A larva ( / ˈ l ɑːr v ə / ; pl. : larvae / ˈ l ɑːr v iː / ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects , some arachnids , amphibians , or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle .
21-949: See text The genus Empidonax is a group of small insect-eating passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family, the Tyrannidae. The genus name Empidonax is from Ancient Greek empis , " gnat ", and anax , "master". Most of these birds are very similar in plumage : olive on the upper parts with light underparts, eye rings and wing bars. In the nesting season they may be distinguished by range, habitat and call; in other situations, particularly on migration and in winter, it may not be possible to be sure of specific identification. Empidonax flycatchers often flick their wings and tails rapidly. Euler's flycatcher , Lathrotriccus euleri and gray-breasted flycatcher , Lathrotriccus griseipectus were formerly placed in Empidonax , but differ anatomically and biochemically and are now placed in
42-583: A distinct environment, larvae may be given shelter from predators and reduce competition for resources with the adult population. Animals in the larval stage will consume food to fuel their transition into the adult form. In some organisms like polychaetes and barnacles , adults are immobile but their larvae are mobile, and use their mobile larval form to distribute themselves. These larvae used for dispersal are either planktotrophic (feeding) or lecithotrophic (non-feeding) . Some larvae are dependent on adults to feed them. In many eusocial Hymenoptera species,
63-552: A hundred species, are marine. Insects such as snow scorpionflies flourish in cold habitats including the Arctic and at high altitude. Insects such as desert locusts , ants, beetles, and termites are adapted to some of the hottest and driest environments on earth, such as the Sonoran Desert . Insects form a clade , a natural group with a common ancestor, among the arthropods . A phylogenetic analysis by Kjer et al. (2016) places
84-423: Is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton, so development involves a series of molts . The immature stages often differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat. Groups that undergo four-stage metamorphosis often have a nearly immobile pupa . Insects that undergo three-stage metamorphosis lack a pupa, developing through a series of increasingly adult-like nymphal stages. The higher level relationship of
105-561: Is generally very different from the adult form ( e.g. caterpillars and butterflies ) including different unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form. Their diet may also be considerably different. In the case of smaller primitive arachnids, the larval stage differs by having three instead of four pairs of legs. Larvae are frequently adapted to different environments than adults. For example, some larvae such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments, but can live outside water as adult frogs . By living in
126-407: Is only partly contained in vessels, and some circulates in an open hemocoel . Insect vision is mainly through their compound eyes , with additional small ocelli . Many insects can hear, using tympanal organs , which may be on the legs or other parts of the body. Their sense of smell is via receptors, usually on the antennae and the mouthparts. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs . Insect growth
147-830: The Latin word insectum from in , "cut up", as insects appear to be cut into three parts. The Latin word was introduced by Pliny the Elder who calqued the Ancient Greek word ἔντομον éntomon "insect" (as in entomology ) from ἔντομος éntomos "cut in pieces"; this was Aristotle 's term for this class of life in his biology , also in reference to their notched bodies. The English word insect first appears in 1601 in Philemon Holland 's translation of Pliny. In common speech, insects and other terrestrial arthropods are often called bugs . Entomologists to some extent reserve
168-2207: The Paraneoptera , and Kjer et al. 2016 for the Holometabola . The numbers of described extant species (boldface for groups with over 100,000 species) are from Stork 2018. Archaeognatha (hump-backed/jumping bristletails, 513 spp) [REDACTED] Zygentoma (silverfish, firebrats, fishmoths, 560 spp) [REDACTED] Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies, 5,899 spp) [REDACTED] Ephemeroptera (mayflies, 3,240 spp) [REDACTED] Zoraptera (angel insects, 37 spp) [REDACTED] Dermaptera (earwigs, 1,978 spp) [REDACTED] Plecoptera (stoneflies, 3,743 spp) [REDACTED] Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, 23,855 spp) [REDACTED] Grylloblattodea (ice crawlers, 34 spp) [REDACTED] Mantophasmatodea (gladiators, 15 spp) [REDACTED] Phasmatodea (stick insects, 3,014 spp) [REDACTED] Embioptera (webspinners, 463 spp) [REDACTED] Mantodea (mantises, 2,400 spp) [REDACTED] Blattodea (cockroaches and termites, 7,314 spp) [REDACTED] Psocodea (book lice, barklice and sucking lice, 11,000 spp) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Hemiptera (true bugs, 103,590 spp) [REDACTED] Thysanoptera (thrips, 5,864 spp) [REDACTED] Hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, bees, ants, 116,861 spp) [REDACTED] Strepsiptera (twisted-wing flies, 609 spp) [REDACTED] Coleoptera (beetles, 386,500 spp) [REDACTED] Raphidioptera (snakeflies, 254 spp) [REDACTED] Neuroptera (lacewings, 5,868 spp) [REDACTED] Megaloptera (alderflies and dobsonflies, 354 spp) [REDACTED] Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths, 157,338 spp) [REDACTED] Trichoptera (caddisflies, 14,391 spp) [REDACTED] Diptera (true flies, 155,477 spp) [REDACTED] Mecoptera (scorpionflies, 757 spp) [REDACTED] Siphonaptera (fleas, 2,075 spp) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Larva A larva's appearance
189-616: The insects is unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonfly-like insects with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm (22 to 28 in). The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants . Adult insects typically move about by walking and flying; some can swim. Insects are the only invertebrates that can achieve sustained powered flight; insect flight evolved just once. Many insects are at least partly aquatic , and have larvae with gills; in some species,
210-483: The pheromones of female moths over great distances. Other species communicate with sounds: crickets stridulate , or rub their wings together, to attract a mate and repel other males. Lampyrid beetles communicate with light. Humans regard many insects as pests , especially those that damage crops, and attempt to control them using insecticides and other techniques. Others are parasitic , and may act as vectors of diseases . Insect pollinators are essential to
231-618: The Hemiptera (true bugs), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Diptera (true flies), Hymenoptera (wasps, ants, and bees), and Coleoptera (beetles), each with more than 100,000 described species. Insects are distributed over every continent and almost every terrestrial habitat. There are many more species in the tropics , especially in rainforests , than in temperate zones. The world's regions have received widely differing amounts of attention from entomologists. The British Isles have been thoroughly surveyed, so that Gullan and Cranston 2014 state that
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#1732851226944252-404: The adults too are aquatic. Some species, such as water striders , can walk on the surface of water. Insects are mostly solitary, but some, such as bees , ants and termites , are social and live in large, well-organized colonies . Others, such as earwigs , provide maternal care, guarding their eggs and young. Insects can communicate with each other in a variety of ways. Male moths can sense
273-417: The genus Lathrotriccus . The genus contains 14 species: Insect Insects (from Latin insectum ) are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta . They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum . Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton , a three-part body ( head , thorax and abdomen ), three pairs of jointed legs , compound eyes , and a pair of antennae . Insects are
294-592: The insects among the Hexapoda , six-legged animals with segmented bodies; their closest relatives are the Diplura (bristletails). Collembola (springtails) [REDACTED] Protura (coneheads) [REDACTED] Diplura (two-pronged bristletails) [REDACTED] Insecta (=Ectognatha) [REDACTED] The internal phylogeny is based on the works of Wipfler et al. 2019 for the Polyneoptera , Johnson et al. 2018 for
315-407: The larvae are fed by female workers. In Ropalidia marginata (a paper wasp) the males are also capable of feeding larvae but they are much less efficient, spending more time and getting less food to the larvae. The larvae of some organisms (for example, some newts ) can become pubescent and do not develop further into the adult form. This is a type of neoteny . It is a misunderstanding that
336-520: The larval form always reflects the group's evolutionary history . This could be the case, but often the larval stage has evolved secondarily, as in insects. In these cases , the larval form may differ more than the adult form from the group's common origins. Within Insects , only Endopterygotes show complete metamorphosis, including a distinct larval stage. Several classifications have been suggested by many entomologists , and following classification
357-446: The most diverse group of animals, with more than a million described species ; they represent more than half of all animal species. The insect nervous system consists of a brain and a ventral nerve cord . Most insects reproduce by laying eggs . Insects breathe air through a system of paired openings along their sides, connected to small tubes that take air directly to the tissues. The blood therefore does not carry oxygen; it
378-402: The name "bugs" for a narrow category of " true bugs ", insects of the order Hemiptera , such as cicadas and shield bugs . Other terrestrial arthropods, such as centipedes , millipedes , woodlice , spiders , mites and scorpions , are sometimes confused with insects, since they have a jointed exoskeleton. Adult insects are the only arthropods that ever have wings, with up to two pairs on
399-535: The reproduction of many flowering plants and so to their ecosystems. Many insects are ecologically beneficial as predators of pest insects, while a few provide direct economic benefit. Two species in particular are economically important and were domesticated many centuries ago: silkworms for silk and honey bees for honey . Insects are consumed as food in 80% of the world's nations, by people in roughly 3000 ethnic groups. Human activities are having serious effects on insect biodiversity . The word insect comes from
420-527: The thorax. Whether winged or not, adult insects can be distinguished by their three-part body plan, with head, thorax, and abdomen; they have three pairs of legs on the thorax. Estimates of the total number of insect species vary considerably, suggesting that there are perhaps some 5.5 million insect species in existence, of which about one million have been described and named. These constitute around half of all eukaryote species, including animals , plants , and fungi . The most diverse insect orders are
441-518: The total of around 22,500 species is probably within 5% of the actual number there; they comment that Canada's list of 30,000 described species is surely over half of the actual total. They add that the 3000 species of the American Arctic must be broadly accurate. In contrast, a large majority of the insect species of the tropics and the southern hemisphere are probably undescribed. Some 30–40,000 species inhabit freshwater ; very few insects, perhaps
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