Gallery
Cicada Platypleura
Accelerated view of a cicada molting
Scorpion
Dragonfly Anax imperator
Emergent monarch butterfly clinging to exuviae
In biology, exuviae are the remains of an exoskeleton and related structures that are left after ecdysozoans (including insects, crustaceans and arachnids) have moulted. The exuviae of an animal can be important to biologists as they can often be used to identify the species of the animal and even its sex.
As studying insects, crustaceans, or arachnids directly is not always possible, and because exuviae can be collected fairly easily, they can play an important part in helping to determine some general aspects of a species' overall life cycle such as distribution, sex ratio, production, and proof of breeding in a habitat. Exuviae have been suggested as a "gold standard" for insect monitoring. For instance, when monitoring dragonfly populations, the presence of exuviae of a species demonstrates that the species has completed its full life cycle from egg to adult in a habitat. [1] However, it has also been suggested that the fact that exuviae can be hard to find could lead to an underestimation of insect species compared to, for example, counting adult insects. [2]
The Latin word exuviae, [3] meaning "things stripped from a body", is found only in the plural. [4] Exuvia is a derived singular form, although this is a neologism, and not attested in texts by Roman authors. A few modern works use the singular noun exuvium (e.g. [5] ). Only a single historical work by Propertius uses the singular form exuvium, but in the meaning "spoils, booty". [6]
Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies.
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed.
A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threatens dragonfly populations around the world. Adult dragonflies are characterized by a pair of large, multifaceted, compound eyes, two pairs of strong, transparent wings, sometimes with coloured patches, and an elongated body. Many dragonflies have brilliant iridescent or metallic colours produced by structural coloration, making them conspicuous in flight. An adult dragonfly's compound eyes have nearly 24,000 ommatidia each.
Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along the body when at rest, unlike dragonflies which hold the wings flat and away from the body. An ancient group, damselflies have existed since at least the Lower Permian beginning about 299 million years ago, and are found on every continent except Antarctica.
Hemiptera is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from 1 mm (0.04 in) to around 15 cm (6 in), and share a common arrangement of piercing-sucking mouthparts. The name "true bugs" is often limited to the suborder Heteroptera.
In biology, moulting, or molting, also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in its life cycle.
The emperor dragonfly or blue emperor is a large species of hawker dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae. It is the bulkiest dragonfly in most of Europe, including the United Kingdom, although exceeded by the magnificent emperor and in length by females of the golden-ringed dragonfly.
The green darner or common green darner, after its resemblance to a darning needle, is a species of dragonfly in the family Aeshnidae. One of the most common and abundant species throughout North America, it also ranges south to Panama. It is well known for its great migration distance from the northern United States south into Texas and Mexico. It also occurs in the Caribbean, Tahiti, and Asia from Japan to mainland China. It is the official insect for the state of Washington in the United States.
The XO sex-determination system is a system that some species of insects, arachnids, and mammals use to determine the sex of offspring. In this system, there is only one sex chromosome, referred to as X. Males only have one X chromosome (XO), while females have two (XX). The letter O signifies the lack of a second X. Maternal gametes always contain an X chromosome, so the sex of the animals' offspring depends on whether a sex chromosome is present in the male gamete. Its sperm normally contains either one X chromosome or no sex chromosomes at all.
Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land, as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water, and amphibians, which rely on aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Some groups of insects are terrestrial, such as ants, butterflies, earwigs, cockroaches, grasshoppers and many others, while other groups are partially aquatic, such as mosquitoes and dragonflies, which pass their larval stages in water.
The mandible of an arthropod is a pair of mouthparts used either for biting or cutting and holding food. Mandibles are often simply called jaws. Mandibles are present in the extant subphyla Myriapoda, Crustacea and Hexapoda. These groups make up the clade Mandibulata, which is currently believed to be the sister group to the rest of arthropods, the clade Arachnomorpha.
Thopha saccata, the double drummer, is the largest Australian species of cicada and reputedly the loudest insect in the world. Documented by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1803, it was the first described and named cicada native to Australia. Its common name comes from the large dark red-brown sac-like pockets that the adult male has on each side of its abdomen—the "double drums"—that are used to amplify the sound it produces.
Gomphus flavipes, the river clubtail or yellow-legged dragonfly, is a species of dragonfly in the family Gomphidae. It is found in Europe. Its natural habitat are rivers and large streams. The dragonfly flies from June to September depending on the location.
Insects are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and a pair of antennae. Their blood is not totally contained in vessels; some circulates in an open haemocoel. Insects are the most diverse group of animals, with more than a million described species; they represent more than half of all animal species.
In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae of 1758–1759, Carl Linnaeus classified the arthropods, including insects, arachnids and crustaceans, among his class "Insecta". He described the Insecta as:
A very numerous and various class consisting of small animals, breathing through lateral spiracles, armed on all sides with a bony skin, or covered with hair; furnished with many feet, and moveable antennae, which project from the head, and are the probable instruments of sensation.
Insects have found uses in art, as in other aspects of culture, both symbolically and physically, from ancient times. Artforms include the direct usage of beetlewing (elytra) in paintings, textiles, and jewellery, as well as the representation of insects in fine arts such as paintings and sculpture. Insects have sometimes formed characteristic features of artforms, as in Art Nouveau jewellery.
Chremistica ochracea is a cicada species of the genus Chremistica and suborder Auchenorrhyncha, which includes cicadas, leafhoppers, planthoppers, treehoppers, froghoppers and spittlebugs. They are usually referred to as 'thin winged cicada' in Taiwan and 'peaceful cicada' in China due to their abundance in these areas. They can be identified by their green appearance with thin, greenish, transparent wings and are heavily distributed in China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Malaya. However, there are limited number of scientific papers that describe the characteristics and behaviour of this species in detail.
Insects are the most numerous and widespread class in the animal kingdom, accounting for up to 90% of all animal species. In the 2010s, multiple reports about the widespread decline in insect populations across multiple orders have emerged. The reported severity had shocked many observers, even though it was preceded by the earlier findings of pollinator decline, as well as anecdotal evidence of greater apparent abundance of insects earlier in the 20th century, such as the windscreen phenomenon. Possible causes are similar to those causing other biodiversity loss, namely habitat destruction, including intensive agriculture; the use of pesticides ; urbanisation, and industrialisation; introduced species; and - to a lesser degree and only for some regions - climate change.
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