Presentation Guideline

Example Presentation Outline

Bugs...Bugs...Bugs
(Handout available in PDF.)

• What is an insect?
  • Three body regions (head, thorax, abdomen)
  • Usually winged
  • Antennae
  • Six legs (segmented)
  • Exoskeleton
• Where do you find insects?
  • On trees, shrubs, and plants
  • Under tree bark
  • In the ground
  • In streams or lakes
  • Everywhere but the ocean
• Locomotion
  • Fly
  • Crawl
  • Jump
• What do they eat?
  • Leaves, plant sap or other plant parts (nectar, phloem)
  • Other insects
  • Blood
  • Decaying material (dung, carcasses, waste)
• Who eats insects?
  • Other insects or Arthropods
  • Reptile and amphibians
  • Fish
  • Birds
  • Mammals (even humans)
• Survival
  • Camouflage (katydids, walking sticks)
  • Poisonous (monarch)
  • Mimicry (viceroy, bee-like flies)
  • Smelly odor (stink bug, caterpillars)
  • Structure (look mean and scary with hairs or horns)
  • Sound (hissing cockroaches)
  • Chemicals (blister beetle, bombardier beetle)
  • Color (eye spots on butterflies)
• Development
  • Holometabolis: egg, caterpillar, pupa, adult (butterflies, beetles, flies)
  • Hemimetabolis: egg, nymph, adult (grasshopper, cockroach, walking stick)
• Communication
  • Chemical: pheromones, lightening bugs
  • Color: gypsy moth
  • Structure: stag beetle, hissing cockroach
  • Sound: crickets
• Good things insects do for the environment
  • Pollinate (bees and flies) $19 billion
  • Produce useful products (wax, honey, soap, medicines) $300 million
  • Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by eating: garbage, dead animals, dead or unwanted plants and returning nutrients to the earth and water
  • Aerate soils and streams
  • Provide food for other animals
• Bad things insects do
  • Bite/sting (annoying but not usually harmful unless allergic)
  • Suck blood and transmit disease to humans and cattle $5 billion
  • Eat crops and household plants $3 million
  • Damage clothing, and houses $700 million