WELCOME: Social Distancing Entomology Course

All week I’ve been seeing videos and posts of the creative stuff people have been doing while social distancing, all the while thinking, what could I contribute to all the people sitting at home on social media all day?? Well this morning it hit me. I will do what I do best! And that is... drop some nerd knowledge on you all 🤓

Welcome to my social distancing ENTOMOLOGY COURSE!

Every day I will post an insect photo, most of which I’ve taken through my microscope, and explain about the insect group or the feature pictured. My hope is that you might learn something new about insects and maybe, just mayyyyybe, be a bit more fascinated and a bit less grossed out by the most diverse and arguably most successful group of animals to ever live... thanks for reading, stay tuned 🦋🦟🦗🐞🐜🐛

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#4: Simple Eyes

Litinsects #4: Simple Eyes Yesterday I talked about compound eyes, the multi-faceted structures that most insects use to see the world 👀 But insects actually have another visual system as well, composed of simple eyes or OCELLI. Unlike compound eyes, ocelli are composed of only one structure which makes them comparatively “simple” although they are still very important. These are light-detecting organs consisting of a single lens with sensory cells. They can detect movement but don’t form complex images. “Ocellus” comes from the Latin word oculus, meaning eye. So these structures are literally “little eyes” Ocelli are located on the insect’s head, usually between or adjacent to the compound eyes. They are usually dome-shaped, somewhat shiny structures In most flying insects (such as flies, dragonflies, bees, etc.) there tend to be three ocelli in a triangle arrangement (see photo). Some terrestrial insects (like cockroaches) have only two ocelli ...

#33: Hamuli

A row of hamuli on the wing of a bee The top two hamuli shown here are hooked onto the back edge of the forewing. Litinsects #33: Hamuli Today’s post is another on anatomy and is about a structure found in a group of insects that probably everyone around the world is familiar with... The order HYMENOPTERA is comprised of bees, wasps, sawflies, and ants. (Yes, ants are actually related to bees and wasps.) At around 150,000 described species it is among the top 4 largest group of insects (along with beetles, flies, and butterflies). One defining characteristic of hymenopterans are HAMULI (see photos). Hamuli (singular hamulus) are microscopic hook-like structures on the front surface of the rear wing that hook into the back edge of the front wing. This system interlocks the two wing pairs during flight, allowing them to beat in unison and act as one functional pair of wings. Basically hymenopterans have developed an anatomical wing coupling feature to enhance flight efficiency. (In the t...

#34: Insect Wings

Dragonfly wings Dipteran (fly) wing Monarch butterfly wing Lacewing wings Litinsects #34: Insect Wings Let’s talk wings. The ability to fly has existed in only 4 groups of animals: birds , bats , pterosaurs , and of course insects . The first three groups, all vertebrates, each evolved flight independently (in other words, they have no winged ancestor in common) and the wings replace a pair of limbs. Insect wings on the other hand, which first showed up around 400 million years ago, are not derived from legs but are completely separate structures. The big debate about the evolution of insect wings is whether they developed from pre-existing structures (like gills or extensions of the thorax) or were entirely new structures. There is very little fossil evidence documenting this evolutionary transition so no one has yet definitively answered this question... Insect wings attach to the second and third thoracic segments. At rest they may be held vertically over the back, horizontally ou...

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