INSECTS 101

Basic Insect Diagram:
Some insects have compound eyes and wings

WHY INSECTS ARE SO SUCCESSFUL

• Recycle dead organisms
• Serve as food for countless animals
• Play a critical role in pollination
• Without insects humans, plants, and other animals would become extinct
• Diversity
• Ability to rule over land based on population and mass reproduction

ADAPTATIONS

• Camouflage ( or protective coloration)
• Size (small, large, microscopic)
• Mouth parts ( piercing, sucking, scoop- like)
• Mobility (flying, jumping, swimming, crawling)
• Reproductive potential (stages of life called metamorphosis, many eggs, fast multiplying)

STRUCTURES

• Exoskeleton provides a protective outer covering for internal organs, anchors the muscles, and keeps it from drying out or getting completely wet
• Many systems and body parts that specialize in different things
• Ex) wings and mouth parts

MADAGASCAR HISSING COCKROACH

ADAPTATIONS

• Hiss when disturbed or alarmed
• Produce a sound that comes when air disperses from slits in abdomen
• Omnivores and feed primarily on vegetables and organic decaying plants as well as fruits
• Live on forest floors in rotten logs and are native insects of the island of Madagascar (a tropical island country off the coast of Southeast Africa in the Indian Ocean)
• They can live up to 5 years
• They are different then normal cockroaches because they have horns and are wingless

WHAT I LEARNED

• They have 12 body parts which are: the head, compound eyes, palps, mouth, six legs, ceri, apodemes, exoskeleton, ecdysial structure, thorax, and antenna
• How a cockroach responds to something sticky on it's antenna: It curls it's antenna and swipes off the sticky substance
• It's exoskeleton is waterproof
• MOST cockroaches recognize a potent or poisonous chemical or substance and scurry away from it (ex: ammonia)
• Madagascar hissing cockroaches are nocturnal