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The winged insects are nocturnal and provide food for night-flying birds, bats, small mammals, amphibians and arthropods. The larval stage lasts much longer, often for one or more years, and has a bigger impact on the environment. [20] They form an important part of the diet of fish such as the trout. The fish acquire them by two means, either ...
Notonectidae is a cosmopolitan family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly called backswimmers because they swim "upside down" (inverted). They are all predators and typically range from 0.5 to 1.5 cm (0.2–0.6 in) in length. [1]
These minute arthropods are apterous, unlike some orders of insects that have lost their wings secondarily (but are derived from winged ancestors). Their mouthparts are enclosed within a pouch in the head capsule, called the gnathal pouch, so only the tips of the mandibles and maxillae are exposed beyond the cavity. [1]
In general, arthropods have mouthparts for cutting, chewing, piercing, sucking, shredding, siphoning, and filtering. This article outlines the basic elements of four arthropod groups: insects, myriapods, crustaceans and chelicerates. Insects are used as the model, with the novel mouthparts of the other groups introduced in turn.
The mandibulates are divided between the extant groups Myriapoda (millipedes & centipedes, among others) and Pancrustacea (including insects and crustaceans, among others). Molecular phylogenetic studies suggest that the living arthropods are related as shown in the cladogram below.
Arthropods (Greek for jointed feet) have an exoskeleton (external skeleton), a segmented body, and jointed appendages (paired appendages). They form a phylum which includes insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. Arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate.
The adult worms are free-living, but the larvae are parasitic on arthropods, such as beetles, cockroaches, mantises, orthopterans, and crustaceans. [4] About 351 freshwater species are known [ 5 ] and a conservative estimate suggests that there may be about 2000 freshwater species worldwide. [ 6 ]
They prey on other water mites, small crustaceans (e.g. cladocerans, ostracods and copepods), the eggs, larvae and pupae of aquatic insects, and non-arthropod invertebrates such as rotifers, nematodes, and oligochaetes. The egg-eating water mites often prey on the eggs of the same insects they parasitise as larvae.