Smaller Orders of Insects of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity

Peck, Stewart B

NRC Research Press, 2001 - Insects - 278 pages

The Galapagos Islands of Ecuador are world famous for their unique plants and animals, and the hints these gave to Charles Darwin in forming his ideas on evolution. They are the world's least altered set of tropical oceanic islands. The oldest have been available for colonization by land plants and animals for about 3-4 million years. At least 1850 species of insects and 350 species of other terrestrial arthropods are now known to occur on the islands. This book is a synthesis of both previously published information and abundant new data derived from extensive recent field studies on Galapagos insects. The dynamics and patterns of the evolution, ecology, and distribution of the entire insect fauna are presented in general. The core of the book is an account of the 495 species of insects in the smaller orders (excluding Phthiraptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera), with detailed information on their distribution and bionomics. This work will serve entomologists, island ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and conservation scientists as a framework to further the study and protection of the insects, the fauna and fl

Contents

• Introduction: 13
• Information sources about Galapagos insects: 33
• origin and arrival of the insect fauna: 45
• evolution of the insect fauna: 69
• distributional and ecological determinants of composition or structure of an insect fauna: 83
• Springtails The Springtails: 101
• Bristletails The Bristletails or Diplurans: 109
• Orders Archeognatha and Thysanura Jumping Bristletails and Silverfish: 111
• Order Odonata The Dragonflies and Damselflies: 115
• Order Orthoptera The Grasshoppers Katydids and Crickets: 125
• Order Mantodea The Praying Mantises: 143
• Order Blattodea: 145
• Order Dermaptera: 159
• Order Thysanoptera: 179
• Order Hemiptera Heteroptera: 217
• Order Neuroptera: 269

Bibliographic information

• Title: Smaller Orders of Insects of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity; Monographs - Entomology; NRC monograph publishing program
• Author: Peck, Stewart B
• Contributor: National Research Council Canada
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: NRC Research Press, 2001
• ISBN: 066018284X, 9780660182841
• Length: 278 pages