Insects

Here is a crash course on insects, I figured for the average person, insects can really be a foreign concept. They are not often covered in school and most people do not take the time to learn about them by themselves. So for those of you, here are some of the characteristics and facts of insects. Insects are part of the Phylum Arthropoda meaning they are related to spider, scorpions, and crayfish. They have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton. Exoskeletons are composed very similar to our hair and fingernails. This provides support and protection for the insect. The exoskeleton cannot expand, which restricts the growth of the insect. To circumvent this, the insect goes through a processes called molting. Underneath the exoskeleton they grow. As they loose room inside, they begin to form a new exoskeleton underneath the old one. When the exoskeleton has fully formed, they use muscles to push against their old exoskeleton, cracking it down the back and then slowly push it off like an old pair of clothes. Their new exoskeleton is soft at first but within a couple of days it hardens, taking the place of the old one. During this process, insects are often quite sensative and isolate themselves.
They have 3 body segments: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head is self explanatory, as the part of the organism that has the sensory organs, like this eyes and where the mouth is located, as the beginning of the digestive system. The second body part is called the thorax. This has little function except to connect the head and the abdomen. This is the body part where the legs are attached to the insect. All insects have 3 pairs of legs, giving a total of 6 legs. The final body part is the abdomen. This is where most of the organs in the insect is located. Insects have 2 long appendages on the top of their head referred to as antennae and they are the insects main sensory organ.
The lifecycle of insects involve giving birth through expelling eggs, often hundreds to thousands at a time. The life cycle continues onto the eggs hatching into the larval form of the insect. The larva will look entirely different from the adult insect. The larva is often either aquatic, like that of a dragon fly, or worm-like, like a maggot or larval fly. This larvae goes through several molts, getting larger until it either goes through a metamorphic change, like that of a butterfly. It will often make a cuccoon or pupa within the transformation takes place. When the insect emerges it is in its adult form and is ready to mate and start the cycle over. Other insects do not produce larvae. When their young hatch from the egg, the emerge as what is called dwarfs. One example of this is crickets. The baby cricket emerges looking exactly like it adult counterpart, except much smaller. They then go through a series of molts until they reach maturity.
If this interests you make sure to follow, and as always please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I will make sure to answer them to the best of my ability. Keep checking for more posts on how Fluffy, Aragog (the name of the Rose Hair Tarantula if it was not previously mentioned) and the cockroaches as well as more crash courses!