Strepsiptera - Xenos Vesparum, Bahiaxenos Relictus, Corioxenidae, Stylopidae, Halictophagus, Myrmecolacidae, Halictophagidae (Paperback)

Chapters: Xenos Vesparum, Bahiaxenos Relictus, Corioxenidae, Stylopidae, Halictophagus, Myrmecolacidae, Halictophagidae. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: ProtoxenidaeCretostylopidaeMengeidaeBahiaxenidaeMengenillidaeStylopidaeBohartillidaeCorioxenidaeHalictophagidaeCallipharixenidaeElenchidaeMyrmecolacidae The Strepsiptera (known in older literature as twisted-winged parasites) are an order of insects with ten families making up about 600 species. The early stage larvae and the short-lived adult males are free-living but most of their life is spent as endoparasites in other insects such as bees, wasps, leafhoppers, silverfish, and cockroaches. Male Strepsiptera have wings, legs, eyes, and antennae, and look like flies, though they generally have no useful mouthparts. Many of their mouth parts are modified into sensory structures. Adult males are very short-lived (usually less than five hours) and do not feed. The known females, in all families except the Mengenillidae, never leave their hosts and are neotenic in form, lacking wings and legs. Virgin females release a pheromone which the males search for. In the Stylopidia the female has its anterior region extruding out of the host body and the male mates by rupturing the female's brood canal opening which lies between the head and prothorax. Sperm passes through the opening in a process termed hypodermic insemination. Each female produces many thousands of triungulin larvae that emerge from the brood opening on the head, which protrudes outside the host body. These larvae have legs (which lack trochanters) and actively search out new hosts. Their hosts include members belonging to the orders Zygentoma, Orthoptera, Blattodea, Mantodea, Heteroptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera. In the Strepsipteran fam...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=4559