grzimek''s encyclopedia insects

[...]... understanding Grzimek’s features approximately 3,500 color photos, including nearly 130 in the Insects volume; 3,500 total color maps, including approximately 100 in the Insects volume; and approximately 5,500 total color illustrations, including approximately 300 in the Insects volume Each featured species Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia How to use this book of animal is accompanied by both a distribution map... Robbins xvi Andy Grosvold Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia ••••• Topic overviews What is an insect? Evolution and systematics Structure and function Life history and reproduction Ecology Distribution and biogeography Behavior Social insects Insects and humans Conservation This page intentionally left blank ••••• What is an insect? Overview We live in the “age of insects. ” Humans have walked on Earth for... Encyclopedia backyard may contain several thousand species of insects, and these populations may number into the millions It is estimated that there are 200 million insects for every human alive today Just the total biomass of ants on Earth, representing some 9,000 species, would outweigh that of humans twelve times over Insect habitats are disappearing faster than we can catalog and classify the insects, ... The polar regions support a few insects that manage to cling to life on surrounding islands or as parasites on Arctic and Antarctic vertebrates Fewer still have conquered the oceans, skating along the swelling surface No insects have managed to penetrate and conquer the depths of freshwater lakes and oceans The feeding ecologies of insects are extremely varied, and insects often dominate food webs... Study of Insects Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing, 1989 CSIRO, ed The Insects of Australia: A Textbook for Students and Research Workers, 2nd ed Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 1990 Periodicals Hogue, C L “Cultural Entomology.” Annual Review of Entomology 32 (1987): 181–199 Arthur V Evans, DSc 6 Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia ••••• Evolution and systematics Fossil insects. .. terrestrial and aquatic insects were transported by flowing water or wind Taken together, this evidence allows for a nearly complete reconstruction of the habitat, landscape, climate, flora, and fauna of this locality in South America 120 mya The ancestry of insects Insects belong to the large group of arthropods that also includes arachnids, crustaceans, and myriapods For many decades, insects were generally... size Due to the presumed close relationship of insects to myriapods and crustaceans, it is likely that ancestors of insects still had legs (maybe already of reduced size) on the abdominal segments Like myriapods, all insects only have one pair of antennae, while extant crustaceans have two pairs and extant arachnids have none Unlike other arthropods, insects have a single pair of appendages on the... the first record of a marine ancestor of insects, or considering its age, an offshoot from the ancestral line of insects that survived into the Devonian, when more advanced and terrestrial insects had already evolved from their common ancestors This fossil, as well as evidence from phylogenetic and comparative morphological research, supports the hypothesis that insects evolved directly from marine arthropods... air by the four groups of animals that developed the ability for active flight: insects, pterosaurs, bats, and birds Of these groups, insects were the first to acquire organs of flight Although researchers are not sure at which point in Earth’s history insects developed wings and the ability to fly, a number of fossil winged insects (dragonflies, mayflies, cockroaches, and several extinct groups) are... thoracic segment has been discovered in early fossil winged insects (paleodictyopterans, dragonflies, and protorthopterans) from the Carboniferous (All extant winged insects possess only two pairs of wings on the two posterior thoracic segments.) This third pair of winglets is characteristic of all winged insects and has been reduced in modern insects Their presence could also support the hypothesis that . alt="" Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia Second Edition ●●●● This page intentionally left blank Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia Second Edition ●●●● Volume 3 Insects Arthur V. Evans, Advisory. Insects What is an insect? 3 Evolution and systematics 7 Structure and function 17 Life history and reproduction 32 Ecology 42 Distribution and biogeography 53 Behavior 60 Social insects 68 Insects. in the Insects volume; 3,500 total color maps, including approximately 100 in the Insects volume; and approximately 5,500 total color illustrations, including ap- proximately 300 in the Insects