Arthropod Pest Management
Part 1 – 360 | Unit 1.8
DEMONSTRATION OUTLINE
A. Provide students with key taxonomic features to distinguish previously-collected insects of
various orders, families and feeding guilds
- Grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera)
a) Key characteristics: Enlarged hind femur, well developed cerci, chewing mouthparts
- Planthoppers, leafhoppers, aphids, scale, and mealybugs (Homoptera)
a) Key characteristics: Piercing-sucking mouthparts, four wings of uniform texture, two
to three ocelli may be present
- True “bugs” (Hemiptera)
a) Key characteristics: Apparent piercing-sucking mouth (beak or rostrum) extends
down much of ventral side, forewings only half membranous, scutellum apparent in
most species
- Flies (Diptera)
a) Key characteristics: only one pair of true wings; hind wings modified into halteres,
frequently sucking or sponging mouthparts, antennae are often short and located
between eyes, sometimes with arista
- Butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera)
a) Key characteristics: Four enlarged wings with scales, long and curled proboscis,
antennae often clubbed or plumose
- Beetles (Coleoptera)
a) Key characteristics: Front wings hardened with elytra, well developed mandibles,
antennae sometimes strongly clubbed
- Bees and wasps (Hymenoptera)
a) Key characteristics: Four true wings, antennae usually elongate, ovipositor well
developed, attachment point between thorax and abdomen (propodeum) sometimes
constricted
- Arachnids
a) Key characteristics: Two body segments, eight legs
i. Spiders (Araneae)
ii. Mites (Acari)
B. Provide Students with Crops Damaged by Pest Insects
- Potential examples include “cat-faced” strawberries, broccoli floret with cabbage
aphids, corn with the corn ear worm, codling moth larvae in apples, cole crops with
flea beetle foliar damage, etc.
C. Students Conduct Identification Exercise
- Instructor demonstrates use of key features (outline above), along with on-line and
printed resources to identify samples of arthropods and plant damage (see Resources
section) - Working in small groups, students practice identifying the collections to Order, genus,
and species (when possible), common name, feeding guild, “pest” or “beneficial”
designation - Small student groups share/report identification to peers and instructor
- Instructor confirms identification
Instructor’s Demonstration 2 Outline