lobsters bears these are related to insects all are members of a group called arthropods characterized by an external skeleton segmented body and jointed appendage effect but in a special class what distinguishes them from other animals all insects have certain characteristics in common for instance three distinct body parts and a dominant and the head on the head are eyes the antennae and the food gathering organ on the far x the grasshopper has three pairs of legs no insect has more than three pairs of legs also on the four x most insects have two pairs of wings the skeleton of an insect is outside its body and is called an exoskeleton breathing is accomplished through pores called spy rickles along the side of the body but there are those among insects too and they're identifying features preston's butterflies and moths are members of a group called lepidoptera which indicates that they have scales on their wings wasps are classified a wing they are and exception in the insect world since most insects have four wings grasshoppers are are thought to rot although some fly well they have hind legs fitted for leaping they're straight for wings cover fan shaped under wings some animals look like insects but are not spiders have two body regions and four pairs of legs therefore they are not insects neither is a centipede an insect since no one can deny that it has more than three pairs of legs insects develop from young to adult in three different ways they all start from eggs of course silverfish illustrate the first method the honor much like the adult except in size there is no metamorphosis but while the creature that comes out of a grasshopper egg case looks like the adult grasshopper it differs in that the young called in them has no wings as it develops it gets too large for its exoskeleton and has to shut it in order to grow it gets wings in its final mold this second kind of development is called gradual or incomplete metamorphosis which means no basic change in structure from them to adult the same applies to a during part of the year females are known to stem mothers when they give birth to living young without mating this reproductive process is known as parthenogenesis males appear in the fall and mating females lay eggs from which them others hatch in the spring complete metamorphosis the third way of insect development shows four distinct changes from egg to adult the cycle starts when for example an adult mexican being beagle lays a cluster of eggs larvae hatched from the egg the larval stage is mainly a feeding stage but your larvae change to p o p here we see this change take place by time lapse photography and the final why do insects compete so successfully one reason is that insects are cold blooded and don't have to use food energy to keep a constant body temperature of their small size helps also this corn ear worm needs a little food to survive these ambush mugs get along well because their color and shape make it difficult for enemies to see them and these tree hoppers look like small farms on the branches where they hide then to foods that insects eat are usually plentiful man himself plants many crops which insects like this corn bar find much to their taste insects also thrive because they reproduce rapidly each insect generation is numerous and many insects have several generations eight season a single pair of houseflies may have millions of the sentence in one season insect competition with man is serious america's annual loss to insects is in the billions of dollars grasshoppers alone eat millions of dollars worth of food each year they not only strip our cattle lambs of grass but they devour our corn from without our corn bars and corn earworm devour it from within and weevils feed on the harvest and corn that the farmer manages to save from the other insects other millions of dollars are lost annually to the bull weevil which ruins our cotton before the harvest countless other insects such as ten caterpillars lester beetles and potato beetles feed on our fruit and vegetable crops but insects disease bearing lice feed on human blood and so do mosquitoes natural controls help us in our fight against insect pests birds consume tons of insects fish eat millions of insect larvae bacteria infect and destroy some insects these larvae show three stages of a bacterial disease that is generally fatal insect prey on each other the robber flies sucks the body juices from its prey this horn worm covered with small silk coons is doomed to die a parasitic loss blade its eggs within the hornworms body the larvae of such parasites grow up inside the bodies of their host and emerge to poop it and start a new life cycle but natural controls are not enough man must carry the fight against his insect enemies to survive but the core now to bury them alive with the corn stalks after the harvest to save our protocol op's insect poisons are sprayed by fruit growers the potato growers attacked by air with insecticide dust while the truck gardeners scatters poison enemies part of the war against mosquitoes is fought in the trenches which are done to drain and destroy their breeding places yes this is real war and in order to learn better how to combat insects try and investigators study insect life cycles and eating habits new poisons are developed to read us of insect pests my aunts are mostly a nuisance but the cockroach spreads disease as well as ruining food this is an enemy of man one of the many insect enemies that consume our vegetables feed on fruit crops devour our grains destroy our co to up our houses the clothes we wear and even drink our blood and while we slap and swat dagon plough experiment and dust millions more insects are hatching out all around us new hordes of insects to compete with the swelling population of mankind for the necessities of life but in our warfare against insect enemies we must be careful to recognize and protect our insect friends such as the bees which pollinate our flowers and our fruit and vegetable crops it is important to know for insect