Tamralipta Mahavidyalaya

PG Department of Zoology
UG Semester VI

DSE 4 :: BIOLOGY OF INSECTA

Unit III: General Morphology of Insects

By Sougata Kumar Ghosh

EXTERNAL MORPHOLOGY
External Morphology
Objectives:

• To learn the external morphology of insects (i.e., to learn about the features of insects which
help to distinguish one kind of insect from another).
• To study specializations and adaptability of structures such as the mouthparts, antennae, legs,
wings and pronotum.
• To understand how an insect lives, functions, and reproduces.

HEAD
The head of an insect is composed of a series of segments, which are specialized for food gathering
and manipulation, sensory perception, and neural integration. The head bears the eyes (compound
eyes and ocelli), antennae, and mouthparts. The anterior part of the head is the frons. The anterior
area below the dorsum of the head, between and behind the eyes is the vertex. The area below the
compound eye, on the side of the head, is the gena. The liplike sclerite is the clypeus.
 MOUTHPARTS

Just as insects take on many different forms, they also possess a variety of different mouth types, each
of which can be grouped under one of two main categories: chewing (mandibulate) and sucking
(haustellate).
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Mandibulate mouthparts, like the ones illustrated below, are believed to be the most primitive. All
others, including those categorized as haustellate, are presumed to have evolved as modifications of
this basic type.

The five primary parts of the insect "mouth" are:

1) The clypeus

2) The "upper lip", or labrum

3) Two "jaw-like structures", or mandibles

4) The maxillae (sing. maxilla)

5) The "lower lip", or labium

The maxillae and labium are divided into various substructures, which include the galea,
paraglossa, glossa, and the maxillary and labial palps.
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Haustellate mouthparts are primarily used for "sucking up" liquids, and can be broken down into two
subgroups: those that possess stylets and those that do not. Stylets are needle-like projections used to
penetrate plant and animal tissue. Examples of insects with stylets include Hemiptera (true bugs),
Diptera (flies), and Siphonaptera (fleas).

Some haustellate mouthparts lack stylets. Unable to pierce tissues, these insects must rely on easily
accessible food sources such as nectar at the base of a flower. One example of nonstylate mouthparts
is the long siphoning proboscis of butterflies and moths (Order Lepidoptera). Although the method of
liquid transport differs from that of the butterfly's proboscis, the rasping-sucking rostrum of some flies
is also considered to be haustellate without stylets.
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ADAPTATIONS OF THE MOUTHPARTS

Insect Mouthparts: Top left, chewing, top right, sponging; center, piercing-sucking;
bottom, siphoning. (F. W. Zettler, Cornell)

THE ANTENNAE
Antennae vary greatly among insects, but all follow a basic plan: segments 1 and 2 are termed the
scape and pedicel, respectively. The remaining antennal segments (flagellomeres) are jointly called the
flagellum.
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Antennae function almost exclusively in sensory perception. Some of the information that can be
detected by insect antennae includes: motion and orientation, odor, sound, humidity, and a variety
of chemical cues. Some of the most common types of insect antennae with which you should be
familiar are illustrated below:

(e.g., Odonata) (e.g., Coleoptera)

(e.g., Lepidoptera) (e.g., Diptera)

THORAX
The insect thorax is divided into three parts: the prothorax (pro=first), mesothorax (meso=middle), and
metathorax (meta=last). Each segment consists of hardened plates, or sclerites. Dorsal sclerites are
called nota (sing. notum), lateral sclerites are called pleura (sing. pleuron), and ventral sclerites are
called sterna (sing. sternum).

Each of the three thoracic segments contains one pair of legs. Wings are found only on the meso- and
metathoracic segments.
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WINGS
Insects have evolved many variations of the wing. Wing venation is a commonly used taxonomic
character, especially at the family and species level.

Membranous wings are thin and more or less transparent. This type of wings is found among the
Odonata and Neuroptera.

Halteres are an extreme modification among the order Diptera (true flies), in which the hind wings are
reduced to mere nubs used for balance and direction during flight.

HALTERE
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Elytra (sing. elytron) are the hardened, heavily sclerotized forewings of beetles (Order Coleoptera)
and are modified to protect the hind wings when at rest.

ELYTRA

A variation of the elytra is the hemelytra. The forewings of Hemipterans are said to be hemelytrous
because they are hardened throughout the proximal two-thirds (approximately), while the distal
portion is membranous. Unlike elytra, hemelytra function primarily as flight wings. In both cases, the
membranous hind wings (when present) are used in flight and are folded beneath the forewings when
at rest.

HEMELYTRA

Membranous
hind wing

The wings of butterflies and moths are covered with scales, and mosquitoes possess scales along wing
veins.
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NEOPTEROUS VS PALEOPTEROUS WING CONDITIONS

In most living insects (the Neoptera), there are three axillary sclerites that articulate with various parts
of the wing. In the Neoptera, a muscle on the third axillary causes it to pivot about the posterior notal
wing process and thereby to fold the wing over the back of the insect. (In some groups of Neoptera,
such as butterflies, the ability to fold the wings over the back has been lost.) Two Orders of winged
insects, the Ephemeroptera and Odonata, have not evolved this wing-flexing mechanism, and their
axillary sclerites are arranged in a pattern different from that of the Neoptera; these two orders
(together with a number of extinct orders) form the Paleoptera.

Paleopterous

Neopterous

LEGS
The fore-legs are located on the prothorax, the mid-legs on the mesothorax, and the hind legs on the
metathorax. Each leg has six major components, listed here from proximal to distal: coxa (p1. coxae),
trochanter, femur (p1. femora),tibia(p1.tibiae),tarsus (p1. tarsi), pretarsus.

The femur and tibia may be modified with spines. The tarsus appears to be divided into one to five
"pseudosegments" called tarsomeres.
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LEG TYPES AND FUNCTION

Cursorial: Used for walking/ running.

Some textbooks distinguish the two by Raptorial: Fore legs modified for
calling walking legs ambulatory or grasping. These are often
gressorial, but the leg structure is associated with Preying Mantids.
basically the same.

Fossorial: Fore legs and tibiae specialized for Saltatorial: Hind legs adapted for jumping;
digging; common in ground-dwelling insects. characterized by an elongated femur and tibia.

Natatorial: fore or hind legs adapted for swimming;

charachterized by elongated setae on tarsi
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PRONOTUM
Is the dorsal sclerite of the prothorax, which can be highly modified in various groups such as the
Homoptera, Blattaria, and Coleoptera.

ABDOMEN
The dorsal and ventral abdominal segments are termed terga (singular tergum) and sterna (singular
sternum), respectively. Spiracles usually can be found in the conjunctive tissue between the terga and
sterna of abdominal segments 1-8. Reproductive structures are located on the 9th segment in males
(including the aedeagus, or penis, and often a pair of claspers) and on the 8th and 9th abdominal
segments in females (female external genitalia copulatory openings and ovipositor).
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MODIFICATIONS OF THE OVIPOSITOR

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM

CERCI

OVIPOSITOR

Female (note the long ovipositor Male (two cerci at the end of
between the cerci) the abdomen)