Insect development and incomplete metamorphosis

Insects with incomplete metamorphosis include dragonflies, Orthoptera, bugs, termites and others. Dragonflies are among the most ancient winged insects: wings spread rather than folded, a thin abdomen and large eyes; the larva lives in water. Adults and larvae are predators and help by destroying mosquitoes and other insects. Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids, crickets) have long narrow forewings and hindwings folded like a fan, chewing mouthparts and jumping hind legs; they lay eggs in pods in the soil. They are voracious herbivores and a swarm of locusts can devour crops. In bugs the base of the forewing is thick and the tip thin, so they are called half-hard-winged; most suck plant sap (the grain bug damages cereal crops), while the bed bug sucks human blood. Termites live in colonies: a queen and a king, workers and soldiers; a worker termite is called a “white ant” but is not an ant. They feed on wood and can damage timber in buildings.