Typically, everyone thinks first day of class is miserable, basically just like any other syllabus day. However our first day of class was something out of the ordinary. We discussed our homework and readings assigned to us the previous day. Diving into these readings, we talked about an awesome tactic insects use to overwinter: supercooling. I learned that insects can actually manipulate their internal chemical structures to survive harsh conditions. They can remove water within their cells and somehow rearrange atoms to create glycerol and other antifreeze substances to prevent freezing of their internal cells. This aspect was really fascinating because these creatures have evolutionarily gained adaptations to allow them to manipulate their chemical structures. Other insects actually allow themselves to freeze, in order to survive. These insects can survive all winter, and another aspect that is weird to think about is that every insect we see in the spring is living right now, outside in the cold. These insects can bear all these harsh conditions and still live. Another point we addressed in class was metamorphosis and an insect's life cycle. Metamorphosis is a radical change, the insect goes from its larva state to a pupa state and finally into its adult state. Through this process you have the exact same species in all three states, but they species appear physically completely different in all three states. In the larva state we're accustomed to seeing caterpillars and other worm like larva who feed all day; however, when this specimen enters its pupa state, the creature literally digests its cells (all but a remaining few). The specimen now is literally a few cells, which contains DNA, so it can begin replication and division to begin its life as an adult. The adult is drastically a new creature, but has identical DNA to the larva, which came before it. Basically, the tiny larva took its DNA and transformed itself into something new. An example is the caterpillar to the butterfly. The caterpillar and the butterfly are the exact same animal, but one is farther along in its life cycle than the other. Wow, to think that one caterpillar went through the entire process of digesting itself, and then replicating DNA and cells to become a completely new butterfly, the process is drastic. Next, our teacher brought it hissing Madagascar cockroaches. He actually let us hold them. When aggravated, we could hear the creatures actually "hiss" at us, but that is their form of breathing as they inhale and exhale the air through their abdomen. Interestingly enough, these insects have evolved so that they need no wings, and another interesting fact about them is that they are incredibly lazy and slow creatures. Also, their feet are very adhesive to complex surfaces, since the cockroaches have a similar structure to velcro on their feet; thus allowing their adhesive properties. Lastly, we went into the bio lab and observed insects up close with a microscope. Noticing all the detail the insects have is amazing. Personally, I looked at a moth under the scope, and I noticed all the hair-like protrusions on the insect, but actually these are not hairs but scales. Their entire bodies and wings have these scales, thus why they belong to the order Lepidoptera. Another cool thing about the insects that I could see magnified by the scope was their compound eyes. Each individual eye has thousands of compounds on it, and each of these compartmentalized cell itself is actually an eye. So on what seems like their round surface of one eye, in reality, is actually a cluster of hundreds or thousands of eyes.
Wow, you really soaked it all in!
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