Journal Entry 12

5/03/12

Location: Johnson Hall, Room 113 – Entomology lab. We were inside for a brief lecture, then I was outside for about half an hour, then back inside to look at specific species archived inside the lab.

Weather: It was mostly cloudy and very rainy. It was cool, but not unbearable, probably around the mid 50’s. It was definitely raining while I was outside though.

Entomology deals with other bugs besides just insects, such as arachnids

Earth, planet of the insects!
Without insects, many ecological systems would collapse. Insects are important for foodwebs (they are often a source of food for bigger animals), as well as waste recycling. Soil formation, vegetation control, and plant productivity are also ecosystem services done by insects. All the things listed above are things that occur in the natural world. They have done these things for millions of years, and will continue to do so in the future. In the human world, they are competition for food and fiber. They often attack crops for food. They are also disease vectors, because most do not cause disease but they can spread disease quickly and vastly. Insects can be used purposefully to fight off other problem or pest insects. They are not all bad, because they are often used as a part of the diet for some cultures and can supple medicinal purposes. For example, maggots are can be used for cleaning wounds because they eat the dead skin and only the dead skin.

Diversity
There are about 10 million species of insects, however that is just an estimate as only a fraction of those species have actually been discovered. Beetles are one of the most diverse of the insects and insects are the most diverse of the world. Beetles rule the world! Beetles may east other insects or eat plants. They have a wide variety of talents. They often start out in their immature state as larvae or grubs. Beetles are also very inconspicuous and hard to catch. Personally, I feel like most insects are hard to catch due to their speed and size.

Moths and Butterflies
Butterflies are my favorite type of insects and one of my favorite types of animals ever. Learning about these creatures was very interesting to me. It was fascinating to learn that butterflies are moths! Butterflies are a specialized group that are adapted for flying during the day. This is why they are so colorful because colors only have meaning during the day. Most butterflies are not pests, however, those that are include the cabbage white butterfly. The small white butterfly I often see around the backyard or gardens on campus. They are often part of a pest problem in large farming crops. There are only about 100 species of butterfly in Washington. New information to me is that monarch butterflies are not in the area, but we often mistaken the yellow swallowtail for the monarch. They are actually very different.

Bees
Bees actually evolved from wasps. Wasps feed on other insects, but bees do not. Bees evolved to feed on pollen, so through time flowers and bees changed each other together. Nectar’s sole purpose in flowers is to attract bees for pollination. The bees use it as a type of “fuel.” They need to collect nectar whilst getting pollen for the hive. Most bees are fuzzy because they attract pollen. Many bees are very small and inconspicuous. Bumble bees are local! They live in the ground and are very susceptible to disease and are a threatened species. There are about a dozen species of bee in Washington. Honey bees are dying out mostly due to exotic disease and pesticides. They are not native and come from western Asia and northern Africa. However, they are now part of the ecology because they are the most efficient way of pollinating crops. Swarming can occur with bees when a hive becomes too big and splits so that they form a new hive elsewhere and raise a new queen. All females sting, however, the stingers are part of their body and internal organs so when they lose their stinger from defending themselves they die because they need the stinger to survive. Males do not have stingers. Bumble bees have multiple stingers and do not die when they sting people. The bees we looked at outside where by the green house and UW farms.

Inside we looked closely at various species and drew a few details by looking through microscopes. For picture: see physical journal.

Posted on June 5, 2012 07:05 AM by lmiyamoto