How many orders of insects are there

These names are in parentheses if the classification of the species has changed since it was described. In this book approved common names, scientific names and authors used generally follow Stoetzel Common names are generally in bold letters, although bold insect names in parentheses are not approved common names.

Scientific names and order of presentation of taxonomic groups generally follow Borror et al. Insects belong to a larger group call Arthropoda which includes all animals with segmented legs, segmented bodies and exoskeletons.

The phylum Arthropoda includes: spiders, ticks, mites, centipedes, millipedes, shrimps, lobsters, and many other organisms. Entomology is concerned primarily with the study of two classes belonging to:.

However, some other arthropod classes like Diplopoda millipedes and Chilopoda centipedes are often considered by entomologists. Even a few non-arthropod groups like snails and slugs Phylum — Mollusca are sometimes referred to entomologists. The Class Hexapoda is generally studied under a classification system with approximately 30 orders. Many of these are of minor importance and are studied only from the standpoint of scientific interest.

YouTube Video. Written Directions. Students share their Mini-Books with others in the classroom and check books for completeness before turning into the teacher for a final grade. Students are challenged to find an example of an insect from each of the six most populous orders. Presentation of their insects could be through a traditional insect collection of mounted insects or another option is to take a picture of an insect from each order, which is less destructive to the environment.

For a great resource for teaching students about insects and shows several methods of collecting insects, visit Purdue University's website for 4-H. References: Gibb, Tim. Moisset, Beatrix. Iowa State University Entomology, 6 Sept. Insect Identification Org, 3 Apr. National Wildlife Federation, n. University of Kentucky, n. The Phasmida, also known as Phasmatodea or Phasmatoptera, are well known for their mimicry of twigs or leaves, and even their eggs resemble plant seeds, sometimes with sculptured surfaces.

They are clearly related to the Orthoptera; one group of Tettigoniidae in Australia shows a remarkable similarity to the stick-insects, but they also have many unique morphological and biological characters. However, they are apparently an early offshoot because their nymphs are always aquatic, unlike the entirely terrestrial nymphs of the other two orders. The terminal, forceps-like cerci make earwigs easily recognisable to most people, and the common Forficula auricularia is almost cosmopolitan in distribution, at least in the cooler regions of the world.

The exact relationships of the cockroaches, termites and mantids have been debated for some time, and all three have previously been considered as separate orders. The cockroaches Blattodea, Blattaria, or even Blattoptera were recognised as being close to the Mantodea , but now the termites Isoptera have been shown to be nested within this clade, called the Dictyoptera, and the three groups can be treated as suborders therein.

Also known as Embiidina, the webspinners are a fairly small group with around known species, found mainly in the tropical regions of all continents; they also extend into some temperate parts of the USA and southern Europe. Around a dozen species are found in southern Europe in the families Embiidae and Oligotomidae. The Embioptera, together with their sister group Zoraptera, seem distantly related to Plecoptera, but also share some characteristics with the Phasmida and Orthoptera.

Also known as Grylloblattodea, this is a small and obscure order with fewer than 30 species found only in the western USA and Canada, and parts of China, Korea and Japan. Commonly known as rock crawlers or ice crawlers, they are usually found at high altitudes, and share some characters with the orders Dictyoptera and Phasmida. These small predatory insects are the most recently discovered insect order, recognised only in Fewer than 20 species are known, all in southern and east Africa.

Because they hold the distal ends of their tarsi off the ground when walking they have been dubbed heelwalkers; their phylogenetic relationships are not yet clear though they have strong links with the order Grylloblattaria, and some authors place the two groups together in the Notoptera.

An obscure order with only around 35 known species principally in tropical regions, living in rotting wood and feeding mainly on fungal hyphae. They have no common name, and live in small colonies, superficially resembling termites and Psocoptera, but they are probably the sister group of the Embioptera. At first sight the Paraneoptera might appear to consist of a rather disparate group of insect orders, namely the true bugs, lice, book lice and thrips, but the monophyly of this group is generally accepted on both morphological and molecular characters.

The exact relationships between the constituent orders are not as clear, though the Psocoptera and Phthiraptera probably form a monophyletic pair, the superorder Psocodea. Although the affinities of the Hemiptera with other insect orders need further clarification, there is no doubt about the monophyly of the order. The formation of the mouthparts into the elongated rostrum is unique to the Hemiptera and is not found even in other groups with sucking mouthparts.

Although they are very common, few people study the group and many people never see them at all unless they study the bird or mammal hosts. The Pscocoptera have long been regarded as phylogenetically close to the Phthiraptera, but recent research has suggested that the Phthiraptera may even be a subgroup of the Psocoptera, within the wider group of Psocodea.

Not surprisingly there is some reluctance to accept this view fully, because it would have implications for the integrity of the Psocoptera. The thrips are probably most closely related to the Hemiptera, based on certain mouthpart structures and other characters. Their minute size means that they are a little known group, and many people are surprised to learn how many species there are.

Some feed on fungi, others on higher plants, and a small number of these can be agricultural or horticultural pests. The larvae look very different to the adults, and undergo metamorphosis in a pupa where the wings develop internally.

Adult beetles have a distinctive appearance, with the hard elytra covering most of the body and meeting down the mid-line, which makes them easy to recognise but this apparent uniformity hides an enormous variety of life histories. There are numerous variations in larval forms and feeding habits, and beetles can be found in a wide range of habitats.

In turn this makes them important in ecological research and environmental surveys. The exact relationships of the Diptera with other insect orders are still open to question; undoubtedly they belong in the loosely defined group of Panorpoids, which includes the Lepidoptera, Mecoptera, Siphonaptera and Trichoptera.

This group is arguably the largest and most complex of all the orders of insects and they seem to be only distantly related to the other endopterygotes. There is evidence that they are closer to the Panorpid groups rather than the Coleoptera but the picture is far from clear. Although their monophyly is not in doubt, it is hard to give defining characters for the whole group that are not plesiomorphic. The close relationship between the Lepidoptera and Trichoptera is often cited as one of the classic sister-group relationships at ordinal level in all the insects.

The flattened scales on the wings of butterflies and moths are clearly derived from the normal hairs found on caddisfly and many other wings; indeed such scales occur sporadically in several other insect groups, even in the Archaeognatha, for example.