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The
Diversity of The World of Life
True
Insects (Insecta)
Cockroaches etc.
(Dictyoptera)
Representatives
Mantids
(Praying Mantises)
Cockroaches
Termites,
or White "Ants"
Biology
APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF KNOWN SPECIES WORLDWIDE
Several
thousand
DESCRIPTION
Praying mantids are large,
slender, often camouflaged insects with grasping front legs.
Unlike any other insects, mantids can look over their shoulder.
The antennae are long, thin, and many-segmented.
The mouthparts are chewing.
The wings are usually present, in the adults. At
rest, the forewings -- which are somewhat leathery, with visible veins -- overlap each other somewhat and hide the membranous, many-veined
hindwings -- folded like fans underneath, when not in use.
Cockroaches are typically dark-colored, oval, and flat
from top-to-bottom. The head is covered from above.
The antennae are long, thin, and many-segmented.
The mouthparts are chewing.
The wings
may be absent. At rest, the forewings -- which are somewhat
leathery, with visible veins -- overlap each other somewhat and hide the
membranous, many-veined hindwings -- folded like fans underneath, when
not in use.
Termites are small, soft-bodied, usually
pale-colored insects. The antennae
are visible and (unlike those of ants) not elbowed.
The mouthparts are chewing.
The "waist" (where the thorax joins the abdomen) is broad
(not
wasp-waisted, as in ants). The wings are absent in all but the few
reproductive members of a colony (Please see below).
When present, the forewings and hindwings, with many,
light veins, are membranous, similar in size and shape to each other,
and held flat over the body at rest.
METAMORPHOSIS
A female mantid eats the male after, or even during, mating.
Female mantids lay their eggs
on twigs, the eggs within a case that looks like papier-mache.
The nymphs of mantids look like small adults, although with small or no
wings. The nymphs often cannibalize
one another.
The nymphs of cockroaches also look like small adults, although with small or no
wings. The eggs are laid in
cases, which may be carried about on the tail-end of the female or
deposited in soil or debris.
Like ants (with which they are sometimes confused), termites are
truly social insects; that is, they have a division of labor between different "castes" (specialized forms of individuals).
Typically, "sterile"
(non-reproductive)
adults, sometimes accompanied by nymphs, make-up the "worker" caste, which
does almost all of the building of the nest and tending of the young.
Sterile adults with unusually large heads and jaws make-up the
"soldier" caste, which fights off enemies, very often ants.
Winged,
sexually fertile females ("queens") and males are the
"reproductive" caste, which mate and, thus, produce fertile eggs
for starting new colonies (In addition, a "supplementary"
reproductive caste helps produce young in established colonies).
HABITATS
Mantids are typically found on plants.
Cockroaches
are typically found amongst debris, on soil or indoors.
Termites
are found in soil or wood, as in dead trees or our buildings.
FOODS
Mantids prey on other insects or even small vertebrates
(such as toads, frogs, salamanders, or shrews).
Cockroaches feed on a wide variety of foods, including
household goods.
Termites
feed on materials from plants, especially wood, digested by
certain "flagellates"
(microbes) within the gut of the termites.
DAMAGES/BENEFITS
Mantids prey on many other insects, often pests. It
is worth remembering, however, that the bite of large insects in general
can be painful to us human beings.
Roaches are creepy, smelly, filthy, disease-carrying pests indoors.
In nature, termites are valuable recyclers of organic materials, as in fallen timber. However,
termites occasionally attack living trees; and much more importantly,
termites do millions of dollars' worth of damage to such wooden structures
as buildings. Wooden structures should be inspected regularly, especially for the
wings of queens (shed after mating flights) and
for "termite tubes", built of soil plus feces and extending from
damp soil up to the wooden frame underneath a house (Termites typically
need to maintain a contact with soil moisture).
Professional exterminators are needed to get rid of established
termite infestations.
True
Insects (Insecta)
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