Journal Entry 12
Entry 12- Bug day- 5/3
Weather: Wet but not that cold. Drizzling rain all day, but enough to stop the pollinators from doing their work and us from observing them.
Today’s class session was on entomology, during which we went down to meet the entomology professor of UW. He is actually THE entomology professor because being that there is just one entomology class at UW and he is the only professor, it is quite an exclusive position to hold.
He began with an overview of entomology, which essentially includes the study of insects, but in reality includes the greater group of arthropods, which includes insects, mites, scorpions, millipedes, centipedes, snow bugs, beach fleas, and all other “bugs” etc.
Insects play a role of massive importance on the planet, more so than any other organism type. This is because they are responsible for a great deal of decomposition of the waste of other organisms, as well as serve as a major trophic level near the bottom of the food chain upon which many higher organisms rely. In addition to their role within so many food webs, they are interconnected in the webs of waste recycling, soil formation, vegetation control, plant reproduction, natural processes that provide a basis for both human and animal survival.
Their involvement with the human world includes providing food and medicine, consumers of fiber including crop and forest stocks, carriers of disease, intentional use as biocontrol as an alternative to pesticides, often manifested through competition with other insects.
Beetles are a major group of insects, consisting of a third of all insects and 1/5 of all animals by mass. Beetles are distinct because of their two sets of wings, called the elytra (hard outer wings) and the under-wings that control flight. All beetles and other insects have immature forms called larvae, which make up the majority of insects at any time because their immature lives are relatively much longer than their lives as adults.
Moths are another group of insects, which consists of both moths and butterflies, which are just moths that have adapted to flying during the day.
After the introduction to entomology, we went out on campus to see the bee colony, which consists of a number of domesticated bee hives that frequent the flowers on campus and are used in study. The bees feed on pollen which are collected for larvae and nectar, which is used as energy for flying, which is understandably energetically expensive. They collect these from flowers and indirectly carry genetic material from plant to plant, assisting in the reproductive process. Honeybees, while not native, have become naturalized and are now the essential to the agricultural industry for pollinating crops.
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