The Earth's largest phylum is Arthropoda, including centipedes, millipedes, crustaceans and insects. The insects have shown to be a particularly successful class within the phylum. What biological characteristics have contributed to the success of insects? In many science fiction scenarios, postapocalyptic Earth is mainly populated with giant insects. Why don't we see giant insects now?

What will be an ideal response?


Exoskeleton and protection; early evolution of arthropods so increased time for diversify; specialized segmentation; highly efficient organ systems allowing extremely high metabolic rates; sensitive sense organs; small size and the ability to fly. The student response to the second question is more open but should include the following ideas: Although there are many insects today that are considered large, there are no "giant" insects. The small size of insects enables them to exploit many different microhabitats. Also, with increased size, the energy demands would be even greater and might exceed the limits of the insect metabolic rates.

Biology & Microbiology

You might also like to view...

Ciprofloxacin is a widely used antibiotic. This molecule is used to target:

A. topoisomerases in cancer cells. B. topoisomerases in fungal cells. C. topoisomerases in bacterial cells. D. structural maintenance proteins (SMC) in bacterial cells. E. structural maintenance proteins (SMC) in eukaryotic cells.

Biology & Microbiology

Opsonizing antibodies are those that function by:

a. attaching to the surface of pathogens and contributing to their destruction by the lytic action of complement. b. binding to and blocking surface receptors for host cells. c. attaching to the surface of pathogens and making the pathogens more amenable to ingestion by phagocytic cells. d. attaching to the surface of pathogens and contributing to their destruction by che-motaxis.

Biology & Microbiology

Reinforcement enhances prezygotic isolation that had begun to develop while the populations were

sympatric.

Indicate whether the statement is true or false.

Biology & Microbiology

Which of the following mutants are noninducible?

A) lacIS B) lacI – C) lacI+ D) lacOC E) lacO+

Biology & Microbiology