Secrets of Success: A Natural History of Terrestrial Arthropods
ENTO170C2, 3 units, General Education Tier One undergraduate course. Co-taught with Dr. Robert L. Smith. Offered every Fall Semester.
Course Description
Terrestrial arthropods (insects and their relatives, such as spiders, scorpions, and mites) are the most successful and diverse forms of multicellular life on Earth. In this course we cover of basic principles of their biology, including their structure and function, development, ecology, behavior and reproduction. We also emphasize their diverse array of unique roles in nature, many of which are exceedingly important to the maintenance and functioning of healthy and productive ecosystems. This course serves as a primer to the basic concepts of biological science directed by our exploration of diversity and adaptations among terrestrial arthropods.
Lecture Titles and Topics
Section 1. Arthropods: An Introduction
- “Intro”
What’s this course about and where are we going?
[A biology course for English majors] - “Characters”
Who are the terrestrial arthropods?
[Arthropod classes; Arachnid and Insect orders] - “Parts”
What are the parts? How are they put together? How can they change?
[Bauplans and adaptive modifications] - “Cycles”
How do arthropods grow and change?
[Life cycles and metamorphosis] - “Variety”
Why are there so many kinds?
[A story of an adaptable basic “design,” and extraordinary ecological opportunities] - “History”
What came first and then what happened?
[The historical evolution of the terrestrial arthropods] - “Aeronauts”
How did insects get their wings?
[Evolution of insect wings and flight and, some later history] - “Species”
From whence do they come?
[The process of speciation] - “Trees”
What’s with roots and branches?
[The brilliant tool for understanding relationships among organisms] - “Tasks”
What must a “bug” do to survive and reproduce?
[An inventory of the activities required to succeed biologically]
Section 2. Arthropods and the Environment
- “Home”
What is it, and how do they find it?
[The tasks of dispersal and habitat selection]
- “Plants”
Do they consent to be food?
[Plants’ cooperation and combat with insects] - “Wood”
Why a difficult food, and how are a few insects able to use it?
[A history of woody polymers and polymerases] - “Sap”
Plenty of it; so what’s the problem?
[The deficiencies of an abundant resource and adaptations to use it] - “Blood”
Why do some arthropods say: “Ve vant to drink your blood!” ?
[Nutritional value and problems obtaining and using blood for food] - “Poop”
Why so highly contested?
[Nutritive value and physical nature of excrement as a resource] - “Prey”
Do they consent to be food?
[Animals as hosts and prey: Offenses and defenses in parasitism and predation] - “Blooms”
Why are flowers so fancy, colorful, perfumey and varied?
[Flowers, pollen, pollinators, costs and rewards] - “Bodies”
Who are the real undertakers? Bring out your dead.
[The dead as an abundant but transient resource]
Section 3. Arthropod Reproduction, Communication, and Defense
- “Gender”
How do the boys find the girls – why the girls usually choose?
[Male and female reproductive tactics and strategies] - “Sounds”
Seductive singers or raucous warriors?
[Insect bioacoustics] - “Lights”
Who flashes, who glows, and why?
[The mechanisms and ecology of arthropod bioluminescence] - “Aromatizers”
Why are their perfumes so irresistible?
[Sexual pheromones, stimulus filtering and finding the source] - “Dances”
What are the preludes?
[Courtship movements, tactile stimulation, and nuptial gifts] - “Appearances”
Why are some bugs are so bright and pretty, others so drab and dreary?
[Adaptive explanations for insect patterns and accoutrements] - “Gladiators”
Fighting for gold, glory or girls?
[Armament, displays, defense and combat] - “Mates”
How do they do it, and why?
[The ecology and mechanics of mating]” - “Parents”
Why do some moms (rarely dads) care, and most not?
[Parental care, and the lack thereof in the insects] - “Societies”
Why doesn’t everybody do it?
[The advantages and disadvantages of social behavior] - “Venoms”
How to make misery through creative chemistry?
[Production and delivery of toxic cocktails for offense and defense]
Section 4. Arthropods in Our Lives
- “Architecture”
What do they build?
[A survey of insect engineering] - “Products”
What do they make?
[Insect products in human commerce] - “Bio-Inspiration”
What have terrestrial arthropods taught us?
[Arthropod inspired human innovation] - “Pollinators”
What is their most lavish gift to humankind?
[Insect pollination services in agriculture] - “Crud”
Why aren’t we buried in organic stuff?
[Arthropod contributions to recycling] - “Monoculture”
How did the agricultural revolution give “power to the pests?”
[Agriculture, few crops, stored products, and the expanded opportunities for a few insects] - “Aliens”
Are alien arthropods dangerous?
[Why arthropods and plants introduced from abroad can become devastating pests] - “War”
Why we depend on pesticides and what is a better way?
[Integrated pest management (IPM) is intelligent pest management and introduction to the transgenic revolution] - “Bio-Warfare”
Why pit bugs against bugs?
[Bio-control as a component of IPM] - “Transmitters”
Why mostly ticks, flies, sap-suckers, and true bugs?
[Arthropods and disease; the characteristics of efficient vectors of plant and animal pathogens]