Suvarna Khadakkar (NIRMAN 5) is pursuing
her PhD in entomology from Nagpur University. She is telling us the interesting
facts about the insects…
Surviving through every era and every period,insects
are functioning day and night without claiming for any recognition. According
to geological time scale, first insect appeared about 408 million years ago in
the Silurian era along with jawed fishes and land plants. Insects appeared
after the emergence of first vertebrates competing with them and surviving
alongside. After the first appearance of insects they saw ages of fishes, amphibians,
and reptiles come and go and now they are surviving through the age of mammals.
They never dominated any epoch or period and never asked for any
acknowledgement.
The ancient Egyptians were the first to record and
document the importance of insects as suggested by the interpretations of their
hieroglyphs written in both Greek and Latin. Earliest records shows that
Egyptians recorded the behavior of dung beetles and made a connection between
dung beetle and Sun. Egyptians had an insect God named ‘Khepri’. Egyptian hieroglyphs
devoted to ‘Khepri’ are probably the oldest written ichnoentomological
(paleontological traces of insects) reports on insects.
Insects! So advanced they are, that they did adapt the
capacity to fly among invertebrates even before the birds could as vertebrates.
Simplicity percolates through the definition of
insects too which recognize any living organism with three pairs of legs and
two pairs of wings with a segmented body. With size ranging from millimeter to
centimeter they have proved that your size never matter if you are dedicated to
your work. None the less, ants can carry food multiple times of their weight
and a mantis which can prey on hummingbird.
The insect world is a collage of organisms from tiny silverfish
which play hide and seek with us while we are busy going through some old
reference collection of books; the nasty appearance of cockroaches in our
kitchen can irritate many; the humming of flies and mosquitoes which disturb
our nap; a hairy caterpillar feeding voraciously on leaf of our favorite plant
in the garden; a bug sucking on our pet dog which we love the most. Off course
this picture is way annoying that one may want to get rid of all of them and
why not?
But, have you ever thought what good insects are doing
for all the living organisms including humans? Let me give you a glimpse of
what insects are doing for us… We are because insects are… Tiny flies mingling
in the flowers of various plants and crops are doing the most important work
for us through which we are able to procure our grains and vegetables and
fruits i.e., pollination. Wasps and other bugs act as parasites and predators
controlling the pest population in various crop fields minimizing the usage of
insecticides. Even, tiny dung beetles employ themselves clearing the excrement
of man and cattle and burying it under the soil, the value of which is little
realized because of the thoroughness and regularity through which this work is
performed leading to minimize the occurrence of various parasitic diseases
which could have raised havoc in public health. I will not say about honey and
wax and silk and lac and many more which is very familiar information for all
of us. Ecologically, the
presence and absence of insects can act as an indication of the diverse flora
and fauna of a particular area.
The most amazing feature of humans and of all mammals
is to take care of their progeny i.e., ‘parental care’ which shows one of the
highest degrees of emotional behavior. This behavior can be taken as
peculiarity of mammals (such as humans, chimps, cats, dogs, etc.) and is only found
in highly developed forms in animal kingdom. Such parental behavior is found in
some orders of insects apart from social behavior of ants, bees and termites. A
pair of beetle for example builds nest which is guarded by male or female of
the pair. The pair prepares brood balls (made of dung) on which their young
ones feed. Female choose male on the basis of his capacity to build nest and
brood balls for the future generation.
Oh, and how can I forget the beauty which butterflies
fill in our lives and gardens and terrace and where not? The coloration in
butterflies and beetles is a way varied.
Want to hear about the adaptive nature of insects?
Developmental stages of most of the insects comprise of a larval form and a
totally different adult form. You may have seen various caterpillars feeding on
leaves which after a definite interval of time pupate and emerge as a
butterfly. Ever thought why is this so? Insects have managed to use the food
resources so efficiently that a caterpillar feed on leaves of plants while the
adult feeds on fruits. And there will be equal distribution of available food
in adults and larva.
The social insects such as ants, bees, wasps, termites
constantly remind us about the strength in unity.
Coming to an end of this article all I can say is this
Earth belong not only to humans but each and every living form inhabited on
Earth and the care, the respect which we show to other humans should also be
shared with other life forms as well even as small as an insect. The next time
you see an insect thank him for all the good they are doing for us. You can
thank me too for sharing this info…:D
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