Figure 12.35: Monarch butterflies in an overwintering cluster. ( 11 )Insects are divided into two major groups, the wingless and the winged insects. The wingless
consists of two orders: the bristle tails and the silverfish. The winged orders of insects in-
cludethemayflies; dragonfliesanddamselflies; stoneflies; webspinners; angelinsects; earwigs;
grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids; stick insects; ice-crawlers and gladiators; cockroaches
andtermites; mantids; lice; thrips; truebugs, aphids, andcicadas; wasps, bees, andants; bee-
tles; twisted-winged parasites; snakeflies; alderflies and dobsonflies; lacewings and antlions;
Scorpios and hangingflies (including fleas); true flies; caddisflies; and butterflies, moths, and
skippers.
How Insects Obtain Food
Insects have a wide variety of appendages adapted for capturing and feeding on prey. In
addition, as already discussed, they have sensory capabilities, which help them detect prey.
Insects have a wide range of mouthparts used for feeding. Specialized parts are mostly
for piercing and sucking, as in mosquitoes and aphids. A number of insect orders have
mouthparts that pierce food items to enable sucking of internal fluids. Some are herbivorous,
like aphids and leafhoppers, while others are insectivorous, like assassin bugs and mosquitoes
(females only).
Examples of chewing insects include dragonflies, grasshoppers, and beetles. Some larvae
have chewing mouthparts, as in moths and butterflies.
Some insects use siphoning, as if sucking through a straw, as in moths and butterflies, where
some of the mouthparts are adapted into an elongated sucking tube. You have probably
seen a butterfly or moth poised at a flower while it siphons the nectar of the flower. Some
moths, however, have no mouthparts at all.