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On
the fifth floor is Permanent Exhibition Hall. Don’t miss out
any of the six exciting sections: plants, insects,
invertebrates, vertebrates I & II, and earth science section.
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 Click each section.
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The Insects Section exhibits a
variety of insects including rare insects and Southeast
Asian insects. Various
tools for insect
collecting, vivid pictures, detailed descriptions, life-size models, and actual specimens attract the
visitors. |
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 About
Insects...
Insects
are divided into two categories: pterygote (with wings)
insects and apteral (without wings) insects. Insects
first appeared on the earth 400 million years ago. About
300 million years ago, pterygote insects such as
dragonflies, ephemerid, and croton bugs appeared. Insects, the largest group of organism, take up 75% of the total number of animal species. The total number of insect species is known to be about 900,000.
Body
Structures and Distictive Characteristics
Insects are made up of mainly three
parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. On an insect’s head
are two compound eyes, three simple eyes, a pair of
antennae, and a mouth. The thorax can be conveniently
divided into three separate and easily visible sections.
Each of these sections supports a pair of legs. Unlike
apteral (without wings) insects, pterygote (with wings) insects have a pair of wings.
Insects have no lungs. Insects breathe through their spiracles (special openings in the side of their cuticle).
Metamorphosis and
Ecdysis
Insects
undergo either complete metamorphosis or incomplete metamorphosis.
- Complete Metamorphosis : larval
stage -> pupal stage -> imaginal stage
e.g.
relatively evolved insects such as butterflies, beetles, and flies
- Incomplete
Metamorphosis : larval stage -> imaginal stage
e.g.
primitive
insects such as grasshoppers, dragonflies, crickets, and long-horned grasshoppers
Insects in Group
Termites, ants,
honeybees, and wasps are social insects that live in
hierarchical colonies, and they divide their works.
Social insects secrete special materials to communicate
within their groups, and they maintain their own social
orders and structures.
For example, a queen bee secrete royal jelly to restraint the reproduction of the next
queen bee, and worker bees secrete materials that communicate to other bees the location of foods. Ants secrete materials
that warn the attack from the enemy.
Aquatic Insects
Aquatic Insects live in water. They
either live in water their whole life or live in water only during the larval and pupal stage and then leave water in the imaginal stage.
Rare
Insects of Korea
Rare
insects of Korea include long-horned beetle, the only
insect appointed as Korean natural monument (No. 218);
firefly, the insect living at Moojoo Goon Seolcheon
Myon, an area appointed as Korean natural monument (No.
288); black-veined white; and eumenis autonoe
(Esper).
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All contents Copyrights 2002 Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum
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