INSECT ORDERS

Entomologists vary in their naming of insect orders. The following list of orders comes from a college entomology textbook. The additional orders that you add to your collection must come from this approved list of insect orders. If your order is not on this list, you may not use it unless you ask and get prior written approval from the teacher.

ORDER / INSECTS / EXAMPLE
Thysanura / bristletails & silverfish /
Up to 15 mm length
Fast runners; like dark; behind books
Ephemeroptera / mayflies /
14 – 30 mm; adults live 24 hours & no mouthparts
Odonata / dragonflies & damselflies /
25-89 mm;Best Flyers!
Orthoptera / grasshoppers, crickets /
Large hind jumping legs
14-22 mm (male), 23-30 mm (female)
Dermaptera / earwigs /
12-18 mm, found under rocks or underground
Isoptera / termites /
7.5-8 mm; decaying wood
Homoptera / Cicadas, hoppers, aphids /
1-100+ mm; found on plants, trees
Blatteria / Cockroaches /
8-60+ mm; survive nuclear events!
Coleoptera / beetles /
Look for straight line down center of abdomen!
Largest insect order; 5-15 mm
Hard, flightless top wings called Elytra
Folded membranous wings for flight under elytra
Phasmida / Walking stick /
75-95 mm; Wingless; Found on trees
Neuroptera / Lacewings, antlions, Dobson flies /
10-20 mm; transparent wings; usually green, may be golden
Lepidoptera / Butterflies & moths /
wingspan 7-300 mm; powdery scales on four wings
Hymenoptera / Bees, ants, wasps /
15+ mm; may be solitary or social
4 transparent wings usually; may sting
Mantodea / Praying mantids /
64-77 mm; front legs modified for grasping
Hemiptera / True bugs, stink bugs, squash bugs /
5-20 mm; triangular shaped scutellum on abdomen
last 1/3 of wings cross & are transparent
Diptera / Flies & mosquitoes /
3-20 mm; one pair transparent wings
second pair wings modified into halteres (balance)
Trichoptera / caddisflies /
1.5 – 40 mm; Similar to lacewings but usually brown
Siphonaptera / fleas /
wingless jumpers; cat or dog flea most common
body length 1.5-2.5 mm
Mecoptera / Scorpion fly /
body 9-25 mm; Some males with upward curved tails
Anoplura / Sucking lice /
0.35 – 8 mm long; hog lice that cover the body
Mallophaga / Chewing lice /
1.4mm; bird lice
Collembola / springtails /
1.5 mm; normally less than 6 mm; Found in leaf litter; most species have tail-like (furcula) for jumping
Plecoptera / stoneflies /
9mm – 15 mm; aquatic nymph (naiad)
2 long multi-segmented cerci on end of abdomen
Thysanoptera / thrips /
2 mm; Found on plants; Fringe on wings
Embioptera / Web spinners /
5-12 mm; females wingless; silk galleries are spun under stones and bark
Protura / Telsontails /
<2 mm; wingless soil dwellers; called coneheads
Psocoptera / Bark lice /
1–10 mm; called bark lice; commonly found amongst old books (eat paste)
Strepsiptera / Twisted-wing insect /
body 1mm; internal parasites of bees, wasps, grasshoppers
Zoraptera / zorapterans /
2-2.5 mm; Found under pine bark

DRAW A LINE TO EACH INSECT AND GIVE THE ORDER/COMMON NAMEFOR EACH ONE.