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Ento 2010 Weel 11 Notes March 28, 2016 o Order: Siphonaptera  Siphon=tube  Aptera=wingless  Common name: fleas  Species=1,800 o Siphonaptera  Complete metamorphosis  Piercing/sucking mouthparts  No wings  Adults of both sexes are blood-sucking parasites  Good jumpers and runners  Narrow body  Many are disease vectors o Fleas:  Female needs blood for eggs  Female eats 15 times her weight/day  Female lays 2000 eggs  Eggs hatch in 1-10 days  Larvae feed on adult feces  Larva spins a sticky cocoon  Cocoon is well camouflaged  Life cycle is 12-174 days  Environment (temperature and humidity) is very important o Fleas are attracted to:  Heat  Carbon dioxide  Light  Movement o Fleas:  Can jump 200 times their length  Resilin: a protein in the back legs of fleas that works like a rubber band o Miriam Rothschild is a world flea expert  She showed that female flea reacts to sex hormones of a pregnant female host  Female flea adjusts her reproductive cycle to match that of her host  Lays her eggs on babies of host o Bubonic Plague  Vector: fleas  Disease: bacteria  Yersinia pestis  Antibiotic treatment is effective  Found in Russia, Middle East, and Western U.S.  Major outbreak in India o Bubonic plague:  Reservoir=rodents  Bacteria enter flea with blood meal  Bacteria multiply in flea gut  Bacteria break entry to gut  Flea seeks new host  Flea feeds on new host  Regurgitates blood with bacteria  Host is infected o Elephantiasis  Vector: mosquitoes  Disease organism: roundworms  Causes swollen appendages  300 million people in Southeast Asia have Elephantiasis o River Blindness  Vector: black flies  Disease: roundworms  West Africa  20 million people infected o Possible use of insects in war  Modify plague bacteria  Destroy crops  War on drugs  March 30, 2016  Mimicry : Resemblance of an organism to some other organism/object  Natural Selection : change in the frequency of genetic traits in a population through differential survival of individuals bearing those traits  Natural selection:  Blue jay (a predator) eats moths  50 years ago most moths were pale  pale moths were hard to see on trees  pollution darkened trees  today most moths are dark  dark moths are now harder to catch  Batesian mimicry: resemblance of an edible species (mimic) to an unpalatable species (model) to deceive predators  Batesian mimicry:  Viceroy looks like monarch butterfly  Monarch larva eats toxic milkweed  Viceroy larva eats non-toxic willow  Monarch adult is toxic=model  Viceroy adult is non-toxic=mimic  Blue jay “learns” to avoid mimic  Mullerian mimicry: mutual resemblance of 2 or more unpalatable species to enhance predator avoidance  Crypsis : resemblance of an organism to its background  Dead Leaf Butterfly  Outer wings look like leaf  Inner wings have bright color o Wing edge of moth/butterfly may mimic caterpillar or snake o Nemoria arizonaria  Spring  Caterpillar eats oak flowers: mimics flowers  Summer  Caterpillar eats oak leaves: mimics twigs  Passion vine & butterfly interaction:  Passion vine leaves have toxins to deter insects  Some butterfly species can eat only 1 passion vine species  Passion vine leaves mimic each other to confuse butterfly  Female butterfly lays one egg per leaf, because larvae are cannibals!  Passion vine makes “mimic eggs” on leaf  Butterfly avoids passion vine leaves with “mimic eggs”  April 1, 2016 o Exam 2