Study Of Insects

The Theater of Insects

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:15:59 +0000

Sometime around 1600 Thomas Mouffet, gazing through a magnifier with great excitement upon insects, became perhaps the first man in history truly to appreciate their private lives. In his Theatrum Insectorum, or Theater of Insects, he wrote with the enthusiasm of an approving first nighter viewing a new drama. On the stages of our microscopes, as well as beneath the hand lens of our own flea glass, we can recapture some of Mouffet’s spirited feeling by studying some of these real-life actors both dead and alive. (more…)

Parade of Insect Protoplasms

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:12:44 +0000

INSECTS AND HIGHER ANIMALS

We have glimpsed some of the great diversity in the worlds beneath the waves, and it is hoped that they will be often revisited. We have seen how thoroughly dependent these animal types, as well as lower plants, are upon being directly in the waters that bathe them almost constantly. But from these early beginnings, animals have found ways of freeing themselves from direct immersion in water, just as plants, over vast periods of time, have raised themselves out of it, to the heights of the mighty oak or sequoia, to the cactus in its parched environment, and to the perfection of such seed-bearing flowers as the lily and orchid. There are a huge number of kinds of specialized cells to be found as animal forms become more complex. (more…)

Insects as pests

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:10:02 +0000

Insects either directly or indirectly provide us with food and other necessities we may have in life. Plant crops and feed crops would collapse without the insect’s help in pollination. Many vegetables and most fruits that we consume exist because of insect pollination. Giving us the fact that life, as we know it, will never exist in this planet without the aid of this magnificent creatures. (more…)

Insects and pollination

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:09:01 +0000

Pollination is the process which plants undergo to be able to reproduce sexually. The process of pollination consists of the following: the transfer of the pollen grains or the male germ cell from the stamen of the plant to the stigma; as the pollen is transferred to the stigma the pollen then grows into a tube from the stigma down to the style to the female germ cell. Pollen grains of different types of plants may be viewed through the microscope. Before the flower of a plant bear its seeds, pollination must take place. Practically, this process occurs in every plant; before the plant bear seed. The bearing of the seed signifies the growth of a fruit. Seeds may be used as specimen to be viewed with the microscope. A seed develops and while it grows, the tissues surrounding it swells and forms the fruit of the plant. (more…)

Examining spiders and other insect parts

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:08:00 +0000

There are many greatly interesting features to look for in an insect, varying among the vast number of kinds. Drawing, notes and diagrams of each will be of lasting value to you. The breathing organs, or spiracles, the hearing organs of those which hear found in such unlikely places as the front leg of the cricket and katydid and the first abdominal segment of the grasshopper, the hairs and bristles which cover many insects in a profuse but meaningful way try to identify all of these. Feelers or antennae, each with a nerve from the nerve center or brain traversing its length inside, bear sensory receptors of taste and smell in the form of hairs and pits. Different segments of an antenna may even have different functions. Hairs on some mosquito antennae even catch sound waves Insect mouth parts are for chewing, as in the grasshopper, piercing and sucking as in plant lice and mosquitoes, and simply for sucking, as in the long, coiled tube of the butterfly or moth. All of these make good studies, particularly the large, seven-part mouth of the grasshopper, which can be nicely dissected. (more…)