Endopterygota: Lepidoptera & Hymenoptera

Order Lepidoptera

Moths, butterflies, skippers

            Lepido – Scaly

            Ptera - Wings

2^nd largest order

Mouth parts - Siphoning in adults, mandibulate in larvae

Wings covered with overlapping pigmented scales

Polypod larvae (caterpillars)

Family Hesperiidae

Skippers

• Large head possessing clavate antennae with hooked tip

• Peculiar, erratic darting flight

• Larvae – smooth with large head and constricted neck

Family Nymphalidae

Brush footed butterflies

• Largest family of butterflies

• Knobbed clavate antenna

• Fore legs- reduced, brush like (males) or comb like (females), thus called four footed butterflies

• Larvae – smooth, with 2 or 4 pairs of fleshy processes

Family Papilionidae

Swallow-tails

• Large, brightly coloured with tail like prolongation in the hind wing

• Caterpillars – fleshy, smooth, with Y-shaped scent gland (osmetrium) on prothorax  

Family Lycaenidae

Blues, coppers

• Minute to small, delicate

• Fore wing – upper surface metallic blue or coppery

• Hind wing – delicate hair like prolongation, 2 or 3 spots along the margin

• Caterpillars – short, flat with short legs. 

Family Pieridae

Whites or sulphurs

• Medium sized, white or yellow or orange coloured with black markings

• Sexual dimorphism in colour  

Family Danaidae

Monarch or milkweed butterflies

• Large, brightly coloured

• Brownish with black and white markings

• Reduced fore legs

Family Geometridae

Loopers, inchworms, earth measurers, measuring worms

• Small, delicate, slender moths

• Thin, angular wings with wavy lines

• Smooth, elongate larvae, resemble twigs

• Two pairs of prolegs on 6^th & 10^th segment – walk by making a loop

Family Arctiidae

Tiger moths

• Medium or stout

• Brightly spotted or banded

• Mostly nocturnal & attracted to light

• Hairy or densely hairy (woolly bear)

Family Bombycidae

Silkworms moths

• Soft, stout, creamy white moths

• Bipectinate antenna

• Caterpillar – whitish with a short anal horn

• Pupate in dense, shiny, silken cocoon. 

Family Cochlididae

Slug caterpillars

• Stout, nocturnal moths

• Larvae resemble slugs – short, fleshy, stout with small retractile head,     short thoracic legs, prolegs absent

• Tubercles or poisonous hairs (scopa) on the larval body

Family Crambidae

Grass moths

• White or brown moths with extended labial palps

• Narrow, elongate fore wings

Family Gelechiidae

Pink bollworm

• Small moths with long upcurved labial palp

• Fore wing – trapezoidal

• Hind wing – fringed with hairs

• Tiny larvae, pupating in silken cocoon

Family Lymantriidae

Tussock moths

• Bipectinate or Plumose antenna

• Males – winged; Females – reduced wings

• Legs covered with dense woolly hairs

• Female has tuft of anal hairs

• Larvae – densely hairy, thus called tussock caterpillars

Family Noctuidae

Noctua moths, Cutworms, Semiloopers, Armyworms

• Largest family

• Medium or stout moths, nocturnal, phototrophic

• Hind wings paler than fore wings

• Pupate in earthen cell

• Few are semiloopers (1 or 2 pairs of prolegs absent). 

Family Pterophoridae

Plume moths

• Small, delicate moths with elongate forewings having 2 or 4 fissures       and hind wings with 3 divisions

• Long, slender legs and prominent tibial spur

Family Pyralidae

Snout moths

• Minute or small, cryptic moths

• Labial palps project forward like a snout

• Elongate, triangular fore wings, broad hind wings

Family Saturniidae

Moon moth, giant silk moth, wild silk worm

• Largest known species of insects

• Large or giant, stout, hairy, brightly coloured moths

• Bipectinate antenna

• Circular or crescent shaped eyespots at the centre of wings

Family Sphingidae

Hawk moth, sphinx moths, horn worms

• Medium to large, stout moths

• Antenna – thick in the middle and hooked at tip

• Fore wings – elongated and pointed

• Hind wings – Narrow

 Larvae – robust, smooth with mid dorsal anal horn, often raise head. 

Order Hymenoptera

Bees, Wasps, Ants, Sawflies

            Hymeno – membrane

            Ptera – wings

 Most beneficial insects

 Highly diverse forms – pollinators, parasitic, predators

• Fore wings larger than hind wings

• Wing Coupling – Hamulate type

• Abdomen:   First segment – Propodeum; Second segment – Petiole                                 Other segments – Gaster

• Ovipositor well developed

Family Tenthredinidae

Saw flies

• Small to medium, wasp like

• Abdomen broadly joined to thorax

• Ovipositor – saw toothed

• Larvae – eruciform, 6 - 8 pairs of prolegs

• While feeding, lift the posterior part of the body and coil

Family Icheumonidae

Ichneumon wasps

• Minute to large, slender, endoparasitic wasps with filiform antenna

• Large wings

• Legs – long with two segmented trochanter

• Curved petiole

• Ovipositor – longer than the body

Family Braconidae

Braconid wasps

• Small, stout bodied, parasitic

• Abdomen as long as head and thorax together

• Grubs – Gregarious parasites

• Polyembryony. 

Family Chalcididae

Chalcids

• Minute to medium sized

• Mostly black with large eyes and thorax

• Geniculate antenna

• Enlarged hind femora

Family Trichogrammatidae

Trichogrammatids

• Very minute egg parasitoids

• Fore wings – broad with microscopic hairs

• Hind wings – reduced, fringed with hairs along the margin

Family Cynipidae

Gall wasps, cynipids

• Minute to small, hump backed

• Filiform antennae

• In many species, males winged, females wingless

Family Bethylidae

Bethylids

• Small to medium sized, metallic wasps

• Strong mandibles and legs

Family Formicidae

Ants

• Polymorphic, social insects

• Queen, males and workers

• Geniculate antenna

• Well developed mandibles

• Wings present in sexually mature forms

• First abdomen – dorsal hump

• Trophyllaxis – mouth to mouth transfer of food. 

Family Sphecidae

Thread waisted wasp, digger wasp

• Medium sized with slender wings

• Narrow reduced petiole

• Construct nests using mud

Family Vespidae

Yellow jackets, hornets, paper wasps

• Medium to large, banded with yellow on black or brown body

• Social insects – Queen, Males, Workers

• Construct nests using wasp paper

Family Apidae

Honey bees

• Social insects with 3 castes namely queen, drone, workers

• Hairy

• Chewing & lapping mouth parts

• Geniculate antenna

• Hind legs of workers – pollen gathering

• Highly productive – honey, wax and pollination. 

Family Bombidae

Bumble bees

• Medium to large sized,robust,densly hairy and variously coloure.

•Lapping tounge is long and pubescent and the mandibles are large.

•Hind legs are adapted for pollen gathering.

•Pollinator  

 Family Evaniidae

Ensign wasps or hatchet wasps

• Metasoma attached very high above the hind coxae on the propodeum

•The metasoma itself is quite small, with a long, one-segmented, tube-like petiole, and compressed laterally over most of its length (segments 2-8)

•When active, these wasps jerk the metasoma up and down constantly.

  

Family Encyrtidae

Ensirtid wasps 

•  Greatly enlarged mesopleuron with anteriorly positioned mesocoxae.

•Transverse axillae which meet medially

• The position of the cerci anterior to the tip of the abdomen.

Family Eulophidae

Eulophids 

•  Only four tarsomeres on each leg,
•   a small, straight protibial spur.