Objectives: Insects, including their taxonomy, structure, function, ecology, and economic importance. It is important for every biologist to have an understanding of insects: what they are, how they function, and how they have become the tremendously successful group of organisms that they are today. There are more kinds of insects than any other animal; in fact, insect species outnumber all other species of living organisms combined (both plants and animals). Insects have successfully exploited essentially all of the habitats available on earth except the marine. Although considerably smaller in size than man, insects have successfully evolved as competitors for many food sources. Insects are also important vectors for many human diseases. Any group of organisms as successful as insects and as capable of affecting human health and economy is worthy of study. One section of this course is typically offererd during the fall semester of even-numbered years.

Prerequisites: General Zoology (Biol 212)

Credit Value: 3

Contact Time: Two 50 minute lectures and one three hour laboratory per week.

Outcomes: Upon completion of the course the student should:

• know the anatomy of the organ systems of typical insects and know how these organ systems function (he student will have dissected two species of insects and have learned their external and internal anatomy)
• know the mouthparts of representative insects with different feeding habits and understand the mouthpart homologies
• understand the ecology of insects, the habitat requirements of certain insect groups, the ecological relationships between insect species, and insect relationships to other organisms (the student will learn microhabitats of many insect orders and/or families)
• know the pattern of insect life cycles, development, and metamorphosis
• know the biology of social insects
• understand the economic importance of insects, particularly those important to agriculture and human health
• have made an insect collection with a minimum of 10 orders and 75 families represented, properly mounted and labelled all specimens and identified all the specimens in their collection to order and family
• have learned insect collecting and preserving techniques
• know how to identify insects by using a key
• know the characteristics of the Arthropoda
• know insect taxonomy, to what higher taxonomic categories insects belong, and how this reflects their relationships to other insects and other animals
• know the general charactertistics of all 27 insect orders and be able to identify typical specimens to order
• know characteristics of representative insect families and be able to identify typical specimens belonging to them

Assessment:

Lecture Schedule:

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