I received a text from my sister Jamie. She attached a cellphone picture of a bug she hoped I could identify. The photo wasn’t great but I said I’d do my best. I reminded her that of the hundreds of birds in the Eastern U.S. I could identify almost all of them. Insects were more of a challenge. After all, there are over 90,000 species that have been identified in the U.S. alone. From her description of where they found it and the photo, I immediately thought of a cicada killer, and indeed that was it.

This gave me an opportunity to discuss a few insect facts with you. First, all bugs are insects, but only some insects are bugs. Insects belong to Phylum Arthropoda (the arthropods.) Arthropods include: Insects, crustaceans, arachnids, etc. Class Insecta (the insects) includes many different orders. Bugs, belonging to Order Hemiptera, are insects but very different from some of the other orders.

First, a bit of biology. All adult insects have three body regions and six legs. The regions are the head, thorax and abdomen. The only stage that has wings is the adult stage, but not all adult insect species can fly. The only stage able to reproduce is the adult stage. Surprisingly, in many cases, the adult stage is the shortest (time wise).

Insects basically use one of two types of development. They are either complete metamorphosis or incomplete metamorphosis. Complete involves four stages of development: the egg, larva, pupa and adult stages. Incomplete involves three stages: the egg, nymph and adult stages. Butterflies, for example, use complete, while spotted lanternflies use incomplete. Depending on the insect species, often the most damaging (to us or our agriculture) is not the adult, but either the larval or nymphal stages.

In the insect world, much the same as birds of prey or spiders, the female is often the larger of the sexes. Most likely this is because they need to produce and then carry the developing eggs. You have probably noticed this sexual dimorphism in a praying mantis where the female may be almost double the size of its mate. Sometimes, after mating, the female kills and eats the smaller male.

Insects, with their millions of species worldwide, are further divided into orders. Researching this, I found that there are between 25 and 30 orders. I’ll list a few of the most common and those containing the most species.

I was not the best Latin student in high school, but Miss Budihaus tried. Little did I know that as a biology major, many, many anatomy or classification terms were based on the Latin or Greek terms. Even biology, bios/life and logia/study, was Greek derived. So it is with some insect orders. Pteron is Greek for wings, (pterosaur, winged lizard) may ring a bell.

Order Diptera (two wings) is represented by the flies. House flies, mosquitoes, horse flies, etc.

Order Coleoptera (sheath winged) is represented by the beetles: Japanese beetle, lady bird beetle, boll weevil, etc.

Order Lepidoptera (scale winged) is represented by butterflies and moths (fine, overlapping scales cover their wings).

Order Hemiptera (half winged) is represented by true bugs like stink bugs, bedbugs, cicadas, etc.

Order Hymenoptera (membrane winged) is represented by bees, wasps, hornets, etc.

The insect world is quite varied and entomology is very important in understanding how insects help us (bees) or harm us (locusts destroying crops, mosquitoes carrying diseases, etc.)

I have a selection of photos showing some examples of the common insect Orders. So enjoy, be observant, and get out there.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Almost all _____ have triangular stems to help in identification. A. sedges, B. grains, C. clovers, D. all of these.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Mourning doves may have four or five nests each summer.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.