doubt some insects will always be viewed as ugly little critters with
pinchers, stingers and nasty attitudes. But, in nature's constant give
and take, there will always be the other end of the insect beauty chain
where the butterflies dwell. Most importantly, however, since there are
far more insects in the world than humans (80,000 species of grasshoppers,
crickets and katydids alone) it makes sense to recognize who is friend
and who is foe and proceed from there.
Resources for Educators
