The class of insects is the most numerous on Earth: it has about one million species. Some of its representatives are considered the oldest inhabitants of the planet. They inhabited it another 400 million years ago. This class managed to survive and survive in the conditions of cataclysms that have happened on Earth more than once. Due to the characteristics of life, insects today are a progressive group of animals.
Information about insects presented in the specialized literature is striking in the number of unusual and little-known facts. These same sources indicate that the life of wildlife on the planet is not fully understood.
The most important squads of the class
The life of insects living on the planet is under the scrutiny of zoological scientists. For the convenience of studying animals, they were divided into groups.
The classification was based on the following features:
- the nature of development - direct (without metamorphosis), indirect (with metamorphosis);
- structural features of the oral apparatus - sucking, gnawing, licking, gnawing-sucking;
- the presence and structure of the wings.
In this regard, scientists have identified the following units - cockroach, termites, orthopterans, lice, bedbugs, orthoptera, coleoptera, Lepidoptera, hymenoptera, diptera, fleas. Here is a far from complete list of existing groups of insects.
Due to the high ability to adapt to living conditions, insects spread throughout the planet. They live on the surface of the earth, in soil, in fresh and salty water bodies. Some types of insects parasitize on humans, animals, plants.
Modern scientists have been able to establish that there were orders of insects that have now become extinct. Their most ancient representatives belonged to the detachments of pratarakans, dragonfly-like, gerards and others.
Hymenoptera
Bright representatives of this squad are bumblebees, bees, wasps, ants. They are characterized by a complete development cycle, the presence of two pairs of mesh wings, a sucking and lacquering mouth apparatus. These animals got another name - public insects.
Their lifestyle has always been interesting to man. Today, twenty thousand species of bees are known to exist, many of which are domesticated by humans to produce such a valuable product as honey.
But not everyone knows that these insects have to work hard throughout their lives. In order for 500 grams of honey to form in the combs, one bee needs to make 10 million flights from the hive to the flower and vice versa. At the same time, a characteristic buzzing is heard. It appears for the reason that insects cut through the air, making frequent flapping of wings. Sometimes their frequency reaches 11500 strokes per minute. But this is not a record. Stinging insects are known that are capable of performing more than 62 thousand wing flaps in one minute.
A person, having studied the habits of honey bees, learned to create favorable conditions for them to receive beekeeping products of the best quality and in large volumes.
Wasps and bumblebees are also public insects. Their families do not live long - only one summer. Only the young uterus remains for the winter, the old dies. Together with her, males and working insects end their lives at the end of summer.
Members of the hymenoptera order are excellent pollinators.
Cockroach
Red and black cockroaches are the main representatives of the squad. They settle in those places where a person ceases to care about the cleanliness of his home. These dangerous insects can cause the spread of some infectious diseases. Cockroaches penetrate the places where human food is stored, and pollute them with waste products.
A female cockroach is capable of laying about two million eggs per year. Of these, white small insects similar to adults appear. After a while, they molt, acquiring the color of adults.
Lepidoptera
All kinds of butterflies belong to the order. Interesting facts about insects always relate to the life of this particular group of representatives of the fauna. Butterflies are diverse in wing color and size. For example, there are insects that are sometimes mistaken for birds - such is the wingspan of these butterflies.
Some species are only nocturnal. It is known that butterflies taste food in an unusual way - with their hind legs. The structure of their wings has become the subject of study of more than one scientific laboratory.
Orthoptera
Locusts, crickets and grasshoppers belong to the order of Orthoptera. Insects of this group are distinguished by an incomplete development cycle (without transformation), the presence of a gnawing mouth apparatus, two pairs of special wings, which scientists call the elytra.
The most dangerous insects of this order are locusts. The species has the ability to mass reproduction. Gathering in huge flocks (the number can reach 50 billion individuals), locusts travel long distances. All vegetation along the path of hordes of insects is destroyed. A flock of locusts eats the same amount of food a day that a multi-million city, such as New York, will need for the same period. The harm caused by the locust is irreparable in some cases.
Beetles
The squad has another name - beetles. Characteristic representatives include a rhinoceros beetle, May bug, ladybug, ground beetle, weevil and many others. The insect life of this squad is full of mysteries, secrets and legends. About 400 thousand species of beetles are known on earth. The largest representative of the detachment - the titan beetle - reaches a length of seventeen centimeters. Also known species, the length of which is several millimeters.
New interesting facts about insects of this group regularly appear in the literature. So, for example, a stag beetle grows up to eight centimeters in length. Its larvae develop in rotting tree stumps over five years. During this time they reach large sizes - about 14 centimeters.
Many beetles are pests. They destroy the planting of cultivated plants, forests, food, wood products, leather and other natural materials.
