A Guide for the Study of Animals
c. Small size; regions very distinct; abdomen
spindle-shape. Ants Hymenoptera
d. Small size; ant-like in appearance; pale white. White ants Isoptera
e. Flattened body, small size; no compound eyes. Springtails and fish moths Thysanura
10. SUMMARY OF THE STUDIES OF INSECTS
The Effect of Great Numbers
1. Take some insect for illustration, as the house fly, mosquito, tussock moth, or aphis, and show how insects increase in numbers with great rapidity.
2. What can be said about the number of species of insects?
3. There is said to be great competition among insects. Why? For what?
4. How is the great increase of insects held in check by natural means?
5. What are the various habitats of insects? Give as many as you can with examples of insects that use the habitat.
6. Give examples to show how greatly the food of insects and the method of obtaining it varies.
7. Give some illustrations of the great muscular development of insects. Why is this needed?
8. In what various ways are insects protected against their enemies? Give examples to illustrate your statement.
9. Show how and why the great numbers of insects have affected the structure and mode of life of the insects.
Classification
1. By means of illustrations from your studies of insects show how classification is based upon likeness of structure.
2. In the same manner show how differences in structure affect classification.
3. Show how variation in the wings and mouth parts is used to separate insects into orders.
4. What are the principles of classification?
11. REVIEW AND LIBRARY EXERCISE ON INSECTS
General Topics
1. General characteristics of insects.
2. Principal orders of insects with characteristics and examples of each order.
3. Respiration and air sacs of insects. Use of air sacs in flight.
4. The heart and blood of insects. How the function of the blood differs from that of other animals, as man.
5. Special senses of insects: their character, location, and efficiency.
6. Sound-making organs of insects.
7. Power of communication among insects, as among ants, for example.
8. Organs for depositing eggs, ovipositors. How they vary.
9. Homes of insects. Evidences of architecture in some of the homes.
10. How some plants make homes for insects. Galls and gall insects.
11. In what various ways do insects survive the winter? Illustrate with examples.
12. Community life among insects. Types of communities.
13. Pollination of flowers by insects. Why insects do this work and how the flowers compel them to do it in the right manner. Value to the plants. Types of insects useful for this purpose.
14. Adaptations for protection against enemies. Classify these adaptations and illustrate with examples.
15. The principal insect pests of the orchard and their work.
16. The principal insect pests of the garden and the work of each.
17. The principal insect pests of shade trees and their characteristics.
18. The principal insect pests of the household and methods of extermination.
19. The work of birds in helping to keep the number of harmful insects down.
20. A spraying table showing what poisons are used, when and for what plants and insects.
21. The principal beneficial insects and the ways in which they are beneficial.
Special Topics
Much of the information called for by the topics below may be obtained from United States and state government bulletins. Most of these may be obtained free from the Department of Agriculture and from various state agricultural colleges, while others may be obtained by purchase at a nominal price.
_Orthoptera._
1. Locust migrations and their cause.
2. The locust plagues of the "great plains."
3. Crickets and their "songs."
_Hemiptera._
4. The fight against the orange scale of California.
5. History of the introduction and spread of the San José scale bug and the efforts to find a natural enemy. How people fight the pest.
6. Aphids.
7. Relations of ants and aphids.
8. Phylloxera and its work.
9. The methods of fighting the chinch bug.
10. Scale bugs.
11. Cochineal bug and the lacs.
_Coleoptera._
12. The carrion beetle and its peculiar habits.
13. Fireflies.
14. Egyptian scarabs.
15. The curculio and methods of fighting it.
16. The weevils and their work.
17. History of the Colorado potato beetle.
18. Lady-bird beetles, their habits and use in exterminating harmful pests.
_Diptera._
19. The investigations in Cuba of the cause of yellow fever.
20. The fight against yellow fever in New Orleans.
21. Methods of preventing plagues of mosquitoes.
22. How flies are carriers of disease. Methods of preventing plagues of flies.
23. The tsetse fly.
24. Sleeping sickness.
25. The house fly and typhoid.
26. Parasitic larvæ of flies.
_Lepidoptera._
27. The silkworm and the silk industry.
28. Story of the gypsy moth.
29. Life history of the clothes moth.
30. Harmful butterflies.
31. The tussock moth and its history.
32. Blastophaga and fig culture.
33. The codling moth and its work.
34. Cutworms.
35. The brown-tail moth.
_Hymenoptera._
36. The honeybee and honey making.
37. Gall and gall insects.
38. The habits of the digger wasp.
39. The homes of ants. Habits of ants.
40. Slavery among ants.
41. Agricultural ants.
42. Homes of bees.
43. Ichneumon flies and their beneficial habit.
44. Evidences of intelligence among ants.
SOME COMMON BUTTERFLIES--A Reference Table and Key
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|COMMON NAME |WING EXPANSE|BROODS |FOOD PLANTS OF |HAUNTS OF THE | | IN INCHES | | CATERPILLAR | BUTTERFLY |CHARACTERISTIC COLORS, MARKINGS, ETC.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Milkweed Butterflies
|Monarch |4--4-1/2 |May and Oct|Milkweed and |Open fields | | | | dogbane | everywhere |Brick-red color, veins black, borders of wings black
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fritillaries or Silver Spots
|Variegated |1-3/4--2-1/2|August |Passion flower |Low fields | fritillary | | | | |Orange-brown color, checkered with black, no silver spots. A southern | species
|Regal fritillary |3--4 |July,Aug |Violets, pansies |Low fields |Upper side of wings reddish with wavy black lines, hind wing dark
|Great spangled |3--4 |July,Aug |Violets, pansies |Meadows | fritillary | | | | |Similar to _idalia_, but hind wings lighter. Silver spots on under | surface of wings
|Silver-bordered |1-1/2 |Jul,Aug,Sep|Violets, pansies |Meadows, | fritillary | | | | hillsides |Edge of wings tipped with silver, silver spots below
|Meadow fritillary|1-3/4 |Jul,Aug,Sep|Violets, pansies |Meadows |No silver border, silver below
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Checker Spots
|Baltimore |1-1/4--2-1/2|June,July |Turtlehead and |Swamps | | | | aster | |Groundwork of black with many red and white spots. Conspicuous border of | red spots
|Harris checker |1-1/2 |June |Aster and daisy |Clover meadows | spot | | | | |Wings dark bordered, lighter band across middle of wings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crescent Spots
|Silver crescent |1-1/4--2 |July |Asters |Roadsides |Groundwork of orange-red mottled with black, silver crescents on under | margin of hind wings
|Pearl crescent |1-1/4--1-5/8|July,Sep |Asters, daisy |Roadsides |Similar to silver crescent but colors are paler
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Angle wings
|Comma |2 |May,Jun,Aug|Elm, nettle, hop |Along woods | | | | | and waste | | | | | places |Pale red, angled wings, under surface light gray marked with silver commas
|Interrogation |2-1/2 |May,Jul,Aug|Elm, nettle, hop |Near trees |Similar to comma, but marked with silver semi-colons
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tortoise Shells
|Compton's |2-3/4 |Feb,Oct |Willow |Near water | tortoise | | | | |Looks much like the angle wings, but has no silver spots
|Milberts's |1-3/4 |May,June, |Nettle |Roadsides | tortoise | | Aug,Sep | | |Broad, reddish yellow band across both wings
|Mourning cloak |3 |Apr,Jul,Sep|Willow, poplar |Everywhere |Black with yellow or cream-bordered wings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Beauties
|Red admiral |2 |May,Jul,Sep|Nettle, elm |Waste land |Bright red band circling across both wings
|Painted beauty |2 |May,Jul,Sep|Everlasting, |Thistles | | | | thistle, burdock| |Mottled with pink, black and white, under surface mottled, two large spots | on under surface of hind wing
|Thistle butterfly|2--2-1/4 |May,Jul,Sep|Thistles |Pastures |Like the painted beauty, but has several small eye spots
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The White Admirals
|Red-spotted |3 |July |Wild cherry, |Near trees | purple | | | apple, etc. | |Purple and blue above, six red spots on under surface of wings
|Banded purple |2-1/2 |July |Hawthorn |Open woods |A broad white band across both wings
|Viceroy |2-1/2 |June,Aug |Poplar, willow |Roadsides |Imitates the monarch, but is smaller and has a black line across the hind | wings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Satyrs
|Grass nymph |1-3/4 |July |Grass |Meadows |Dull brown, twenty spots in two rows across the wings
|Little wood satyr|1-3/4 |July |Grass |Hillsides |Dull brown, six spots
|Wood nymph |2 |July |Grass |Hillsides |Dull brown, two eye spots on each fore wing in a larger yellow spot
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hairstreaks
|Hop hairstreak |1-1/8 |May,July |Hop |About | | | | | shrubbery |Dark color, hind wings have slender tail-like projection and black spots | crowned with crimson
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Coppers
|American copper |1 |May,Jun,Sep|Sorrel |Everywhere |Orange-red fore wings spotted with black, hind wing with orange border
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Blues
|Common blue |1 |May,July |Pea |Roadsides |Male light violet, female lighter with reddish bordered wings
|Tailed blue |1 |May,Aug,Sep|Clover, etc. |Roadsides, | | | | | fields |Purplish violet color, has small tail-like projection on hind wings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whites
|Common white |2 |May,Jul,Sep|Mustard family |Gardens |White checkered with black on fore wings, female brownish
|Cabbage butterfly|2 |May,Jul,Sep|Cabbage, etc. |Gardens |White, black tip on fore wing, one or two spots on hind wing
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sulphurs
|Common sulphur |m. 1-3/4, |May,Jun,Sep|Clover |Meadows | | f. 2-1/4 | | | |Yellow, bordered with black
|Cloudless sulphur|2-1/2 |July |Cassia and legumes|Fields |Canary-yellow color
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Swallowtails
|Tiger swallowtail|3--5 |June,Aug |Cherry, tulip tree|Open woods |Yellow with black lines across wings
|Black swallowtail|3--4 |June,Aug |Parsley |Gardens, | | | | | roadsides |Black with two bands of yellow spots and one band of blue spots
|Green-clouded |3-3/4--4-3/4|June,Sep |Spice bush, |Open woods | swallowtail | | | sassafras | |Black, one row yellow spots, hind wing clouded with green
|Blue swallowtail |3-3/4--4-1/4|July,Sep |Dutchman's pipe |Near houses | | | | vine | |Black shaded with blue green, one row whitish spots
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