Insect ecology

• Insect ecology is the branch of entomology

that focuses on the interrelationships
between insects and their environment.
• To an ecologist, the concept of
"environment" encompasses both the
abiotic world (non-living things like climate
and geology) as well as the biotic world (all
living organisms including plants, animals,
microorganisms, etc.).
• All of these components interact within a
framework called the biocenose (a natural
community).
• Communities are groups of organisms
(populations) that maintain persistent associations
with each other.
• The members of a typical community include
plants, animals, and other organisms that are
biologically interdependent through predation,
parasitism, and symbiosis.
• The structure of a biotic community is largely
characterized by the trophic (feeding) relationships
among its member species.
• These relationships are often represented
simplistically as a food chain.
• Each link in the food chain represents a trophic
level encompassing either producers or consumers.
• Ecologists who study the structure of natural
communities find that plants growing in
monocultures (large fields of a single species) tend
to be less productive (have a lower yields) than
plants of the same species that grow within a more
complex community.
• This result can be largely explained by the increased
numbers of parasites and predators that are able
to survive on a wider assortment of hosts and prey.
There is a chain-reaction effect:

1. Higher plant diversity promotes higher herbivore

diversity.
2. Higher herbivore diversity promotes higher predator
and parasite diversity.
3. Higher rates of predation and parasitism lead
to lower population density among herbivores.
4. Plants are more productive because they are
attacked by fewer herbivores.
• While abandoning crop monocultures may be
economically impractical, genetically diverse
plants should be encouraged (mixed varieties
with similar harvest dates)
• or compatible species combinations (e.g.
alfalfa and orchard grass in pastures) can be
grown to obtain higher yields with lower
input of pesticides.
• Insect Herbivores
• Animals that feed on plant tissues or plant
products are often called herbivores.
• This term applies not only to insects that injure a
plant by chewing leaves or sucking sap but also
to more benign species who only collect pollen,
nectar, or plant resins.
• Entomologists frequently use the noun
"phytophagy" and the adjective
"phytophagous" when referring to any of these
nutritional strategies.
• Both words are derived from Greek roots:
"phyton" meaning plant and "phagein" the verb
to eat or devour.
• Phytophagous insects generally use visual or olfactory
(odor) cues to locate a host plant.
1. Visual cues may be as simple as the vertical shadow of a
tree or the contrast of white flowers against a dark
background of foliage.
• Some insects are strongly attracted to certain shapes or
colors which they evidently associate with "food". Red
spheres, for example, attract adult apple maggots, white
pans of water attract aphids, and bright yellow sticky
traps attract leafhoppers.
2. Odor cues are plant volatiles such as the saponins in
alfalfa, the mustard oils in crucifers, or the terpenes in conifers.
• Sometimes these attractants are primary plant
compounds such as sugars (e.g. glucose), nucleotides
(e.g. adenine), or amino acids (e.g. alanine) that a plant
needs for its own survival and growth.
• But in other cases, the attractants are
secondary plant compounds that have no
nutritional value to either the plant or the insect.
• These substances may be manufactured by the
plant as a chemical defense against herbivores
but they may act as feeding stimulants to a
select group of specially adapted species.
• E.g. Milkweed plants, for example, produce
cardenolides that deter most phytophagous
insects. These chemicals, however, attract
monarch butterflies, oleander aphids, milkweed
beetles, and a few other species that have the
ability to digest or detoxify the compounds.
• Insect herbivores often have a cyclical pattern of
feeding behavior. After an initial phase of
attraction to the host plant, appropriate tactile
(touch) and olfactory (odor) cues trigger the
impulse to take a first bite.
• Additional gustatory (taste) stimuli must be present
in order for continued feeding to occur.
• After a bout of feeding is complete, the insect may
leave the host plant to engage in other activites.
• Since many plants conduct chemical warfare
against insect herbivores by manufacturing
repellents or deterrents, it is common for
insects to be rather narrow and specialized in
their choice of host plant.
• A monophagous insect restricts itself to a
single host species -- it is a consummate
specialist, adapting its behavior and physiology
to a single nutritional resource.
• Some of these insects must rely on intestinal
symbionts to supply essential dietary
components that are not supplied by their host
• Oligophagous insects have a slightly broader
host range -- often adopting any plant within a
close circle of related genera or the members
of a single taxonomic family.
• These insects are less likely to starve if a
preferred host plant is unavailable.
• Polyphagous - Involves few insects
• These species are equipped with "broad-
spectrum" detoxification enzymes that can
overcome a wide range of plant defenses.
• It can be metabolically "expensive" to produce
these enzymes, but on the other hand, there is
no shortage of available food
• Some of the more polyphagous insects (like
grasshoppers and armyworms) will consume
every part of their host plant.
• But most insect herbivores are more selective:
they specialize as leaf chewers, sap suckers,
stem borers, root pruners, gall makers, leaf
miners, collectors of pollen or nectar, etc.
• Each of these feeding strategies represents a
separate ecological niche and all of the species
that feed on the same plant in the same way
are known as members of a feeding guild.
• Within a feeding guild, all species compete
directly with each other for exactly the same
resource. Between members of different guilds,
competition is usually less direct and less severe.
• As a result, there is strong selective pressure
limiting the number of species within each guild.
• Direct competitors usually are not closely
related to each other (phylogenetically) and their
association tends to be relatively recent in origin
and short-lived in duration compared to more
symbiotic (mutualistic) interactions.
• Natural selection tends to favor adaptations
that minimize competition between species within
a feeding guild.
• Herbivory has had both positive and
negative impacts on plants over
evolutionary time.
• Flowering plants have benefited by
attracting insect herbivores and exploiting
them as pollinators. Also, insect benefit
from nectar
• Bright colors, distinctive odors,
geometrical patterns, and in some cases
even manoeuvre are tactics used by plants
to attract specific pollinators
• On the other hand, insects are also vectors of plant
diseases. Aphids and leafhoppers (Hemiptera:
Homoptera) are notorious for spreading plant
viruses and mycoplasmas as they feed.
• Bark beetles (Coleoptera) invade the woody tissues
of living trees, inoculating them with fungal
pathogens that weaken and eventually kill the tree.
• Bacteria, protozoa, and nematode pathogens are also
carried from plant to plant by insect herbivores.
• Pathogens carrying stractures insect include;
Externally feet, mouthparts, or ovipositors, or
• Internally in the salivary glands, digestive tract, or
reproductive system.
• Some plant diseases like fire blight (a bacterium) and
mummy berry (a fungus) are collected and spread by
insect pollinators that are attracted to sticky-sweet
exudates produced by the infected plants.
• Insect Carnivores
• Carnivores eat meat! Some insect carnivores
catch and kill other insects (or non-insect
arthropods) as food, some parasitize the bodies of
other animals, and some feed by sucking blood.
• Zoophagy It is derived from the Greek words
"zoion" meaning animal and "phagein" the
verb to eat or devour.
• Predators are zoophagous insects that kill and
eat numerous prey individuals in the course of
their growth and development.
• They are generally larger than their prey and
must often immobilize or overpower it before
feeding.
• Some predators are generalists or
opportunists: they attack a wide variety of
prey species.
• Others are more narrow in their selection of
prey.
• Agile, fast-moving predators (like
hornets and tiger beetles) can easily
overtake and subdue their prey.
• But other predators (like ambush bugs)
blend in with their environment.
• They wait quietly for prey to approach and then grab
it.
• Doodle bugs, the larval stage of ant lions, dig a
shallow pit in loose sand, bury themselves at the
bottom, and wait for prey to slide down into their
trap.

• A few predators release an attractive chemical

bait that lures prey within range.
• Predators are often regarded as useful insects
when they serve as natural enemies of pest
species.
• An Asian lady beetle, for example, may eat as many
as 5000 aphids during its life cycle.
• Parasites are usually much smaller than
their prey (or host) and may complete their
development on the body of a single host
individual.
• Endoparasites live inside the host's body,
whereas ectoparasites live in the host's nest
or on the surface of its body.
• A "true" parasite does not kill its host, but
it may spread disease pathogens or cause
other disability such as skin irritation,
intestinal blockage, organ failure, or allergic
reactions.
• Blood feeding (hematophagy) is a
common practice among insects that
parasitize vertebrate animals.
• Fleas (order Siphonaptera), sucking lice
(order Phthiraptera), bed bugs and
conenosed bugs (order Hemiptera),
• and numerous members of the order Diptera
(including mosquitoes, deer flies, black
flies, sand flies, and others) seek
vertebrate blood meals throughout all or
part of their life cycles.
• Many zoophagous insects live in or on the body of a
single host individual during their larval stage but become
free-living as adults.
• These insects do not fit the classical definition of a
"parasite" because they feed on the internal organs
and tissues of the host individual and eventually kill it.
• Entomologists call these insects parasitoids to distinguish
them from "true" parasites such as fleas and mosquitoes.
• Most parasitoid species are members of the orders
Diptera and Hymenoptera.
• Adult females use chemical cues to locate their hosts for
oviposition. After hatching, young parasitoid larvae feed
on non-vital tissues within the host's body (e.g. fat
body). As the larvae grow, their nutritional demands
increase until they eventually consume their hosts from
the inside.
• The term "parasite" also encompasses several
groups of zoophagous insects that have been
given special names because they have distinctive
ecological characteristics:
• Hyperparasites are parasites (or parasitoids) of
another parasites/parasitoid species.
• Autoparasites are species in which the females
feed on males to obtain a nutritional advantage.
• Brood parasites are insects that live in the nests
of social insects and feed on the juveniles.
• Social parasites are insects that steal food or
other resources from the nests of social insects.
• Insect Decomposers
• The dead bodies of plants and animals are
a rich source of organic matter that provides
nutrition for many insects called
saprophages (from the Greek words
"sapros" meaning rotten and "phagein" the
verb to eat or devour.

• Insects adapted to this lifestyle are an

essential part of the biosphere because they
help recycle dead organic matter.
• Within the ranks of saprophagous insects, entomologists
recognize several major groups that feed on:
1. Dead or dying plant tissues (soil- and wood tissues-dwelling
species and creating humus, the layer that icubate fungi, bacteria, and
other microorganisms that release carbon, nitrogen, and mineral
elements for uptake by living plants )
2. Dead animals (carrion), (Carrion feeders include numerous
beetles, fly larvae (maggots), wasps, ants, mites, and others.
Succesive change in saprophage sp., i.e faunal succession (Blow
fly 1st), determine the time elapsed since death, useful tool for
police, medical examiners, and other practitioners of forensic
entomology)
3. Excrement (feces) of other animals.
• Many manure flies and dung beetles, are attracted to the odor of
animal excrement, Adult lay eggs in, and larvae feed on it. Some roll
and lay eggs on it.
• Some saprophagic insects also serve as pollinators for plants like skunk
cabbage and wild ginger. These plants produce drab colored, foul
• Survival Strategies
• It's not easy being an insect . There are a lot to
face on their road of life.
• Just try to imagine what it would be like if you were
an insect and had to:
• survive rainstorms, windstorms, ice storms, and hail
storms, find water in the desiccating heat of dry
season, keep from freezing in the dead of winter,
• Avoid flash floods, wildfires, and mud slides, elude
birds, spiders, mantids, frogs, and other predators,
defend yourself against parasitoid flies and wasps,
• Prevent infection by pathogenic fungi and
microorganisms, and escape being impaled on a pin in
a student's bug collection
• Locate a suitable food supply (host plant or animal)
• Despite their small size of insects and
apparent vulnerability, they are equipped with
high reproductive rates and numerous
behavioral and physiological adaptations
that assure them a fair fight in the struggle
for survival.
• The following sections describe a number of
common adaptations that help insects survive
adversity or adapt to their environment.
• Polymorphism
• There are physical differences among the
members of a single species in the insect world.
• Females are often larger than males,
• and one sex may have distinctive colors or
markings to attract the opposite sex.
• But there are also many examples of species with
two or more colors, shapes, or sizes where the
differences are competely unrelated to gender
characteristics.
• Each of these "versions" is called a morph, and
therefore, species that exhibit this "split-
personality" are said to be polymorphic.
• In social insects, polymorphism is often
associated with division of labor in the nest.
• Among ants, for example, large individuals
with big mandibles usually serve as soldiers
or foragers,
• while smaller individuals concentrate on care
of the young or other housekeeping tasks.
• In honey bees, the workers have wax
glands, stings, and pollen baskets that are
not present in queens or drones.
• This is an adaptation to utilize their
resources more efficiently.
• In non-social species, polymorphism may be related to
habitat diversity.
• Eg. The England's peppered moth, Biston betularia, is a
well-known example of such a species.
• A light-colored morph of this moth is hard to find in the
daytime when it rests against a background of lichens
growing on the bark of trees.
• A dark-colored morph is easy to see against the lichen, but
hard to spot against the dark background of bare bark.
• Depending on the background, the less-visible morph is the
one most likely to survive bird predation.
• During the industrial revolution, the dark morph
predominated because air pollution from London's factories
killed much of the lichen on trees in surrounding forests.
• Now that air pollution has been reduced, the lichen are able
to survive and the moth's light-colored morph is most
abundant.
• In Africa, the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria,
has two morphs that differ both in physical appearance
and behavior.
• Under low population densities, these grasshoppers
develop into adults that are largely green in color, have
relatively short wings, and show little or no tendency to
migrate.
• Under crowded conditions, however, these grasshoppers
develop into brownish adults with longer wings.
• These individuals eventually form huge swarms
containing millions of individuals that migrate over
hundreds of miles.
• Crowding affects the balance of neurotransmitters,
especially serotonin, and triggers a shift in development
to the migratory form.
• Different morphs may also be associated
with different generations throughout the
year.
• The seasonal cycle of many parthenogenetic
aphids includes several generations of
wingless (apterous) individuals followed by a
generation of winged (alate) migrants.
• This alternation of generations provides
a mechanism for dispersal from one habitat
to another as environmental conditions and
host plant quality change throughout the
year.
 Insect Defenses

• For many insects, a quick escape by running

or flying is the primary mode of defense.
• A cockroach, for example, has
mechanoreceptive hairs (setae) on the cerci
that are sensitive to detect change in air
pressure that precedes a fast moving object
(like your foot).
• House flies have a similar reaction time
when you try to hit them. They leap into the
air and begin flapping their wings 30-50
milliseconds after sensing a threat.
• Tiger moths (family Arctiidae) can detect
ultrasonic echolocation from bats and escape.
• Other alarm reactions may be less dramatic,
but just as effective: Madagascar cockroaches
hiss when disturbed; cuckoo wasps curl up into
hard, rigid balls; tortoise beetles have strong
adhesive pads on their tarsi and hold
themselves tight and flat against a leaf or stem.
• Other insects simply "play dead" (thanatosis)
-- they release their grip on the substrate and
fall to the ground where they are hard to find
as long as they remain motionless.
• Spines, bristles, and hairs may be effective
mechanical deterrents against predators and parasitoids.
• A mouthful of hair is unpleasant experience for a
predator and parasitoid flies or wasps to get close and
lay their eggs to such insect.
• Some caterpillars incorporate body hairs into the silk of
their cocoon as an additional defense against predation.
• Some insects have a "fracture line" in each appendage
that allows a leg to break off easily if it is caught in the
grasp of a predator. This phenomenon, called autotomy,
is most common in crane flies, walkingsticks,
grasshoppers, and other long-legged insects.
• Young wlkingsticks can regenerate missng limb.
• Chemical Defenses
• Many insects are equipped to wage chemical
warfare against their enemies.
• In some cases, they manufacture their own toxic
or distasteful compounds.
• In other cases, the chemicals are acquired from
host plants and sequestered in the hemolymph or
body tissues.
• When threatened or disturbed, the noxious
compounds may be released onto the surface of
the body as a glandular ooze, into the air as a
repellent volatile,
• or aimed as a spray directly at the offending
target.
• Defensive chemicals typically work in one
of four ways:
• Repellency -- a foul smell or a bad taste is
often enough to discourage a potential predator.
• Stink bugs, for example, have specialized
exocrine glands located in the thorax or
abdomen that produce foul-smelling
hydrocarbons.
• The larvae of certain swallowtail butterflies have
eversible glands, called osmeteria, located just
behind the head. When a caterpillar is
disturbed, release a repellent volatile from
osmeteria toward intruders.
• Induce cleaning -- irritant compounds often induce
cleaning behavior by a predator, giving the prey time to
escape.
• Some blister beetles (family Meloidae) produce
cantharidin, a strong irritant and blistering agent that
circulates in their hemolymph.
• Droplets of this blood ooze from the beetle's leg joints
when it is disturbed or threatened -- an adaptation
known as reflex bleeding.
• Irritant sprays are produced by some termites,
cockroaches, earwigs, stick insects, and beetles.
• The notorious bombardier beetles store chemical
precursors for an explosive reaction mixture in
specialized glands. When threatened, these precursors
are mixed together to produce a forceful discharge of
boiling hot benzoquinone and water vapor (steam).
• Adhesion -- sticky compounds that harden like
glue to incapacitate an attacker.
• Several species of cockroach guard their
backsides with a slimy anal secretion that quickly
cripples any worker ants that launch an attack.
• Similarly, members of the soldier caste in nasute
termites have nozzle-like heads equipped with a
defensive gland that can shoot a cocktail of
defensive chemicals at intruders.
• The compounds, which are both irritating and
immobilizing, have been shown to be highly
effective against ants, spiders, centipedes, and
other predatory arthropods.
• Cause pain or discomfort -- Saddleback
caterpillars, larvae of the moth, and various other
Lepidopteran larvae have hollow body hairs that
contain a painful irritant.
• Simply brushing against these urticating hairs will
cause them to break and release their contents onto
your skin.
• The consequence is an intense burning sensation that
may last for several hours.
• Many ants, bees, and wasps (the aculeate
Hymenoptera) deliver venom to their enemies by
means of a formidable stinger (modified ovipositor).
• The venom is a complex mixture of proteins and
amino acids that not only induces intense pain but
may also trigger an allergic reaction in the victim.
• Protective Coloration
• Shape or color has contribute in some way,
to the overall fitness of the species.
• It is obvious that at least some of the colors
and patterns serve a defensive function by
offering a degree of protection from
predators and parasites.
• These patterns, collectively known as
protective coloration, fall into four broad
categories:
• Crypsis
• Insects that blend in with their surroundings often
manage to escape detection by predators and
parasites.
• This tactic, called cryptic coloration, involves not
only matching the colors of the background but
also disrupting the outline of the body, and avoiding
sudden movements that might potray location.
• Obviously, this tactic loses much of its effectiveness
if an insect moves from one type of habitat to
another.
• Well-camouflaged insects usually stay close to
home or make only short trips and return quickly to
the shelter of their protective cover
• Many ground-dwelling grasshoppers and
katydids, for example, have colors of gray
spots and brown that help them "disappear"
against a background of dried leaves or
gravel.
• Alternatevely, closely related species that live
in foliage are usually a shade of green that
matches the surrounding leaves.
• The larvae of some lacewings improve their
camouflage by attaching bits of moss or
lichen from their environment onto the dorsal
side of their body.
• Mimesis
• Some insects "hide in plain sight" by
resembling other objects in the environment.
• A thorn could really be a treehopper;
• A small twig might be a walkingstick, an
assassin bug, or the caterpillar of a
geometrid moth;
• And sometimes a dead leaf turns out to be a
katydid, a moth, or even a butterfly.
• This "mimicry" of natural objects is often
known as mimesis. It goes far beyond
imitation of plant parts:
• Some swallowtail larvae resemble bird
droppings, others have false eyespots on the
thorax that create a convincing imitation of a
snake's head.
• The likeness of a caterpillar can be found on the
outer edge of many lepidopteran wings, perhaps
serving to fool predatory birds that may peck at
the wing margin instead of the butterfly's body.
• Many butterflies and moths have eyespots on
the wings that emulate the face of an owl or
some other large animal.
• Slug caterpillars and hag moth larvae look like
hair balls or small furry mammals.
• Warning Colors
• Insects that have an active means of defense (like a
sting or a repellent spray) frequently display bright
colors or contrasting patterns that tend to attract
attention.
• These visually conspicuous insects illustrate
aposematic coloration, a term derived from the Greek
words apo- (from a distance) and sema (a sign or
signal) -- meaning "a signal from afar".
• A predator quickly learns to associate the distinctive
coloration with an "unpleasant" outcome, and one
such encounter is usually enough to insure avoidance
of that prey in the future.
• A few individuals will die as sacrifices, but for the
species as a whole, it pays to advertise!
• Mimicry
• If a distinctive visual appearance is sufficient to
protect an unpalatable insect from predation,
then other insects might also avoid predation by
adopting a similar appearance.
• This ploy, essentially a form of "false
advertising", was first recognized and described
by Henry W. Bates in 1861.
• Today, it is commonly known as Batesian
mimicry. Viceroy butterflies (mostly palatable to
birds) are largely protected from predation
because they resemble monarch butterflies
(very distasteful).
• Many species of bee flies, flower flies, robber flies,
and clear-winged moths are similarly protected
because they mimic the appearance (and often the
behavior) of stinging bees and wasps.
• Batesian mimicry is usually a successful strategy as
long as the model and mimic are found in the same
location, the mimic's population size is smaller than
that of the model, and predators associate the
model's appearance with an unpleasant effect.
• In 1879, Fritz Müller recognized that two or more
distasteful species often share the same aposematic
color patterns.
• Many species of wasps, for example, have alternating
bands of black and yellow on the abdomen.
• This defensive tactic, commonly known as Müllerian
mimicry, benefits all members of the group because it
spreads the liability for "educating the predator" over
more than one species.
• In fact, as the number of species in a Müllerian complex
increases, there is a greater selective advantage for each
individual species.
• Mimicry has been carried to extremes in some tropical
Lepidoptera where both related and unrelated species
resemble each other in size, shape, color, and wing
pattern.
• Collectively, these butterflies (and sometimes moths)
form mimicry rings that may include both palatable and
unpalatable species.
• In South America, for example, longwing butterflies
(Family Nymphalidae) form a mimicry ring that includes