INSECTS
There are approximately 1 million different species of insects. They have a body divided into head, thorax and abdomen, and typically have 6 legs and one or two pairs of wings.
A)Web site name: University of Florida: Singing insects of North America
Web site URL:
Read “How to recognize crickets, katydids and cicadas”
1).How do Ensiferans produce calling songs? ______
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Click on “Crickets” then “List of Species”, click on several different species and then and fill out the information below:
2). Name of species #1: ______
Where is it found? ______
Describe its song: ______
3).Name of species #2: ______
Where is it found? ______
Describe its song: ______
Click on “Katydids” at the top of the screen, then “List of Species”. Click on some species then fill out the information below:
4). Name of species #3: ______
Where is it found? ______
Describe its song: ______
5). Name of species #4: ______
Where is it found? ______
Describe its song: ______
One group of insects that has had a big impact on human disease is mosquitoes, which transmit several fatal diseases including malaria.
B)Web site name: BBC News
Web site URL:
Read “Little progress in Malaria war”.
6).How many cases of malaria are there every year? ______
7).How long will it be before a vaccine is available? ______
8). What is one reason that the “RBM” has failed?
______
9).Which two drugs are the most effective treatment for malaria?
______
10).Why is this likely to reach only a fraction of patients who need it?
______
C)Web site name: NYU School of Medicine
Web URL:
11).In general, how long does it take for tumors to disappear completely in mice infected with Sindbis virus? ______
12).In which parts of the world is Sindbis virus found? ______
13).What symptoms does the virus cause in humans?
______
14).How many different cancer-killing viruses are in clinical trials? ______
15).Why did adding the IL-12 gene help? ______
D)Web site name: University of Florida Book of Insect Records
Web URL:
Click on “Chapter 10: Least Specific Sucker of Vertebrate Blood”
16).What insect can feed on any vertebrate? ______
17).What animals does G. palpalis fuscipes feed on?
______
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18).Why does this species not rely on scent (olfaction) to find its host? ______
Click on the “Back” button, read a few of the other chapters and select two more chapters on insects that interest you.
19).Which two chapters did you pick?
______
20).Why did you find these interesting? ______
E)Web site name: Forensic Entomology:University of Florida
Web site URL:
Read “What is Forensic Entomology”
21).What is “forensic entomology”? ______
______
22).What may be responsible for car accidents that lack a definitive cause?
______
23).What are “flyspecks”?______
Click on “Insects”
24).Which insect has agradual or "paurometabolous" development? ______
25). What color are adult blowflies? ______
26).How can beetle larvae be differentiated from maggots?
______
F)Web site name: BBC News
Web site address:
27).Which human-like species is this article talking about?
______
28). Why was it previously a “puzzle” that this species had significant amounts of a type of carbon associated with eating protein?
______
29).What were these bone tools used for? ______
30). What type of carbon is laid down in the bones of meat eaters? ______
31).What two nutrients are termites rich in? ______
32).What modern primate “fishes” for termites? ______