Insects can be found nearly everywhere on land! From snowy mountaintops of the Cascades to the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. Insects are big and small -- from showy swallowtails and darner dragonflies to minute parasitoids and leaf litter critters. Some insects are colorful and charismatic, and others are drab and obscure.
Insects are broadly subdivided into orders. The five largest orders include: Hymenoptera (sawflies, ants, bees, & wasps), Coleoptera (beetles), Lepidoptera (moths & butterflies), Diptera (flies, gnats, mosquitoes), and Hemiptera (stink bugs, aphids, cicadas, etc.). We have student webpages on species from all of these orders. In the Pacific Northwest, you can find representatives of 26 out of the 28 orders of insects! Besides the largest orders, other common orders in the region are Orthoptera (grasshoppers and katydids), Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), Dermaptera (earwigs), and Neuroptera (lacewings). Here in the PNW, we are only missing representatives from the insect orders Mantophasmatodea (heel-walkers), found in some areas in Africa, and Zoraptera (angel insects), found mainly in the tropics but also some areas of the east US. The figure to the left shows the orders of insects. The image is modified from Gullan and Cranston, 'The Insects'. |
order Grylloblattodea, the ice crawlersWe have a really cool insect order found in the PNW: Grylloblattodea, the ice crawlers! (Also called rock crawlers.) They occur almost nowhere else in the world, and are comprised of only one family, Grylloblattidae.
Check out the iNaturalist page on ice crawlers. WSU collectors have found gryloblattids in Washington and Idaho. |
Want to read more About insects in our region?Check out this new field guide to the PNW insects, with great information and photos!
By Dr. Merrill Peterson of Western Washington University. |
Click here for info ON BENEFICIAL INSECTS, from WSU ExtentionWe may view insects as pests when they harm or inconvenience us. Many insects are beneficial -- they are predators or parasitoids of pests, pollinate flowers, or provide services such as decomposition.
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top photo: View from the rolling hills of the native Palouse Prairie in Washington in May.