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Insect Identification: Cockroaches, Bettles, Crickets And Ants
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Published: November 22, 2006
The largest population on this planet is not made up of humans, nor is it made up of animals. Of all the living creatures on Earth, the largest population is insects.
Simply designed yet extremely hardy, insects survive in conditions no other creature can endure. The insect community continues to flourish despite the invention of insecticides.
Of the 32 orders of insects, there are two enjoying more notoriety than the average bug. These two extremely versatile, adaptable insects are the cockroach and beetle.
Cockroaches are among the oldest orders of insects still alive. These invertebrates are winged with jointed bodies and tough exoskeletons. Fossils of early cockroaches have been found dating back to 295 to 354 million years ago. There are approximately 3,500 species and six families of cockroaches, of which only a handful can be found coexisting with humans.
Cockroaches enjoy a reputation in popular culture of being nearly invincible, for good reasons. A cockroach can survive up to a week without its head, hold its breath for 45 minutes and live without food for up to one month. Cockroaches also have the ability to withstand up to 15 times the lethal dose of radiation for vertebrates.
The cockroach’s reproductive capabilities are a fundamental aspect of its continued survival. Cockroaches live up to a year and the females lay eggs once every month. Once she lays the eggs, the female cockroach carries them in a long cylindrical egg case attached to her body. Once the eggs hatch from the ootheca, they are fully functional within hours. A female cockroach only needs to be impregnated once to produce eggs for the rest of her life. A female cockroach can produce more than a million eggs in her lifetime without having to mate every time. Also, cockroaches have the ability to adapt to various environments and conditions, which ensures their continued survival.
Although not as popular as the cockroaches, beetles enjoy the enviable position of being the largest order in the animal kingdom. The oldest fossil record of a beetle is about 265 million years, making it younger than the cockroach. There are 350,000 known species of beetles, with many more continually being discovered.
Most beetles have a few shared characteristics such as segmented bodies, tough exoskeletons and hardened forewings called elytra. This characteristic has given the beetle an excellent survival advantage over other insects. The elytra protect the beetle's delicate wings from exposure to the elements, and its tough body reduces one of the greatest risks any insect faces: being crushed.
Beetles, unlike cockroaches, go through metamorphosis. Female beetles typically lay several dozen to several thousand eggs in a lifetime. Once the eggs hatch, the larval stage tends to last for a long period of time before the beetle becomes a full adult.
In popular culture, beetles have had a long history of being the most easily recognized by humans. In ancient Egyptian society, beetles were prized as sacred creatures. The Scarab Beetle was believed to be the physical form of one of the Egyptian gods. In Chinese mythology, finding ladybug beetles in the home meant good luck and good fortune. Farmers also prize ladybugs because they destroy aphids, which can cause blights in crops.
These two insects continue to survive and thrive despite the many changes to the environment. Their adaptability to extreme conditions, as well as their rapid evolution, has given them supremacy over the insect kingdom: the cockroach out of popularity and the beetle out of variety.
These traits continue to evolve and it is possible, should vertebrates become extinct, these two insects will survive and thrive.
Sources:
Joe Kunkel, Blattaria Development and Evolution Project 1995. http://www.micro.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/blattari .html October 6, 2006.
Maddison, David R. 2000. Coleoptera. Beetles. Version 11 September 2000 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Coleoptera/8221/2000.09.11 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ October 6, 2006
Simply designed yet extremely hardy, insects survive in conditions no other creature can endure. The insect community continues to flourish despite the invention of insecticides.
Related Articles
Cockroaches are among the oldest orders of insects still alive. These invertebrates are winged with jointed bodies and tough exoskeletons. Fossils of early cockroaches have been found dating back to 295 to 354 million years ago. There are approximately 3,500 species and six families of cockroaches, of which only a handful can be found coexisting with humans.
Cockroaches enjoy a reputation in popular culture of being nearly invincible, for good reasons. A cockroach can survive up to a week without its head, hold its breath for 45 minutes and live without food for up to one month. Cockroaches also have the ability to withstand up to 15 times the lethal dose of radiation for vertebrates.
The cockroach’s reproductive capabilities are a fundamental aspect of its continued survival. Cockroaches live up to a year and the females lay eggs once every month. Once she lays the eggs, the female cockroach carries them in a long cylindrical egg case attached to her body. Once the eggs hatch from the ootheca, they are fully functional within hours. A female cockroach only needs to be impregnated once to produce eggs for the rest of her life. A female cockroach can produce more than a million eggs in her lifetime without having to mate every time. Also, cockroaches have the ability to adapt to various environments and conditions, which ensures their continued survival.
Although not as popular as the cockroaches, beetles enjoy the enviable position of being the largest order in the animal kingdom. The oldest fossil record of a beetle is about 265 million years, making it younger than the cockroach. There are 350,000 known species of beetles, with many more continually being discovered.
Most beetles have a few shared characteristics such as segmented bodies, tough exoskeletons and hardened forewings called elytra. This characteristic has given the beetle an excellent survival advantage over other insects. The elytra protect the beetle's delicate wings from exposure to the elements, and its tough body reduces one of the greatest risks any insect faces: being crushed.
Beetles, unlike cockroaches, go through metamorphosis. Female beetles typically lay several dozen to several thousand eggs in a lifetime. Once the eggs hatch, the larval stage tends to last for a long period of time before the beetle becomes a full adult.
In popular culture, beetles have had a long history of being the most easily recognized by humans. In ancient Egyptian society, beetles were prized as sacred creatures. The Scarab Beetle was believed to be the physical form of one of the Egyptian gods. In Chinese mythology, finding ladybug beetles in the home meant good luck and good fortune. Farmers also prize ladybugs because they destroy aphids, which can cause blights in crops.
These two insects continue to survive and thrive despite the many changes to the environment. Their adaptability to extreme conditions, as well as their rapid evolution, has given them supremacy over the insect kingdom: the cockroach out of popularity and the beetle out of variety.
These traits continue to evolve and it is possible, should vertebrates become extinct, these two insects will survive and thrive.
Sources:
Joe Kunkel, Blattaria Development and Evolution Project 1995. http://www.micro.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/blattari .html October 6, 2006.
Maddison, David R. 2000. Coleoptera. Beetles. Version 11 September 2000 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Coleoptera/8221/2000.09.11 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/ October 6, 2006
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