ENDOPTERYGOTA (Complex body change during growth)

It includes nine orders:

1. Order: Coleoptera (Coleo: Sheath, ptera: wing)

Example: Beetles, weevils, fireflies

Include 330,000 species

Characteristics:

• Largest order of insects, characterized by hard bodies and chewing mouthparts.
• Adults are plant feeders and typically have two pairs of wings.
• Fore wings modified into hard, sclerotized; elytra where as hind wings are membranous

2. Order: Neuroptera

Example: Lacewings, antlions

Include 4000 species

Characteristics:

• Characterized by long antennae, chewing mouthparts,
• Large leaf like often colored wings, equal sizeand texture, fine net veined

3. Order: Hymenoptera (Hymen: membranous, ptera: wing)

Example: Bees, wasps, ants, sawflies

Include 145,000 species

Characteristics:

• Four wings, hind wings with hooklets called hamuli
• Some are known for their highly evolved social organization, but most species are nonsocial.
• All have mouthparts designed for biting, chewing or lapping , eyes well developed and undergo complete metamorphosis.
• Ovipositor distinct and modified for stinging

4. Order: Trichoptera

Example: Caddisflies

Include 5000 species

Characteristics:

• Adults resemble dull moths, but their wings are covered with fine hairs rather than scales.
• They have soft bodies and poorly developed mouthparts, and they usually live near water.

5. Order: Lepidoptera (Lepido: sclae, ptera: wings)

Example: Butterflies, moths

Include 160,000 species

Characteristics:

• Two pairs of wings, covered with thousands of overlapping scales of varying colors.
• They have large compound eyes and adults with sucking proboscis, larvae with biting chewing mouthparts.
• Caterpillars, the larval form, mostly feed on plant leaves.

6. Order: Siphonaptera (Siphon: a tube, aptera: wing less

Example: Fleas

Include 1400 species

Characteristics:

• Wingless parasites that suck the blood of mammals or birds.
• Powerful hind legs enable them to jump from one host to another.
• Members of this group were responsible for spread of plague

7. Order: Mecoptera

Example: Scorpionflies

Include 400 species

Characteristics:

• Oldest group of fully metamorphosing insects.
• heads with beaklike extensions.
• Antennae long and filiform
• Mouthparts biting and chewing type
• Wings long, narrow subequll and membranous
• They have slender bodies, abdomen elongate with terminal segments raised like that of scorpion

8. Order: Strepsiptera

Example: Stylopids

Include 370 species

Characteristics:

• Minute, beetle-like insects that parasitize other
• Females live sedentary lives and are visited by males, which fly rapidly with wings that produce a tiny humming noise.

9. Order: Diptera (Di: two, ptera: wing

Example: Mosquitoes, fruit flies, house flies, leaf miners, gall mides

Include 85,000 species

Characteristics:

• Known as the true flies, considered the most accomplished fliers of all insects, with an ability to fly backward, forward, and sideways.
• With few exceptions, they all have a single pair of wings, as well as structures called halters that help them achieve balance in flight.