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The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida or Phasmatoptera) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick bugs, walkingsticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as Devil's darning needles , although this name is shared by both dragonflies and crane flies. [ 1 ]
In some varieties of English, all terrestrial arthropods (including non-insect arachnids and myriapods) also fall under the colloquial understanding of bug. [a] Many insects with "bug" in their common name, especially in American English, belong to other orders; for example, the lovebug is a fly [9] and the Maybug and ladybug are beetles. [10]
Thrips are small hemimetabolic insects with a distinctive cigar-shaped body plan. [11] They are elongated with transversely constricted bodies. They range in size from 0.5 to 14 mm (0.02 to 0.55 in) in length for the larger predatory thrips, but most thrips are about 1 mm in length.
Insects have a segmented body supported by an exoskeleton, the hard outer covering made mostly of chitin. The body is organized into three interconnected units : the head , thorax and abdomen . The head supports a pair of sensory antennae , a pair of compound eyes , zero to three simple eyes (or ocelli ) and three sets of variously modified ...
Many species of insects have reduced numbers of ganglia due to fusion or reduction. [43] Some cockroaches have just six ganglia in the abdomen, whereas the wasp Vespa crabro has only two in the thorax and three in the abdomen. Some insects, like the house fly Musca domestica, have all the body ganglia fused into a single large thoracic ganglion.
The body lacks prolegs, but the body segments are divided into a series of rings called annuli (singular is annulus). Some of these rings will have characteristic plates on the dorsal side. The larval thorax is not significantly larger than the abdomen, giving the larvae a more "worm-like" appearance than those of most aquatic insects.
Nepidae are brown insects, but some species have a bright red abdomen that can be seen when the wings are open. Their body is broad and flat (subfamily Nepinae) or long and thin (subfamily Ranatrinae). They are rather poor swimmers and typically crawl about on aquatic vegetation. [9] They can fly, but this is infrequently seen. [7]
The main function of insect blood, hemolymph, is that of transport and it bathes the insect's body organs. Making up usually less than 25% of an insect's body weight, it transports hormones, nutrients and wastes and has a role in osmoregulation, temperature control, immunity, storage (water, carbohydrates and fats) and skeletal function.