MEANING OF ENTOMOLOGY

Entomology is coined from two Greek words “Entomone” means insect and “Logic” means
study of.
Entomology can therefore defined as the scientific study of the biology, classification evolution
and distribution of a group of animals called insects.
The father of entomology is called [Link]. William Kirby (19 th September 1759 to 30th July 1850
who graduated from Cause College in Cambridge, England in 1781.
BRANCHES OF ENTOMOLOGY
Entomology, the study of insects, encompasses a wide verity of specialized branches:
INSECTS ECOLOGY
This branch deals with the relationships of insects with their environment this branch of
insects in an ecosystem. The aims is to preserve the insects not to remove or aardvark them.
INSECT MORPHOLOGY
This deals with the study of the body parts as well as their functions. This branch deals mostly
with the body parts that are external to the insect
Insect pathology
The diseases that may harm or affect the health of insects in studied in this branch ia this
branch of study, scientists used pest that may harm agriculture.
INSPECT PHYSIOLOGY
This deals with the study of the various functions and behavioral of different insects with
thgeri ecosystem

INSECTS TAXONOMY
Insect taxonomy is the study of the theory and practice of naming insects and classifying them.
It is a continous process as there are many undentified insects still roaming the planet earth.
Insects of toxicology
This branch of entomology deals with how the insecticides and other chemicals affect the
physiological functions of insects. It is the study of controlling insects and pest’s management.
Industrial entomology
The study of rearing of insects for business or beneficial purposes in the focus of this field.
This involves honey bee or apiculture, bumbles bees, butterflies, cleomes etc. this branch
actually deals with the benefit of insects to mankind. It also deals with the benefit of mankind.
It also deals with the removal of harmful insects like termites, cockroaches, house flies etc
from the houses
MEDICAL AND VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY
Insect not only harm humans, but also animals. This branch deals with insect. That harm not
only humans but affect humans also. This involves everything about diseases medical public
health veterinary importance such as malaria and dengue fever
BIOLOGICAL CONTROL ENTOMOLOGY
This deals with using insects against harmful insects. In other words, friendly insects are used
to cater for harmful insects thus called biological control entomology for example lady birds
eats aphids that destroy wheat dragonfly that eats those insects that damage crops.

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 POST HARVEST ENTOMOLOGY
This branch of entomology deals with the practice and control of the stored commodities and
products like stored wheat, rice etc
FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY
In this branch, the focus is on using the insects to determine or estimate the time, place of
human health for legal purpose
FOREST ENTOMOLOGY
Deals with trees and insects, in other words, in this branch, we study the impact of insect and
find solutions to safeguard trees from serious damage.
CROP PROTECTIONS ENTOMOLOGY
This branch of entomology deals with the study of controlling insects from damage crops in
the field. It is also called agriculture ecology
[beneficial and harmful effects of insects]
[The origin and evolution of insects: radiations of the arthropoda ]
The term arthropod means “joint-legged” and this is an expression of the more general fact
that these animals are completely enclosed in an external chitinous exoskeleton various parts
are linked by mobile joints. In most cases arthropods into separate into functional sets. A head
(cephelon), thorax, and abdomen are usually recognizable but many modifications of this
patter occur. Most arthropods structures differ so widely in different groups that all most no
general statement on structure can be made without some qualification.
The major organ systems are all usually developed throughout the phylum
The primitive segmental disposition of organ has to some extent been preserved, but many
organs have localiset sites.
Arthropods probably arose form polechaete like ancestral animals at about the time that the
ediacaran fauna was flourishing, and some of the annelid like creatures of this failure have
been tentatively considered to be arthropods like their annelid ancestors, the earliest
arthropods probably lived in shallow marine waters of the coastal niches crawling or
swimming in search of food and sholts the structures, that made activity a dommant aspect of
arthropods emerged only as new features arose and this were made possible only by the
establishment of the ground plan/
The first well-know arthropods, the trilobites from the early cam brain, were relatively
unspecialized probably lived mean as did the primitive members of the phylum the key to
arthropod evolution is the exoskeleton. This acoustics to plates of segmentally arranged,
thexide chitin with joints between the plates once present, their hard covering opened new
segment for adaptive radiation and, at the same time imposed structural limits of the size and
the necessity of growth and molt stages
Initially, the skeleton might have been protective, but at the same time, it permitted
considerable activity. This model combination which in any other group of organisms. Once
the strong mobile, protective exoskeleton was developed in the arthropods, its primary
function was over shadowed by new functions that were basic in the radiations of the phylum

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 ADAPTIVE RADIATON
Adaptive radiation is a process in evolution biology in which organisms diversify rapidly from
an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms particularly when a change in the
environment makes new resources available.
In other words, adaptive radiations is an event in which a lineage rapidly diversities with a
newly formed lineage evolving different adaptive features.
MAJOR ARTHROPOD GROUPS AND RADIATIONS
The phylum arthropoda is subdivided in to three subphyla:
Subphylum (an extinct group)
They are also called tilobitomorphs
They are divided into three body parts:
Cephalic head (Thorax and psysidium or tail)
Subphylum chelicerae
Body devided into two make seguents:
An auterior prosowa or cephalothoraxchead and theorax/and a posterix opisthosoma or
abdowa .
Subpylun mandibulata include crustaceans, centipedes, millipedes and insects.
The best known crustaceans are the largest, free-living animals and have radiated into
immense numbers of microenvironment crustaceans may be distinguished by their two parts
of audience, a single pair of mandible and two pairs of maxilla. The other appendage are
lightly variable throughout the group.
FASCINATING WORLD OF INSECTS:
Insects are the other dominant group of mandibulate thro pods. They have moved into almost
every conceivable habitat on land and in freshwater but have moved essentially into non-
marine habitats, being represented in salt water only by a few members that live on the
surface of water.
Insects evolved as far back as the record shows, during the DEVONIAN period probably from
center centipede like ancestors.
They entered a world almost unpopulated by other metazoans, for only the arachnids had
preceded them. It was however, a world with well developed forests and wealth of different
untouched resources. Once the basic insect pattern had been established, insect radiation was
extremely rapid.
The name insect refers to the sharp decide between the head, thorax and well separated
functionally and morphologically. A single pain of antencey complex month parts for chancing
and secking, respirdlon by branded trachese and excretion by malphysian are may the
principal features. Sense organs are highly developed including a pair of compound eyes, what
give insects a perspective of the unwerse very foreign to ours. All but the most primitives are
engaged. Although in some groups wings have been lost and in others they occur only in some
forms.
CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS.
The class Insect also called the hexapoda involve a group of animals that have six legs (3
pairs).
The walking leg of an insect is divided into the following parts

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The lowest level of organization of insects is seen in forms sometimes grouped into and
pterygota and apterygota.
The apterygota -are wingless insects while the pterygota are the winged insects.
Very extensive radiation took place with the insects after their evolution. A first period of
rapid evolution produced many of the basic orders. During the middle cretaceous, however, a
massive radiation of the flowering plants, angiosperms, began and these plants provided the
vast resources for the insects what co-evolved as the principal pollinators of the flowers. An
explosive radiation took place resulting in most of the 25 orders that exist today.
ORDERS OF INSECTS
Orthoptera: order of insects that include grasshoppers, lacust, cricleets and katymds
characterized by their large to weduin body sizes have large hand legs that are used for
hopping.
Orthoptara wears straight wings.
Insoptera: a small order of insects with similar size, shape and reaflow of the four wing. Iso
means equal and ptera-meaning wing. They have pale, enlagate bodies examples are ferutes,
coakroades which are dtritophagoues expoceal insects that consure a variety of decayias plant
material generally in the form of woode, lead letter and doct homes.
Diptera: order of insects with one part of wings oi-two, pterov-ewing. A group of true fles e.g.
house flies, horrelleep, mudges, mosqualtoes etc. typically have suscong mouthparts for
feedals on deeayus matrial or jwees. Have single pair of wings and a set of flght stabilizing
halters (balancers)- holo metabolous insects (complete metamorphosis)
Hymenoptera include Ants, Bees and wases. These insects live in colours and they have a sting
for singing. They are social insects.
Hemipter: is an order of insects called true bags.
Hemipterals-half- urged e.g. aphids, acads.
Homoptera: group of time badgs with uniform structure of their mags e.g aphilds, true bugs.
Lepidoptera e.g. moths and butterflies these insects when at rest it folds its wings. They have
scale wings.
Leids-means scale

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Odonata and order of predatory insects achieve dummy the day with large counpound eyes
e.g. dragon flies, dansel flies
Malloplreaga chaving lice, biting lee, bird lee are flat with reduced eyes
Order acarina: including mites and ticks mites have 8 legs.
Order ixodida e.g. ticks chartidis parasites of wild and domestic animals large when engorged
or fed with blood.
Coleapter beetles
Growth life cycle and development of common house hold pests
The commonest pest found in the household of man include members of the phylum
arthropoda and in the class insecta or hexapoda: these includes mosquitoes, cockroaches,
bedbugs, houseflies, others are termites, weevils, spiders, white ants and black ants etc.
PHEROMEONES
Meaning:
Pheromones are chemicals produced as messengers that affect the behavior of other
individuals of insects or of other animals. They are usually wind-borne but may be placed on
soil, vegetation or various items.
Pheromones serve the purpose of enhancing communication among an insect species.

Pheromones serve among other things the following purposes in an insect species:

 In recognizing conspecifics

 They also indicate a reproductive site

 Used for finding food and mates for reproduction

 They are also used for aggregating to take advantage of a food resource

 To attract potential mates for mating

 To escape predation

 To advertise fitness
 To protect sites for position
 Pheromones are slightly different from sight or sound signals in the following ways:
 They travel slowly
 They do not fade quickly
 Effective over a long range
 Pheromone direction is not restricted to straight lines
Types of pheromones
Pheromones are categorized into various types:
Sex pheromones
Aggregation pheromones
Alert pheromones
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Trail pheromones
Sex pheromones – These serve sexual purposes and are used to recognize males or females
and also to locate a specific mate of a particular species of insects for the purpose of mating or
reproduction.
Sex pheromones also enable a species of insect to advertise fitness and maturity.
Aggregation pheromones – Are those that bring a particular species of insects together for the
purpose of defense against an intruder into an insect species. They also serve the purpose of
bringing together a population of insects of a particular species on recognition of a potential
source of food.
Aggregation pheromones also mobilize a species of insects to defend their territory and also
locate a source of food, for the purpose of achieving a particular objective as nest building, etc.

Alert pheromones – Also called alarm pheromones, raise an alarm on sight of an intruder into
the territory of a community of insects. They cause alarm against danger or call the attention
of other members in case of an emergency.

Trail pheromones are deposited on a substrate by one member of a species, and that trace is
recognized by another member and then followed by another.

Pheromones generally coordinate the orientation and behavior of a species of insects to

achieve definite objectives.
The organizational ability of insects is exhaustively division of labour and regulated by
pheromones.
Social insects
Social insects are those that live in colonies and show a huge level of social organization.
They are the most organized social systems that evolution has produced, but despite their
complexity they are stable, widespread and ancient. They reached their present state of
development early in the age of mammals and from all indications will survive as long as the
earth remains habitable.

In vertebrate social organizations, it is highly dependent on mutual recognition by individuals.

All the animals in highly organized groups learn to know each other, in a complex pattern of
individual competition and mutual dependence. All the adult members of a group are
naturally the same in basic behavior and motivation.
A vertebrate animal’s place in its social group develops from its own social history and
personal relations. Each individual makes and maintains its own place in the society.

Social organization in insects is based on a set of relationships that is completely different

from that found in vertebrates.
Individual recognition is insignificant.
Learning plays no role. Social relationships are rigid and the status of each individual is
determined by genetic and physiological factors rather than individual experience. Insect
societies are biological colonies. A mature colony of social insects consists of a female (or pair
in the case of termites) and offspring who are organized in castes that are readily identified by
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both appearance and pattern of behavior. The most common castes are workers and soldiers.
The behavior of the animals in these castes is selfless or altruistic, which presents interesting
problems for interpretations in terms of Darwinian natural selection.
The highly social insects belong to two orders: the Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, and bees) and
the Isoptera (termites). The societies of the two groups show striking convergent features, but
they have independent evolutionary origins and different sexual patterns.
The existence of morphological castes is an integral part of insect societies. Specimens
representing these castes are known from the paleontological record.
A fossil record indicates that societies of these have been in existence for at least 50 million
years in the case of the hymenopterans and half again as long in the case of termites.
TERMITES
All termites are social. Most are tropical or warm temperate in distribution, and all feed
primarily on wood. Aside from sociality, the most striking feature of their biology is the
symbiosis they have established with aliate protozoa and bacteria on which they depend to
digest the wood they eat. Termites, like most other animals, cannot digest cellulose, the long-
chain carbohydrate that is the principal component of wood.

The termite chews up the wood and swallows it. The cellulose fibers in the wood are then
digested by enzymes produced by the micro-organisms in its gut. If a termite is treated with
chemicals that kill its symbionts, it will starve to death while eating its normal diet of wood.
This symbiont is similar to the one that exists in mammal animals. It has proved to be an
extraordinarily effective nutritional arrangement. Termites are the chief annual decomposers
of woody plant materials in all of the warmer parts of the world.

After it hatches, the individual termite must acquire its symbionts by ingesting liquid secreted
from the gut of other termites that already carry them. This process of exchanging alimentary
fluids, which can be either mutual or unilateral, is called trophallaxis. It is a major component
of regulation in insect societies, because it is also a mechanism for transferring from one
animal to another chemical substances, including pheromones, that have profound
developmental, physiological, and behavioral effects.

All termites are social. Well-established colonies contain many thousands, and in some cases,
millions of members, sometimes housed in galleries and chambers in dry wood, sometimes in
enormous and elaborately structured mounds built by the workers out of pellets of soil and
excrement.

Termite colonies are families consisting of a QUEEN with a greatly enlarged abdomen
specialized for producing an enormous number of eggs, and a primary reproductive male
(KING) whose role is to keep the queen supplied with spermatozoa for fertilizing the steady
stream of eggs that she produces.

In warm weather following rains, swarms of alates (winged reproductive termites) become
positively phototactic, leave their colonies and fly a distance of a few hundred meters to a
kilometer or more from their home site. After the alates land, they break off their wings by
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pressing them against the ground and run excitedly about until they encounter a member of
the opposite sex. In some species, the females release a pheromone that attracts the male. The
male and female termites then pair and search about until they find a piece of wood into
which or beneath which they burrow. At this point, they become negatively phototactic and
remain so for the rest of their lives. The male and female termites dig a burrow, seal it off from
the surface, and construct a small nest chamber in which the female lays eggs. The eggs hatch
into nymphs, which the adults feed by regurgitation until they are able to feed themselves.

Most of the progeny of the queen and king develop into workers, which are the most
numerous of the colony and extremely versatile behaviorally. They excavate the galleries,
gather food, feed and groom the queen, take care of her eggs, and feed their brothers and
sisters. Some of the progeny develop into soldiers that are highly specialized in head structure
and behavior for defense of the colony.
Soldiers usually have heavily armored heads, massive mandibles, and glands equipped for
excreting noxious chemicals. Members of the worker and soldier castes may be either male or
female, but they are always sterile.

Control of castes is by means of pheromones. The king and queen produce sex-specific
pheromones that prevent larvae and nymphs from developing into reproductive forms.
The pheromones, like the gut symbionts, are transferred to the developing young in secretions
from the digestive tract. The larvae feed on food regurgitated by the adults or produced by
anal secretions of the adults. The regurgitated and secreted materials contain the pheromones
that control the path of development of the larvae and nymphs, each of which has the
potentiality for growing into a worker, a soldier, or a reproductive. Pheromones produced by
the royal couple, or members of soldier castes or worker castes, are spread throughout the
colony from one individual to another by both oral and anal trophallaxis. Thus, pheromones
supply a chemical integrating mechanism for the entire society.

In mature termite colonies, there is usually a caste of secondary reproductives who assist the
workers in foraging but are instead on standby to replace the primary reproductive (queen
and king) should either of them cease to function. For example, if the queen should die, the
queen-inhibiting pheromone would no longer be produced and would soon cease to circulate
through the colony by trophallaxis. In the absence of the queen-inhibiting hormone, one or
several of the female secondary reproductives would develop into a primary reproductive and
replace the original queen.

The level of circulating pheromones that control the development of the various castes is a
function of the current caste composition of the colony. All members of the colony are in
chemical communication via pheromones acquired by trophallaxis. Consequently, there exists
a chemical regulating system that can control the apportionment of developing nymphs
among the various castes in a manner that is statistically appropriate to the functional
requirements of the colony.

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The regulatory system works by negative feedback control. The frequency with which larvae
develop into a specific caste is inversely proportional to the level of inhibiting pheromone
produced by members of that caste that is circulating throughout the colony by trophallaxis.
Thus, if there are many soldiers, the level of anti-soldier pheromone is high, and few larvae
will develop into soldiers — and vice versa.

ANTS AND BEES

The key to understanding the social organization of insects in the order Hymenoptera lies in
the genetics of sex determination. The females in this order are diploid, and the males are
haploid. As you all recall, gametes are haploid (IN) chromosome number), whereas fertilized
eggs are diploid (2N). In ants, bees, and wasps, those eggs that are fertilized grow into females,
while those eggs that are not fertilized develop parthenogenetically and grow into males. This
means that each male is homozygous, and that sisters are very similar to each other
genetically (they may share as many as three-quarters of their genes) because all of them
receive the same gene donated from the father.

Among ants, the worker caste consists of the sterile females who never develop wings. A
female that will grow into a fertile queen has well-developed wings when she emerges from
the pupa. When she matures, she flies away from the hive nest. During this nuptial flight, she is
inseminated by one of several males. She never copulates again thereafter, but stores the
spermatozoa received during the nuptial flight and uses them as needed during the rest of her
life. The fertilized queen returns to the ground, breaks off her wings, burrows into the soil,
digs a small nest chamber, and establishes a new colony. The first eggs she lays all develop
into members of the worker caste of sterile females. As soon as the workers mature, they take
over all the activities of foraging, nest building, caring for the queen, egg tending, and rearing
of the young. The queen does nothing but eat food brought to her by the workers and lay
enormous numbers of eggs.
Ants have an elaborate system of communication that involves both sound and touch and
particularly relying on chemical signals. Ants have many glands that open onto the surface of
the body, and these glands find their primary function in pheromone secretion. Each
pheromone produces a specific response. There are alarm pheromones, attack pheromones,
and trail marking pheromones, to mention only a few.

In addition to producing pheromones with specific signal functions, the social Hymenopterans
use pheromones to control caste structure in their colonies via the process of trophallaxis, like
termites. This is shown with particular clarity by honey bees (Apis mellifera). As in ants, the
worker caste of honey bees consists of sterile females. A single hive may contain 60,000 or
more workers, but has only a single queen. The queen has large and active glands on her head
that produce a specific pheromone, a – keto-z-decanoic acid, called the queen substance. The
workers are extremely fond of this substance, and while attending the queen they lick it up as
fast as it is secreted and then pass it about among themselves by regurgitation and
trophallaxis.

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The queen substance has complex effects on both the behavior and the physiology of the
workers. It inhibits the development of the ovaries of the workers and so keeps them sterile. It
also inhibits the workers from rearing any more queens. If the queen is removed, the amount
of queen substance in the colony diminishes rapidly. Some of the workers immediately begin
to build special large cells in the honeycomb. These queen cells are used for rearing the larvae
that will grow into queens. At the same time, other workers begin to undergo ovarian
development that will lead to the ability to lay eggs.

Eggs laid in the queen cells hatch into larvae that receive a special diet of royal jelly, a
pheromone-containing substance secreted by the glands of the workers. Larvae that are fed
royal jelly develop into queens rather than workers.
PARASITIC ARTHROPODS:
TICKS AND MITES
A tick is an obligate hematophagous ectoparasite of wild and domestic animals and humans.
They are considered to be second to mosquitoes as vectors of human diseases.
There are many genera and species of ticks in the families Ixodidae (hard ticks) and Argasidae
(soft ticks) that are of public health importance.
Although ticks are commonly thought of as insects, they are actually arachnids like scorpions,
spiders, and ants.

Four pairs of legs (8 legs) as adults and one pair of antennae.

Ticks have four life stages:
Egg – six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph, and adult.
After the egg hatches, the tiny larva (sometimes called a "seed tick") feeds on an appropriate
host. The larva then develops (molts) into the larger nymph. The nymph feeds on a host and
then molts into an even larger adult. Both male and female adults find and feed on a host, then
the female lays eggs sometime after feeding.
Ticks wait for most animals from the tips of grasses and shrubs (not from trees). When
brushed by a moving animal or person, they quickly let go of the vegetation and climb onto the
host. Ticks can only crawl. They cannot fly or jump.

THERE ARE TWO GROUPS OF TICKS:

HARD TICKS AND SOFT TICKS
Hard ticks (e.g. common dog tick) have a hard shield just behind the mouthparts and are
shaped like a flat seed.
Soft ticks do not have the hard shield, and they are shaped like a large raisin.
Soft ticks prefer to feed on birds or bats and are seldom encountered unless these animals are
nesting or roosting in an occupied building.
Features of hard ticks (Ixodidae):
Have a plate on their back called a scutum
Mouthparts are visible when the tick is viewed from above
Males smaller than females
Features of soft ticks:
Lack a scutum
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Mouthparts are concealed when tick is viewed from above
Have wrinkled bodies
Males and females almost the same size
General characteristics of ticks:
Four pairs of walking legs (8 legs)
Two body divisions
A pair of antennae for sensitivity
Piercing and sucking mouthparts for sucking blood
Have a toothed hypostome (piercing organ)
They undergo incomplete metamorphosis
They are wingless
They have leathery integument
They have a chitinous exoskeleton that permits growth by molting or ecdysis
Classification of a tick:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Subclass: Apterygota
Order: Acari
Family: Ixodidae / Argasidae
Genus:
Species:
Life cycle of a tick:
The life cycle of a tick occurs in four stages: the egg, the larvae, the nymphs, and adult. Each
stage requires a separate host.
Egg:
A mature female tick, after sucking blood from its host, drops to the ground and lays her eggs
in the ground under the grass and then dies.
Larva:
The egg hatches into a larva with six legs. It crawls into the grass from where it attaches itself
to the skin of an animal passing by. The larva feeds on host blood, becomes engorged, and then
falls to the ground.
Nymphs
The larva now on the ground moults into a nymph with eight legs. The nymph also crawls and
attaches itself to a second host. It feeds on the host’s blood and later drops to the ground.
The adult
The nymph now on the ground finally moults into an adult tick, which crawls into the grass
and attaches itself to a third host. If the adult tick is a female, it inserts its mouthpart
immediately into the skin of the host and sucks blood.
But if the adult tick is a male, it does not fix itself to the host but crawls on the skin in search of
a female tick to mate with it. After mating with the female, the male dies. When the female has
sucked enough blood, it falls to the ground and lays its eggs and the whole circle is repeated.
Economic importance of ticks
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Ticks cause annoyance and free of irritation on their host.
They act as vectors of parasitic disease.
Injuries from tick bites may become ulcerated wounds.
Injuries caused by ticks may become a source of secondary infection.
Damage on the flow of animals caused by ticks reduces the quality of hide and skew.
The loss of blood may lead to loss of weight and death of host animal.
MITES
A mite is a minute arachnid typically measuring less than 1 millimeter in length.
It belongs to the class Arachnida and the subclass Acari.
The arachnids are known for having a body plan organized into two tagmata:
PROSOMA AND OPISTHOSOMA.
The anterior region is called the capitulum and the remainder of the mite body is called the
idiosoma.
Mites have three pairs of legs (six legs).
They have jointed limbs.
CHITINOUS EXOSKELETONS (Note: This phrase might be a typographic error unclear.)
Mites are not insects, nevertheless, they belong to the same phylum (Arthropoda). The
scientific study of mites is called acarology.
Mites breathe through tracheae, stigmata, intestines, and the skin.
They lack a heart.
Their excretory system consists of nephridia and Malpighian tubules.
The eyes vary among species; while some are blind, others have one to five lateral eyes.
Bristles (setae) are present on the body and limbs.
The rodents [order Rodentia] are also implicated as causing nuisance to man in his household.

Pests go through a period of growth and development called metamorphosis through stages.
Metamorphosis: the pattern of gradual transformation in the structure of an insect from the
egg through larva and pupal stage until the adult stage is reached is called metamorphosis.
There are two types of metamorphosis:
Complete metamorphosis [holometaboly] and hemimetaboly [incomplete metamorphosis].
In holometaboly, there exist four stages in the life cycle:
The egg, the larva, the pupal, and then the adult or imago.
In hemimetaboly, there exist three stages in the life cycle: egg, larva, and the nymph (adult).
The pupal stage is absent because the nymph moults also reach like the adult only that it is
small in size.
In the life cycle of holometabolous development, the larval stage is the stage of rapid feeding.
In other words, the larva is the feeding stage while the pupa is a stage of massive organization
of the structure to reach the adult.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AN INSECT
At the dawn of the 20th century, insect physiology was an emerging field that largely
emphasized external structures such as antennae, bristles, and compound eyes. Johnstone
challenged this narrow view by describing internal mechanoreceptors that were not visible
externally but played critical roles in sensory integration.

12
 In his seminal 1905 paper, The Structure and Function of the Chordotonal Organs in
Insects, Johnstone identified a class of sensory structures within insect appendages that
appeared “chord-like” in organization, hence the name chordotonal organs. Unlike trichoid
sensilla or campaniform sensilla, which are embedded in the cuticle and respond to surface
forces, chordotonal organs were attached internally between the cuticle and skeletal elements,
suggesting a role in detecting internal strain or movement.

Johnstone’s contribution was twofold:

1. Descriptive: He carefully mapped the location and anatomy of chordotonal organs across
insect taxa, particularly in legs and antennae.
2. Conceptual: He introduced the idea that these internal sense organs were distinct in
function from surface mechanoreceptors, being adapted for proprioception and vibration
detection.
This distinction was profound for its time, as it set the stage for future investigations into
insect hearing, proprioception, and locomotor control.
Structure of Chordotonal Organs
Modern research has confirmed and elaborated Johnstone’s observations, revealing that
chordotonal organs are composed of scolopidia. Each scolopidium typically consists of:
A bipolar sensory neuron, which generates action potentials in response to mechanical
deformation.
A scolopale cell, which surrounds the neuron’s dendrite and forms a protective and supportive
structure.
Attachment cells that anchor the organ between the cuticle and internal connective tissue,
allowing stretch or vibration to stimulate the sensory neurons.
The arrangement of scolopidia varies depending on the organ’s function. For instance:
Johnston’s organ in Diptera and mosquitoes may contain hundreds of scolopidia, finely tuned
for detecting antennal vibrations corresponding to sound.
Femoral chordotonal organs often contain tens to hundreds of scolopidia that encode joint
angles and movement, essential for proprioception.
Subgenual organs usually contain fewer scolopidia but are exquisitely sensitive to substrate
vibrations.
This modular arrangement allows chordotonal organs to be specialized for a wide array of
functions while retaining a common cellular architecture.
Functional Roles of Chordotonal Organs
1. Proprioception
One of the fundamental roles of chordotonal organs is proprioception—the ability of an insect
to know the position and movement of its own body parts. For example, femoral chordotonal
organs in grasshoppers and crickets provide detailed information about joint position and
velocity, enabling precise coordination during jumping, walking, and grooming behaviors.
2. Audition
Insects such as mosquitoes, flies, and midges use chordotonal organs to detect airborne sound.
Johnston’s organ in mosquitoes is particularly well studied; males can detect the wingbeat
frequencies of females with remarkable precision, a mechanism crucial for mate recognition
and reproduction. Studies by Göpfert and Robert (2001) showed that these organs exhibit

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active auditory mechanics, amplifying weak vibrations in a way reminiscent of the vertebrate
cochlea.
3. Vibration Detection
Subgenual organs in katydids, crickets, and stick insects detect substrate vibrations, enabling
communication and predator avoidance. This sensitivity allows insects to interpret
environmental cues even in the absence of light or airborne sound.
4. Locomotor Control
By providing continuous feedback about limb position and strain, chordotonal organs
contribute to locomotor coordination. Experiments by Burrows (1996) demonstrated that
cutting femoral chordotonal organs in locusts led to significant impairment in jumping
behavior, highlighting their necessity for motor control.
Chordotonal Organs Across Insect Taxa
Chordotonal organs are nearly ubiquitous across insect taxa, though their distribution and
specialization vary. Examples include:
Diptera (flies, mosquitoes): Johnston’s organ enables sound detection; vibration-sensitive
organs aid in flight stability.
Orthoptera (crickets, grasshoppers, katydids): Subgenual and femoral chordotonal organs
mediate communication and proprioception.
Hemiptera (true bugs): Chordotonal organs contribute to substrate-borne communication
signals.
Coleoptera (beetles): Serve primarily proprioceptive roles, assisting in locomotion and
navigation.
The evolutionary flexibility of chordotonal organs underscores their importance in insect
adaptation to diverse ecological niches.
Modern Significance
Johnstone’s discovery continues to influence modern biology in several ways:
1. Comparative Neurobiology: Chordotonal organs provide insights into how nervous systems
encode mechanical information.
2. Bioacoustics: Studies of insect auditory systems contribute to broader understanding of
sound detection and processing across species.
3. Biomimetics: Engineers draw inspiration from chordotonal organ sensitivity to design
miniature vibration sensors for robotics.
4. Evolutionary Biology: Understanding the diversification of chordotonal organs sheds light
on how sensory systems evolve in response to ecological pressures

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