insects
The most common stinging animals are in the insect order Hymenoptera meaning “veil wings”, which includes the bees, wasps and ants. The most primitive Hymenoptera possess ovipositors to insert eggs into plant tissue. In some parasitic groups this structure and glands associated with it have been modified to inject venom to paralyze other insects which are used as food by the developing larvae. (These parasitic wasps comprise the largest number of species in the Hymenoptera, and are extremely beneficial to agriculture as biological control agents of agricultural pest insects.) The stings of these parasitic wasps are often not very painful to humans due to low toxicity. The toxicity of the wasp venom is so low that it is not considered an envenomous design for the defensive sting. The insect, like bees, will usually flee rather than sting when disturbed. The sting has become the specialized defensive tool in other groups of insects and the ants and bees which evolved from these insects. Most wasps and bees are solitary, and do not defend their nests though they will sting in defense if caught. It is in the social Hymenoptera that we see active
Bees, wasps, ants, and even caterpillars-sometimes it seems that everything with more than four legs stings. Fortunately, most insects don’t sting, and most insect venoms are not particularly dangerous to people. The greatest risk that we face from insect stings is anaphylaxis. Th is is a severe allergic reaction that can be triggered by even minute amounts of proteins in a venom. Anaphylaxis is most common in people who have been sensitized to the protein that triggers the reaction, usually by previous exposure from a sting. Given the tremendous diversity of insects and relatively low medical risk from most insect stings, this book covers only a few of the more significant and Mojave members of this class. Insects are a class of arthropods that have three main body sections. Begin-
that cause medically injury and significant stings,
ning with the head, thorax, and abdomen. They have three pairs of legs that
although a few large species of stinging bees can
attached to the thorax, and usually two sets of wings. The insect life cycle is
cause painful and potentially serious stinging if
either three-part (egg, nymph, adult) or four-part (egg, larva, pupa, adult).
captured or perhaps
Insects account for most of the biomass on earth and are represented by over
stepped on.
defense of the nest, and it is mostly these groups
a million known species, divided into 32 orders; it is thought that there may be as many as 10 million species. The most recently discovered order of the
en v enom
a rthropod
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in Africa in 2002.
insects are the Mantophasmatodea, or “gladiators,” that were fi rst described
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