Collections II: Entomology

Diet and Feeding

Three basic types of diets:

saprophytic phytophagouscarnivorous

Saprophytic

recycle nutrientsTypes of food sources:

Plant remains Animal corpses Animal feces

Maggots feeding on animal remains

Dung beetles recycle animal feces

Saprophytic examples:

Phytophagous

consume plants (3 main types): Polyphagous: (eg grasshoppers) consume

many species of plants Oligophagous: (eg wander butterfly larvae)

consume a few species of related plants Monophagous: (eg citrus butterfly, white cedar

moth) consume a single species of plant

Plant-eaters mouthparts:

Chewing - leaves, stems, roots, fruit, wood, flowers, pollen

Piercing/sucking - leaves, roots, stems (either phloem or xylem) or nectar

Sucking or lapping - nectar or sap

Chewing examples:

Sawfly larvae

Leaf blisters

Leaf mines

Piercing/sucking examples:

Lerps – protective outercovering of jumping plant lice

Spittle Bug

Sucking or lapping examples:

Honey Bee Butterfly

Carnivorous

Carnivorous insects (animal tissues): Predators eats insects or animals

speed (e.g. robber fly, dragonfly) trap (antlion larva) use of modified appendages (e.g. raptorial legs of mantid,

extendable labium of dragonfly nymph). Parasites live off a host but do not kill it.

Ectoparasites live externally on the host; Endoparasites live inside the host.

Parasitoids kill the host.

Predator examples:

An Ant lion Pit

Praying mantis with prey

Parasite example:

Mosquito about to feed on blood

Parasitoid example:

A tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) parasitised by braconid wasp larvae